HUIS CLOS

LOUIS DE FUNES  in the visionnage film does not appear. Cut role.

Personal comments : I confirm that Louis de Funès does not appear either in the movie or the marked in the credits, he was cut in the editing.

Huis clos is a play in an act of Jean-Paul Sartre, written at the end of the year 1943 and created it May 27th 1944 with theatre of the Old man-Dovecote, with Paris. This play is symbolic system of Absurdity, literary movement of the beginning of XXE century when the man must become aware of the nonsense of his existence for finding then there the force to revolt. Sartre thought of having written a funny part. Only the setting in scene of Didier Van Cauwelaert in Nice in 1977 seems to have given justice to this design.

♦ Synopsis :

Three characters find themselves with their death in the same part. It is about Garcin, journalist, Ines, employee of the Stations and Estelle, a fashionable rich person. They do not know each other, come from very different mediums, share neither the same convictions nor the same tastes. Jean-Paul Sartre describes us here "his Hel" with brilliance : "the Hell, they is the different ones", this sentence which was worth in Sartre the worst charges only explains than the life "feels, is perceived" through the others ; nothing is worth of other than the men who make us become aware of ourselves, of the sad human truth, but which remains necessary to be carried out. The three protagonists struggle unceasingly to escape their situations but the Hell ends up taking again the top. This play is in an act made up of five scenes, whose last is hypertrophied.

Stage 1

Garcin enters accompanied a living room, style second Empire. Garcin requires of the bellhop where are the machines of torture, it does not have there, but the bellhop claims that all its "customers" are similar. They want all the stakes and their toilet requisites. Garcin claims not to be afraid. The boy from goes away. This expository scene astonishes because it does not answer any the questions of the spectator. The characters seem all with length scene to know it details necessary to its comprehension.

Stage 2

Garcin is only found and called the boy vainly.

Stage 3

Ines enters. Confused, it asks Garcin where is Florence. Garcin explains to him why he does not know Florence and that it is in hell. Ines takes Garcin for her torturer.

Stage 4

Estelle enters and is made explain the situation by Garcin, even if it does not make vis-a-vis reality and prefers to worry about the color of the settees.

Stage 5

Estelle claims to have died of a pneumonia and is unaware of the reason of her presence in hell. It is questioned in addition as for the reason for which the three characters were brought together. If Garcin thinks on this matter which there is of another explanation only the chance, Ines declares that each one will become, thereafter, one torturer for the others and will force them to acknowledge the crimes which they committed. Garcin, not being able to admit such an assumption, prefers to be insulated while hoping thus that each one will be able to save the others, but in vain. Indeed, it hears, although it stops the ears, a discussion between the two women. It then decides to be revealed and it explains why it tortured his wife, but does not speak about its desertion. Then it is Ines who explains that it is lesbian and it is defined itself as malicious because it needs the suffering of the others. At the end of the account Estelle acknowledges unwillingly that it had a lover with whom it had a child and that it killed the child and let commit suicide his lover in order not to make burst scandal. Estelle seeks comfort in the arms of Garcin, but this last wants confidence. The couple will never exist because of Ines who does not stop judging them. Estelle will try to assassinate Ines but they already died. They will be door unit - field for eternity to dispute.

 

♦ Characters :

Inès Serrano

Of the first appearance, Ines seems to be impolite and not very pleasant. It answers the questions of Garcin curtly because it obstructs it. As it feels higher, one has the impression that it is arrogant. Contrary to the others, it is not made illusions on the place where it is and admits that it is afraid. It lived in an apartment with the woman of its late cousin and was employed Stations. Ines is characterized like a damnée and malicious woman. It is lesbian and had a business with Florence, the woman of its cousin. It killed this last to be able to approach without Florence resistance. Ines reproached Florence for being all the two culprits of her suicide. These reproaches torture its amante. An explanation for its behavior is that, like she says it, Ines needs the suffering of the others to exist, “Me I am malicious, that wants to say that I need the suffering of the others to exist”. What is connected with sadism! Perhaps that the social inferiority of Ines opposite others the growth to reduce them a such torturer in a search for superiority. Ines represents spite. At the end, Florence killed Ines and itself with gas because it could not support any more the remorses which corroded it. Ines, the damned woman, thus caused three died. It is completely conscious of what it did. For the continuation of the history, Ines is essential in measurement where it represents the first torturer: it forces the others to admit the true reasons of their presence in hell. The “démasquage” of the others is accompanied by ironic nicknames (“Hero without reproach”, “the small holy one”) and by the pointed comments (“You make the comedy”). Consequently, Ines obliges them to acknowledge their crimes and their fact of understanding that they are fully responsible for what they did. Moreover, Garcin and Estelle must recognize what they missed and become aware of their cowardice. But Ines also has aspects to accept:

