La Captive Christine Smallwood

In the fifth published title of our Decadent Editions series, Christine Smallwood explores Chantal Akerman’s adaptation of Marcel Proust’s The Prisoner, the fifth volume of In Search of Lost Time, in a text that moves elegantly between Akerman’s films, Proust’s novel, and Smallwood’s own life.

‘Christine Smallwood creates both a portrait of Akerman and her films – the most illuminating I’ve read – and a portrait of herself.’ Joanna Hogg

‘Smallwood’s La Captive is a delightful, engrossing book. Her study of Chantal Akerman’s film is profound, entwining Akerman’s and Proust’s resonant themes: mothers and daughters and sons, love and loss, passion and passivity, freedom, obsession, and time. A beautiful, masterful work that miraculously marries art to life, life to art.’ Lynne Tillman