The First Known Footage of Marcel Proust Discovered: Watch It Online

Ladies and gen­tle­men, we present the first known footage of the French author Mar­cel Proust.

Announced by Pro­fes­sor Jean-Pierre Sirois-Tra­han in the lat­est edi­tion of the French jour­nal, Revue d’é­tudes prousti­ennes, the footage was record­ed on Novem­ber 14, 1904 (nine years before Proust pub­lished the first vol­ume in his clas­sic work, À la recherche du temps perdu/Remem­brance of Things Past). And it shows Proust descend­ing a stair­way at the wed­ding of his close friend, Armand de Guiche. Look for him at the 37 sec­ond mark. He’s dressed less for­mal­ly (in grey, not black) than the aris­to­crats join­ing him at the cel­e­bra­tion. I’ve added a close up pic­ture below.

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via Le Jour­nal de Mon­tre­al

Relat­ed Con­tent:

An Intro­duc­tion to the Lit­er­ary Phi­los­o­phy of Mar­cel Proust, Pre­sent­ed in a Mon­ty Python-Style Ani­ma­tion

When James Joyce & Mar­cel Proust Met in 1922, and Total­ly Bored Each Oth­er

16-Year-Old Mar­cel Proust Tells His Grand­fa­ther About His Mis­guid­ed Adven­tures at the Local Broth­el

Mar­cel Proust Fills Out a Ques­tion­naire in 1890: The Man­u­script of the ‘Proust Ques­tion­naire’