SOURCE: “Form and Meaning in Marguerite Duras' ‘Moderato Cantabile,’” in Critique, Vol. XVI, No. 1, 1974, pp. 79-87.

In the following essay, Weiss discusses the cinematic techniques Duras uses to convey her meaning in Moderato cantabile.

As a member of the school of New Novelists in France, Marguerite Duras has attained prominence through the ability to create a sense of dramatic intensity in her fiction which few others have been able to achieve. In Moderato Cantabile (1958) Duras tells the compelling story of a thirst for passion in a modern world where the routine of everyday existence dooms one to a life of tedium and boredom.

The novella's protagonist is Anne Desbaresdes, the wife of a rich French industrialist, whose life has long ceased to embody any passion or meaning. The story begins with Anne's observing the piano lesson of her son, an event which is part of her weekly routine...