Agatha et les lectures illimitées (1981)

Marguerite Duras elegiac recollection of her brother Paulo and their incestuous love in their teens, in French Indochina as it was known then, before she left for France to continue her education and he remained with their mother, only to die at age 30, deprived of medication during the Japanese occupation in 1942. Duras stages a phantom meeting in the drawing room of an uninhabited house, by a sea, in early winter, in which a man and a woman have just arrived, separately. They are 30 years old. The dialogue is voice over read by Duras and Yann Andrea for Bulie Ogier, who is seen gazing out of a large window at the sea or curled up on a couch; and Yann Andréa who is only seen briefly, as a reflection in a mirror. He calls her Agatha; she never mentions his name. It is so dark he says. She recalls a vivid memory:
I see you at fifteen.
That you’re eighteen years old.
You’re coming back from swimming.
You’re coming out of the rough sea.
You’re stretching out,
always close to me.
You’re dripping with seawater.
Your heart is beating quickly…
from the hard swim.
You’re closing your eyes.
The sun is strong.
I’m looking at you.
I’m looking at you
after the horrible fear of losing you.
I’m twelve years old, I’m fifteen.
Happiness might be,
at this moment
having you still alive.

The sublime fusion