SeconD TiMe ArounD D. A. MILLER CHABARTHES I BY ACCIDENT Roland Barthes had a column too; it was called âMythologiesâ and ran regularly in Les Lettres nouvelles during the mid1950s. In 1957, the columns were collected into a still-famous book by the same name, but Barthes continued to write âMythologiesâ for a few years after the bookâs publication. Recently, poking around in his Åuvres complètes, I discovered that one of these late columns was on Claude Chabrolâs first film, Le Beau Serge, which Barthes saw on its February 1959 Paris release and which I happened to be just rewatching in Criterionâs crisp new digital restoration. I immediately âlikedââcould not resistâthe double accident whereby, having stumbled on an encounter between a favorite critic and a favorite auteur, I found myself viewing Le Beau Serge âat the same timeâ as Barthes. I might have learned of Barthesâs column on Le Beau Serge almost thirty years ago when Jonathan Rosenbaum offered some brief extracts from it in Sight and Sound (winter 1982â83); but I did not, and having missed my first opportunity I was determined to seize my second with a vengeance. Since Barthesâs essay is not available in English, I
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