. Raymond Queneau (1903–1976).

An unpublished film script in its various versions. This script, described as “a sort of magical and mythological tale” (Jean-Pierre Longre), features a newlywed couple, Merlin and Lili, caught up in the “rehearsals of a troupe of ‘student-actors’ re-enacting the scene of Adam and Eve being tempted by Satan and succumbing to original sin "... The file includes: * the autograph MANUSCRIPT. – 2 pages, small quarto on school paper, the first entitled Mystery: ‘the first one in the morning is the Mystery of St Brandan’s journey (= Dante). Descent into Hell and visit to Paradise. It is Beatrice (in Dante’s Virgil, but this can be changed) – in any case, a female angel who guides Merlin”…; the second page recounts “Merlin – in Hell”…, and is illustrated with a pen-and-ink sketch depicting Satan, a devil crushing Merlin, and Beatrice on a rock. – 7 folios in-4: list of characters with jumbled ideas (on the reverse, a typescript by Tatane, ‘Song to make the Negroes blush and glorify Father Ubu’); notes on the various characters (on the reverse of a typed p. 107 from a novel); a sequence of 5 ff. (numbered 1, 3, 3bis, 4 and 4), the first two providing a typewritten synopsis on the reverse of which Queneau has drawn up a film breakdown and sketched out episodes, the next two showing Merlin in Paradise, the last listing various episodes. * the complete typewritten SYNOPSIS (10 quarto pages on pink tracing paper, plus 6 pages of another version), with numerous annotations in an unidentified hand. * the SCREENPLAY MANUSCRIPT, partly in the author’s own hand, comprising 44 quarto pages, including 4 pages partly in the author’s own hand; discontinuous pagination, probably a mixture of two versions, with numerous corrections and annotations by Queneau and another hand, pasted-in notes, crossed-out passages, etc. * TYPED COPY OF ANOTHER VERSION OF THE SCREENPLAY, 19 ff. with numerous and significant pasted-in notes. 251399/1 Not photographed

* Complete TYPED MANUSCRIPT of the screenplay, 39 pp. in-4 (double carbon), in a folder bearing Queneau’s name and address. Plus a letter from Christian Janicot to Jean-Marie Queneau (1994), regarding a proposed publication of *La Vallée des songes* in his *Anthologie du cinéma invisible*.