Un siècle d'écrivains

Born in Paris in 1905, but of Polish origins, Pierre Klossowski (and his brother Balthazar – the painter Balthus) grew up in a household where artists like Monet, Bonnard and Derain were frequent visitors. The poet Rainer Maria Rilke was an intimate friend of his mother and through him Klossowski became a protégé of André Gide. As a writer, translator, philosopher and artist, he was an man of extraordinary erudition, possessed of a wide-ranging, trenchant intellect, who used both words and drawings to give form to his inner visions, steeped in mysticism and eroticism. Pierre Klossowski wrote full length volumes on the Marquis de Sade and Friedrich Nietzsche, essays on literary and philosophical figures, five novels and he participated in most issues of George Bataille`s review Acéphale in the late 1930s. In his later years most of his work consisted of large drawings based on scenes from his novels. This exploration of his work centres on footage shot with Klossowski at his apartment and studio in Paris in 1996. His wife Denise Morin-Sinclair, whom he married in 1947, also contributes to the film. The model for the all-pervasive mythicised woman in his life and work, Denise became ‘Roberte’, the central character in Klossowski’s trilogy of novels Les Lois de l’hospitalité. Extracts from Pierre Zucca’s film Roberte, ce soir are included in this portrait, just as scenes from Raoul Ruiz` adaption of L’Hypothèse du tableau volé. Backgrounds on his work and life are given by writer and critic Alain Jouffroy and Klossowski’s biographer Alain Arnaud. Klossowski died in August 2001.