The Return of Martin Guerre, Essay Example

The story of Martin Guerre is more complex, then, than the recital of the facts might lead us to believe. It is the complicated story of identity and mobility, of honor and loyalty, of peasant community and Protestant sympathy that the author of this book sets out so well. This book may serve as an accomplished and excellent introduction to a type of history (in France, the study of mentalités), a way of looking at the past that tries to account for the numerous influences and motives–social, economic, political, religious, personal–that moved the characters in this story. This story was also made into a fine French film which revolves around the account of two trails of Martin Guerre.  This study examines and compares the traditions, the history, the epilogue, and the intrinsic historic-societal moments of the mid sixteenth century France, portrayed both by the book and then by the movie to conclude that book is more relevant and authentic in interpretation of the historical facts as compared to the movie.

The Return of Martin Guerre (Le Retour de Martin Guerre) is a French Film produced in 1982 by director Daniel Vigne, which was based on true events in France during the 16th century. The film portrays a case of identity theft after a war, the disappearance of a man named Martin Guerre and his appearance after eight long years. In the meantime, his identity is stolen by a imposter. Natalie Davis was involved as a consultant in research for the movie, but due to discrepancies and deformation in historical facts, she concentrated on her own work and wrote the book “The Return of Martin Guerre” in 1983.

The book and the movie of “The Return of Martin Guerre” have various explicit differences. Natalie Davis wrote a book giving eminent emphasis on history with intrinsic background information and description. The film, on the other hand is limited in its account and gives a overview of the family and town, and is detailed more in visual artsy than history. Though both the novel and film depict conflict, confusion- it is in true aspect a great, true story, containing facets of love, betrayal, religion, sadness, community, and French domination of the era.

In the middle of the sixteenth century, the village of Artigat, in the foothills of the Pyrenees, was home to sixty or seventy families. With a throbbing local economy, the inhabitants of Artigat were well off. Although relatively egalitarian, they were proud of its freedom from seigniorial obligations. Martin Guerre was the son of Sanxi Daguerre, the son of a rich peasant who formerly belonged to Hendaye in the Basque country. There was nothing to suggest that he or his beautiful wife Bertrande were about to become central figures in one of the most unusual of French causes célèbres and subsequently immortalized in prose, drama, opera and film (David 670)

In 1548, Martin perhaps tormented by the fact that it had taken eight years to consummate his highly youthful marriage, and shamed by his own violation of the Basque code of honour in “stealing” some corn from his father, walked out of the village, abandoning both family and inheritance. He seemed destined for that general obscurity which normally cloaks the lives of the humble. All normality, however, was to be cast aside in dramatic fashion when, some nine years later, a rogue from the Comminges known as Du Tilh walked into Artigat claiming to be Martin Guerre. Amazingly, the impostor was not only accepted by Bertrande and Martin’s sisters, together with many villagers, but in his new role as a well-to-do, independent peasant farmer with sufficient success to elevate himself into the ranks of the rural merchants.

The initial deception, in which Bertrande was clearly a willing partner, became the new reality and the “invented” marriage was transformed into a deep and affectionate relationship. The new Martin, however, did not gain so ready an acceptance by all and a quarrel with his “uncle” over the disposition of some family property aroused latent suspicion. Under duress Bertrande was forced to take proceedings against Du Tilh. When the local magistrate found him guilty, Du Tilh appealed to the Parliament of Toulouse, where the case was heard in 1560 by three of the most distinguished judges of the day. Du Tilh, ably supported by Bertrande, turned on a splendid performance. The court was practically convinced that the couples were the victims of malicious accusations generated by family disputes, when a man with a wooden leg arrived at the Parliament. He turned out to be the real Martin Guerre.

For Du Tilh, who was subsequently hanged outside the house in Artigat where he had lived so respectably for four years, was the end. For the learned judge, Jean du Coras, it was an opportunity to record for posterity his part legal, part literary and part moral account of what the investigation and trial had revealed. It is this account which provides the cornerstone of Natalie Zemon Davis’s own treatment in The Return of Martin Guerre. But in addition she has scoured the legal and notarial records of southwestern France (David 670)

She gave clear observations on inheritance, rigid customs, property rights, family, inheritance customs, family and the law enforcements of the time – one which welded together a rare blend of historical craft and imagination. Setting Du Tilh and Bertrande firmly in their economic, social and cultural context, Davis produces an explanation for their behavior which is thoroughly convincing. This is further sustained by a breadth of vision which allows her to incorporate material on the art of lying and deception. Finally she offers us an incisive analysis of du Coras’s widely acclaimed version of events, using it both to illustrate the highly ambivalent response of this learned Protestant judge to the legal and moral issues raised by the case, and also to place this extraordinary tragic comedy in its literary context. Thus, within the space of a short book, the author not only penetrates the most obscure recesses of the non-literate world but illuminates the perceptions and feelings of the educated and well-to-do (David 670)

If we view the society portrayed by Davis in her book from the periphery rather being in the center of conflict we can understand relevant points. The story is not so much about the character Martin Guerre – it is more about the evolving societal ethos of the period, which encompasses his wife, family, neighbors, village and the social order. Martin Guerre had virtually done nothing to receive such precedence in history- he was a loser, who ran away from his marriage and family. Yet, his personify is gratified in the sense that he represents the male chauvinistic impediment of the society during the era, and that is his life is a vivid and taboo tale of rivalry, lawsuits, treachery, society and law. Thus, the book entails a perfect vehicle for describing the history of the French people, society and ideology of the period, much more in comparison to the movie. Regarding the use of film as a vehicle for interpreting the past, Robert Rosenstone has the following to say: “For we who take the past seriously to consider a film a ‘historical’ rather than a ‘costume drama,’ it must–no matter what its inventions or style or subject matter–engage the discourse of history, the already existing body of writing, arguments, debates, memories, images, moral positions and–as important–data surrounding the topic with which it deals.”

