92 years after its publication, one of the greatest French novels will be adapted for the cinema for the first time!

First! Louis-Ferdinand Céline’s masterpiece, Journey to the end of the nightwill move to the big screen under the direction of philosopher and comic book author Joan Spar. spread the information French movie Which indicates that the adaptation is co-produced by Magical Society (Aton Soumache) and Trésor Films (Alain Attal).

The screenplay is written by Joan Spar and Thomas Bideguin, a great collaborator of Jacques Audiard, who notably worked on Un Prophète and more recently Emilia Pérez. The press release states that the co-authors will offer a re-reading of the novel: “A personal and fascinating approach restores all the intensity and complexity of this literary masterpiece, which explores the pain of the human soul through the prism of war and social disaster.“.

The main novel “To understand French society”

“I read Journey when I was 15 years old and this work is one of the masterpieces that made me growJoan Sfarr is excited. is the key to understanding French society, including its darkest or most rebellious aspects. I have been working on an audiovisual adaptation of this novel for fifteen years, and it was the last meeting with Thomas Baidegin that started it all.“

This isn’t the first time Joan Spar has gone behind the camera. The author has already signed a biopic on Serge Gainsbourg in 2010, but also Le Chat du Rabbin the following year, Woman in a Car with Glasses and a Gun in 2015 and Little Vampire in 2020. Journey to the End of the Night marks his return to directing a live-action film.

A monument of literature

This classic of French literature is Louis-Ferdinand Céline’s first novel. It was published in 1932 and won the Renaudot Prize before being translated into 37 languages. The book follows the fate of young Ferdinand Bardamus, the author’s literary doppelganger, as he enlists to fight in World War I.

The audience follows this anti-hero’s path of horror as he subsequently discovers the hell of colonialism in Africa and the dizzying mid-war America.

First movie, really?

If this adaptation eventually sees the light of day, others have already tried. In The article was published in 2020, the world He recalled that many directors could not make the project a reality. Among them are Abel Gans, director of Napoleon from 1927, as well as Claude Berri, Louis Malle, Francois Dupeyron, Federico Fellini, Julien Duvivier and Claude Hautin-Larra.

The newspaper specifies that Michel Audiard, the great French screenwriter, wanted to adapt Jean-Luc Godard and star Jean-Paul Belmondo.

The release date has not been announced yet.