His name has become known in France in the early 1990s. Schmitt’s first works La nuit de Valognes (Don Juan on Trial) and Le Visiteur (Visitor) became popular immediately after publication, and the French artistic space welcomed the new talented writer. He says that he did not expect praise from readers and that the literary critics would call him a new star in literature. No one can stay indifferent to Schmitt’s experiments with the form and content of his novels. His writing impresses readers with its originality and variety of characters: God, Hitler, Diderot, Freud, Pontius Pilate, Mozart, and others.
Schmitt also feels drawn to theater. When, as a boy, ric watched the first play in his life, Cyrano de Bergerac, he told his parents that he was dreaming of a theatrical career because he wanted to make people cry.
There is always some intrigue in Schmitt’s works, and he can well convey subtle nuances in the lives of his characters. For example, he wrote Variations nigmatiques (Enigma Variations) specifically for the theater benefit concert of Alain Delon, a French movie star. When this play was staged in the Vakhtangov Theater in Moscow, the crowd puller Vasyl Lanovy acted the part of Znorko. Vadym Sikorsky, a young stage director with the Maria Zankovetska Theater in Lviv, was the first to stage this play in Ukraine in 1999, and Bohdan Kozak, a master of psychological transformation, played the main part. Nowadays Schmitt is one of the most popular authors in our country. His plays were staged in Kyiv by Oleksii Kuzhelny, Krzysztof Zanussi, Oleh Lipyn, Oleksandr Kryzhanovsky, etc.
Mr. Schmitt, your novels remind one of movie scripts or theater plays because the plot is so visual. Can you please comment on this?
“When I am writing something I want to excite my readers’ imagination so that the book will be remembered. This is, if you please, a technique of writing that makes use of unusual reliefs. I always try to avoid exaggeration and not to press the reader, but rather give hints, be meaningful, and avoid illogical transitions from one thought to the other. One shouldn’t also forget about the humorous strand in the plot.”
How prominent are social topics in your works? Why do many of your plots deal with cancer patient treatment, children-parents relationships, faith in God, marriage of convenience, money, care for the elderly, etc.?
“My goal is to capture a certain social reality in its actual state. It has to be a psychological reality with its inalienable philosophical principles, which help better understand human behavior. It is not so interesting to just describe the reality. I think that we need to find something special, unusual about our reality: whether it’s social, medical, or cultural reality.
“My task is not to contemplate everyday existence, but to create the world of my characters, who experience something totally new for them, and this kind of problem may be urgent for many other people. A book cannot change the world, but it can change our heart.”
As a playwright, whom do you consider to be your teacher?
“Samuel Beckett has influenced me in such a way that the play Le Visiteur turned me into a writer. His plays are staged all over the world so this was my answer to Waiting for Godot. I am fond of two playwrights—Samuel Beckett and Eug ne Ionesco, masters of the Theater of Absurd. I was in a way born of the Theater of Absurd; my artistic taste and my love for theater were formed there. But I also had to feel how I am distanced from the Theater of Absurd; this distance is, above all, of philosophical nature.
“I would like to say that I do not believe in absurd—rather, I believe in mystery. For example, Le Visiteur was my chance to address the questions raised in Waiting for Godot and show that Beckett used absurd as an answer in order to avoid looking for real answers. For me the Theater of Absurd is a theater that found the only explanation—absurd. I see the theater as constantly questioning. If we speak about Oscar in Oscar et la dame rose (Oscar and the Lady in Pink), he spent the last 12 days of his life in an imaginary trip inside himself.”
Which cinematographic principles do you use in writing?
“I have to mention that cinematography is a part of my life as a viewer more than anything else. I am as much a member of the audience in the cinema as in the theater. Some film directors have influenced me just as much as some great writers, as, for example, Alfred Hitchcock—I consider him to be the most important in my works.
