Nuit noire, Calcutta, a film commissioned by the pharmaceutical industry and hijacked by Marin Karmitz, unfolds as an intense, nocturnal meandering, with a screenplay by Marguerite Duras. Marin Karmitz rapidly abandons the informative intent of the project, adopting a much freer narrative. Although the film’s purpose is to promote a drug claiming to cure alcoholism, it transforms into a black-and-white mirage, starring Maurice Garrel as a drunken writer, a vice-consul in Calcutta, who is rendered creatively impotent.
Who better than Duras to describe the devastating effects of inebriation on the writing process? Her solemn style and haunting language accompany the shipwreck of the cursed writer staring at a blank page. Beyond a mere meta movie, the short film accurately and elegantly depicts the anguish of the author, who is already no more.

Cannelle Anglade, “Troicouleurs”, 4 March 2022

Initially, it was a project commissioned by a pharmaceutical laboratory, which was launching a drug purported to cure alcoholism. After an attempt at a documentary, which I abandoned, I thought of Marguerite Duras, knowing she had been plagued by alcohol-related problems. As she had recently come out of rehab, she wanted to express it, and penned a first version of Nuit noire, Calcutta.

Marin Karmitz