The awakening of Ines: “I feel vacuum” “after all, I am completely dead” Ines cannot more justify myself nor to correct his life. Its impotence is its torture. Ines is the first to find the mechanism of this “hell” while saying: “The torturer, it is each one of us for the two others”.

 

Joseph Garcin

Like that of the two other protagonists, the character of Garcin appears in several sections of work sartrienne Huis clos. Joseph Garcin is the first protagonist who arrives in hell. He was a publicity agent and man of letters directing a pacifist newspaper. It lived in Rio with his wife and was shot for desertion. On its arrival, it claims to be calm but in truth it is very afraid. Being alone in the infernal room, it types until exhaustion against the closed door. When Ines enters, Garcin tries to behave politely but the woman discovers her true condition. A nervous twitch of the mouth of man disgusts it and reveals his nervousness. It pretends to be a gentleman towards Estelle, the third protagonist. (It gives up its settee for it and keeps on its blazer). Moreover, it is presented as pacifist hero who was to die because it lived according to his principles. Its thesis to explain their community in hell is that they are all three by chance there. Later, Garcin proposes to the women to keep silent and stop any communication in order to escape the infernal system in which they are imprisoned. However, after a short moment of silence, the two women start again with speaking, which leads Garcin to yield in its turn. It then reproaches them never for being able to stop speaking and known as that it would have been simpler if it had been locked up here with men, who can be better disciplined according to him. After this failure, Garcin changes completely and shows its true character. It becomes aggressive, ordinary and betrays the true reason for which it is in hell: he is a cruel man having taken, lasting its life, of the pleasure to make suffer his wife by openly misleading it without anything to regret. Moreover, it tended towards alcoholism and had deserted. Its awakening reveals that its cowardice is insupportable for him. By consequent, it asks Estelle to affirm to him that it is not loose, hoping to find near her a moral comfort first of all, but this one wants only satisfaction sexual and is not interested by the sufferings morals of Garcin. Thus disgusted of it, it is addressed to Ines. In effect, it thinks that the only way for him of finding the comfort moral for which it requires is to hear mouth of Ines who he is not a coward because it is, according to him, of “its race” and will be able to thus act as judge to affirm if he is, or not, coward. When the door opens, it does not manage to leave because Ines is the only person who can save it while standing as guarantor for her courage. But the woman lesbian is avenged for her relation with Estelle and that does not give him which it needs. Consequently, Garcin is condemned to pass eternity in hell for loose existence.

Estelle Rigault

Estelle Rigault, a fashionable rich person who was married with an old man, died of a pneumonia. It enters like third protagonist the infernal room. During the first meeting with the two others, one learns that it is talkative and surface (it wants that the color of the settee goes with that of its dress). Moreover, it is so painful that it insists that one uses the word “absent” instead of the word “died” in his presence. When Garcin tries to be keep silent, it deploys also an intense vanity by seeking a mirror to apply make-up. Ines proposes to help it like “alive mirror”. Later, Estelle notices that the other woman is lesbian and rejects it. Like the two others, Estelle immediately does not reveal the true reason for which it is in hell but tells a history distorts for apitoyer the others: Being poor orphan, it married with an old man to support his sick brother financially. It had a relation extraconjugale but left this one after his lover wanted a child of it. Consequently, it explains its presence in the infernal place with the wasting of its youth with an old man. Obviously, Ines, with her good knowledge of the women, does not believe it. By creating a psychic alliance of torture with Garcin, Ines and reveal to him the true character of Estelle like her crimes

