with an introduction by Theo Du

'A love story set in Calcutta', is perhaps all the information one needs to understand Marguerite Duras' India Song (1975). Most famous as the writer of Hiroshima, Mon Amour (1959), Duras' India Song can be seen as another exploration of memory, loss, and the impossibility of return. The author of over 25 novels, here we see the prime example of her 'literary cinema.' As we follow the lush and pompous lives of colonial ambassadors, attaches, and wife around the putrid heat of Calcutta, sickness seeps in. One smells death, incense, petrichor, sweat and champagne; as we hear the same song on the piano, the same dancing song. Featuring Delphine Seyrig and Michael Lonsdale, India Song stays in your head like a fever dream, immaterial yet eminently tactile, unbelievably beautiful yet suffocating.

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