“I would have never written any of my plays or novels if I had not seen films by Hitchcock. All the unexpected twists in the plot or suspense that turns a play into a cliffhanger—all of this comes from Hitchcock. You know it often happens that as I write a short story, I realize that it could well be a scenario to a movie. Oftentimes my friends say the same thing. That is why at a certain point I said to myself that if everything works out, I will try to make movies based on these short stories. A short story for me is like a picture, a sketch for a movie.”
What does your characters’ evolution depend on?
“In my works there is nothing psychologically static and no defined states, while my characters are never introvert. It was interesting for me to show how one character would transform from one identity into another, from one state into another.
“The topic of a journey is the topic of identity. I try to show different sides of identity. We think we are one thing but under certain conditions it turns out that we are something completely different. Changes are always unexpected, and life is more complicated than we think it is. Friedrich Nietzsche once said: ‘The Day is always deeper than The Day that we picture for ourselves.’ These words neatly sum well what I am trying to write.
“Unfortunately, I do not know what is happening in the readers’ souls even though I hear reviews that my stories leave a strong impression on their hearts. By the way, it would be a nice theme for a novel—memory of a reader, who is reading a book.
“Every time the book is read it becomes a new story, a new reading through the reader’s subjectivity. For example, kids would read Oscar et la dame rose in a different way from how teenagers would do it. Teenagers cry when they read this story because they already know the sadness of a loss, losing someone dear, lacking something, feeling pain, and suffering. Therefore, teenagers project Oscar’s pain onto their own experience. The young kids say: ‘We do not cry because Oscar does not cry but laughs until the very end.’ They do not see the pathos of death; Oscar has the same feeling. You know, it is exciting to see that the story you wrote makes readers think, analyze, and sympathize.”
In your opinion, how does modern French literature compare to the literature of the 20th century?
“Modern French literature has no taboos, while before authors only wrote primarily about their own life experience. The problem of the 20th century was that it was overshadowed by Marcel Proust whose literary works were not a study of the history of life but its subjective reproduction. There have been no other Prousts since then, but writers have kept on searching.
“Some time has passed and the authors of modern novels have lost the desire to tell stories, fearing that their works will be described as Balzac-style. It seems to me that in our time writers again dare tell stories, trying to write in their own way.”
Creative people do not like questions about their creative plans but still, What are you working on now?
“Right now I am shooting a film Oscar et la dame rose. Recently I have finished and published a novel Ulysses from Bagdad. We will see what happens next. I have two ideas about how to continue Le Cycle de l’Invisible (The Cycle of Invisible), but this time I want to immerse myself into the world of Buddhism. I think that the main thing is to keep moving on regardless of your achievements.”
THE DAY'S FACT FILE
Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt was born near Lyon. He wrote his first book at the age of 11, and his first play—at the age of 16. As a child, he was found of music and even thought about becoming a composer. He received a doctorate in philosophy in cole normale sup rieure in Paris after he defended his thesis on Diderot’s philosophy in 1986. He spent a couple years teaching philosophy in Cherbourg and Chamb ry. However, literature dominated over everything else.
Schmitt’s debut play, La nuit de Valognes (Don Juan on Trial), was first staged in 1991 by the Royal Shakespeare Theater actors. His second play, Le Visiteur, won critical recognition. The plot of this play revolves around a dialogue between Sigmund Freund and God. This play won two Moli re prizes.
Schmitt’s first novel, La Secte des Ego stes (The Sect of Egoists), was published in 1994 and was also noted by the readers. Ever since then each of his works has had a great success. The stage performance Variations nigmatiques with Alain Delon starring was part of a world tour from Los Angeles to Tokyo. The play Le Libertin (Libertine) involved the author as an actor; its film version was made in 2000 with a host of star actors.
The novel Gospel according to Pilate was published in 2000 and won literary awards. Schmitt’s plays are being staged in many parts of the world, including Ukraine. In 2001 the French Academy’s theatrical award went to Schmitt for the totality of his works. The author writes extensively for cinematography: Les Liaisons dangereuses (Dangerous liaisons, Catherine Deneuve) and Volpone (starring G rard Depardieu).
Today Schmitt lives in Brussels and publishes books. His plays remain extremely popular after the first staging.