The middle-class woman killed her baby under the eyes of the father who was his lover. This one committed suicide because of it. “The small holy one” (Ines, page 23, line 1) is thus an adulteress and a child murder without scruples. The egoist woman did not want to break with the rules of the company openly and had a reputation to save. The total dependence with the others of this protagonist is shown clearly. Moreover, it needed the affection of the men and this feature of character still persists in hell: It is thrown in the arms of Garcin but the couple is constantly disturbed by the jealousy of Ines. Moreover, Estelle is not intellectually able to satisfy Garcin, which has need for confirmation durable (Estelle: “I do not have confidence to give me”, page 43, lines 63/64). Tragically, the vain woman does not admit that she died: It even says: “the ground left me” and tries to kill Ines at the end. The latter adds : “You know well that I died?”, and in Estelle to answer “Dead?” and finally an insane laughter carries the three protagonists.

 

♦ Extract of the stage 5 :

- Inès:
I see. (A time.) for whom do you play the comedy ? We are between us.
- Estelle, with arrogance
Between us?
- Inès:
Between murderers. We are in hell, my girl, there is never an error and we never damn people for anything.
- Estelle:
Keep silent.
- Inès:
In hell! Damned! Damned!
- Estelle:
Keep silent. Do you want to keep silent? I forbid you to use unrefined words.
- Inès:
Damned, the small saint. Damned, the hero without criticism. We had our hour of pleasure; is not it? There are people who suffered for us up to the death and it amused us a lot. At the moment, it is necessary to pay.
- Garcin, The raised hand
You will keep silent?
- Inès, the glance without fear, but with an immense surprise
Ha! (A time.) Wait! I understood, I know why they put us together.
- Garcin
Be careful in what you go to say.
- Inès
You go to see as it is stupid. As easy as pie! There is no physical torture is not it? And however, we are in hell. And nobody has to come. Nobody. We shall stay up to the end only together. It is indeed that? As a matter of fact, there is somebody who misses here : it is the executioner.
- Garcin, in a low voice
I know well him.
- Inès
Well, they realized an economy of staff. Here is everything. It is the customers who make the service themselves, as in the cooperative restaurants.
- Estelle
What you want to say ?
- Inès
The executioner, it is each of us for two others.

♦ Style :

Style is familiar. The register evolves during the part: at the beginning they are polished and are addressed as vous, at the end they are addressed as tu as if they knew each other closely. They use even a rather familiar vocabulary, speaking each other rather curtly sometimes.

♦ Subjects :

Part in only one act and five scenes, created on May 27, 1944 with the theatre of the Old Dovecote, Door - closed is the most known part of Jean Paul Sartre. The hell, says us it, is not the place of physical torture, but that of the judgement relentless of others related to us. Our acts engage us any entireties and cannot be modified any more. Once occurred death, we do not have any catch on what the rest of the world will do and the way in which it will interpret them. The three characters of the drama make of it the bitter experiment, each one obsessed by its history, each one in position of victim under the accusing glance of both others, each one condemned for eternity to undergo the weight of them. There is no loophole: even when the door is opened, they cannot leave the living room where they are retained. Because it is there too all the paradox of the business, they became inseparable and completely interdependent from/to each other: “the others are at the bottom what there is of more important in ourselves for our own knowledge of ourselves” will say Sartre in preamble to the phonographic recording of the part in 1965.

♦ Title :

♦ Philosophy :

The morals of Huis clos is famous; it is clearly stated at the end of the part : "the hell they is the different ones" Contrary to the common representations, it is thus not necessary to go down under ground to be in hell. All the cruelty of the hells can test in the living rooms more cossus and in company of completely frequentable individuals in appearance. No need for grills, to stakes nor of whips, it is in a strict sense enough three and to be sufficiently badly matched so that breaks out a passion swirl, infernal. Sartre shows it in its part. A such experimenter, it selects among the possible characters and psychologies three profiles of individuals whose combination will be necessarily explosive. It blocks them in a decoration which them constrained to coexist, that is to support the presence of each of both others without possibility none of fleeing or of fleeing themselves (suicide).

♦ Distribution 1944 :

♦ Film version :

Jacqueline Audry an adaptation to the cinema realized in 1954, rather free insofar as the unity of place (“huis-clos”) is not respected any more there and numbers it characters is clearly increased.

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