For many reviewers the reference to paintings and the shooting on location offer a guarantee of historical accuracy. They do not seem to realize that, on the one hand, paintings are themselves representations, and, on the other, the paintings used as reference seem “to have been displaced from the following century” (Bann 171), such as paintings by Georges de la Tour (1593-1652) or Vermeer (1632-1675), Brueghel (1535-1600) being the only contemporary painter called as witness. Vigne also states that the Pyrenees village used for the shooting was in fact a “17th-century village” (qtd. in Insdorf 19). Similarly, if Natalie Davis’s participation seems to offer a guarantee of historical accuracy, she admits that her role as a consultant did not give her “final authority” when it came to making decisions (Benson, 63). “[T]he film was departing from the historical record,” she explains, “and I found this troubling.” As Elizabeth Guild contends, “the apparently realistic details which crowd the screen may lure the viewer into accepting that these reconstructions show authoritative knowledge of the past” (Benson, 48).

However, although Martin Guerre draws on cultural memory and historical sources, Daniel Vigne himself refuses to file his film under the label “historical film” because “[w]what’s important is what the film recounts—universally” (qtd. in Insdorf 19). The universal or timeless character of the story is indeed what is often stressed, not only by Vigne, but also by reviewers and critics (Levinson 47). They implicitly justify the very notion of remake, since such a story should easily be transposable to a different place and a different time. However, although she does not contest the “universal appeal” of the story, Natalie Davis doubts whether “a plot embedded in issues” so strongly related to the time and place will be “interestingly transportable” (Remaking Impostors 21).

According to Janet Staiger, The Return of Martin Guerre “achieve[s] a sense of historical accuracy” (395) through “physical or visible features” such as “props, sets, costumes, lighting, bodies and bodily gestures” (401), based on a cultural memory acquired from paintings. The use of cinematic techniques such as flashbacks and voice over reinforces narrative authority (Staiger 402-403), in the same way first-person narration appeared to prove authenticity in the Ancient Regime novel: “you are not presented here with an adventurous tale nor a fabulous invention,” the voice over announces, “But with a pure and true story.” However, by having the judges try to reconstruct the defendant’s true identity with the help of testimonies based on conflicting memories, the film calls into question its own historical validity since it follows the same route: “the history film is fiction which tries to persuade the spectator of its authenticity just as Martin must persuade the villagers of his identity” (Mazdon 75).

Conclusion

Natalie Davis is widely revered as a leading historian of early modern France, a more of a left-leaning intellectual. Her contribution helped pioneer the shift from social to cultural history. She is also one of the great figures of the feminist history. Her sheer capacity to incorporate multiple meanings, defy simplistic labeling as she insists on the multivalent meanings of the historical record. In her words, “what I offer you here is in part my invention,” and reiterates in the introduction of The Return of Martin Guerre that her story is held tightly in the retrospective of the voices of the past”. Thus, her contribution is worth to be more filling and committed to the cause of geographical and historic interpretation of the French society. Her research, scrutiny has to be more relevant, than the movie. Movie is visual connotation, rich and elaborate settings, often deceptive to lure the people into a historic revelation; and to them visualization is more important that just description of facts. Moreover, cinema has to add that extra spice and vigor to keep the audience seated with intrigue for 1-2 hours. Their challenge is not mitigated by true representation of facts – and thus could be differentiated from a documentary. Cinema is a emotional representation of history and thus bound to be biased and incoherence with historical evidence.

Works Cited

David, P “Ce n’est pas Guerre.” Times Literary Supplement” 4214, 1984

Davis, N “The return of Martin Guerre” by Havard University Press, Cambridge,

Bann, Stephen. The Clothing of Clio, Cambridge, Eng.: Cambridge UP, 1984.

Benson, Edward. “Martin Guerre, the Historian and the Filmmakers: An Interview with Natalie Zemon Davis.” Film and History 13.3 (1983): 49-65.

Levinson, Mark. “The Return of Martin Guerre” Cineaste XIII.2 (1984): 47-49.

Davis, Natalie, “Remaking Impostors”

Insdorf, Annette. “A Medieval Tale is relived on Film.” New York Times 5 June 1983

Staiger, Janet. “Securing the Fictional Narrative as a Tale of the Historical Real” The South Atlantic Quarterly 88.2 (Spring 1989): 393-413

Mazdon, Lucy. Encore Hollywood: Remaking French Cinema. London: BFI, 2000.