The Square (1965)

Some critics of Duras's work have suggested many of her texts are “novels”; others have called them “novellas.” The word novella appears as early as the late nineteenth century, coming from the feminine form of the Italian nosvello and the Latin diminutive novellus, meaning new. The word novel appears as early as the fifteenth century, coming from Middle English via Anglo-French and Latin novellus, a diminutive form of novus, meaning new. Are these texts by Duras novels or novellas—or are they neither? If they are neither, what might they be?

Duras's skill as a screenwriter infiltrates her skill in fiction. One of the most prominent stylistic techniques she employs is how she writes dialogue. Usually screen dialogue contains pauses, gaps of time in which nothing (or virtually nothing of any substance) is said, or a kind of rambling dialogue staggered with clichés and empty words. Film dialogue is not daily conversational speech but rather character development through a simulacrum of daily speech. One is not presenting conversational dialogue, but re-presenting conversational dialogue. This is an essential compromise: effective film dialogue must sound natural even though it is totally and utterly contrived. Film dialogue is supposed to convey the sense of conversational speech even though it is actually much more structured than the meanderings of daily speech.

Screen dialogue (as well as stage dialogue) features idiosyncrasies of daily conversational speech such as pauses, stutters, tics, malapropisms, slips of the tongue, rapid dialogue, repetition and so on. The two main differences between conventional speech and screen dialogue are that those idiosyncrasies are compressed due to time limitations. All dialogue must propel the story line forward and make the characters “sound” realistic, as well as express who the character is, their mood, rhythm and expression in each particular scene.

Ultimately, dialogue must achieve an effect of “realism” that can do several things simultaneously or interdependently: maintain scenic continuity, advance the story line, develop character, elicit emotion and engage emotionally. Duras accomplishes this compromise through remarkably economic writing. By applying these fundamental principles of screen dialogue to an analysis of Duras's work, we see how they work in conjunction with and not independently of each other.