At the Sotheby’s auction will expose drawings for the « Little Prince »

Sotheby`s Paris Headquarters showed spring and summer sales lots, including the auction of rare books and manuscripts, which will be held online from June 4 to 18. These are copyright illustrations for the “Little Prince” of Antoine de Saint-Exupery and a manuscript script for the cult film by Jean-Luke Godard “In the last breath”. Says Kommersant correspondent in France Alexey Tarkhanov.

In the new building of the auction house at the address Four Saint-Nore, 83 rare cars, painting and sculptures from the famous Brazilian meeting are exhibited today, many multi-colored precious female bags and handbags (in these halls you are lost: in Galeri Lafayette or still in Sotheby`s?). But the most interesting lots around which the press conference was held are quite modest in appearance: two glass aquariums, in which the memories of the main film “New Wave” are composed, and a stand with tiny handwriting of Antoine de Saint-Exupery, free sketches of illustrations for a “little prince”.

The owner, antiqueus, writer and photographer Pierre Amrush told reporters about these drawings to reporters. He spoke with us remotely, from the screen, now he lives in where he works on the next book on the art of Africa. His father, the famous Algerian writer Jean El-Muhuv Amrush, was friends in Algeria-the French remaining during the Second World War-with Andre Zhid. The writer and philosopher escaped from Paris from the Nazis, who looked obliquely at his homosexuality (“Better when they hate you as you are, what they love for what you don’t have in you”).

In Algeria, he introduced Pierre’s parents to the PIK of his glory by the pilot and writer Antoine de Saint-Exupery.

During a family dinner, abundantly flavored with wine, St. Exupery began to tell the hospitable owners about his new book, which had not yet reached Algeria, accompanying the stories with drawings.

First on a gutted pack of cigarettes, then right on the tablecloth. Amrusha’s mother hastened to bring a whipping guest by a notebook. So 16 illustrations-sketches for the “little prince” appeared, which depict a capricious rose, a harmful baobab, and a businessman who considers the stars. And one of the characters says: « Is it noticeable that I am drunk? »

Drawings will be sold separately, prices – from several thousand to several tens of thousands of euros. However, there is a hope that they are bought in a blade, all 16. After all, the collections of rare books and manuscripts at auctions are addressed not so much by fans of painting as fans of literature. Or, for example, cinema-for them on Sotheby`s, a selection of documents related to the cult film by Jean-Luke Godard “In the Last Breath” is prepared.

Filmed in 1960, this film is included in the lists of the most important works of French and world cinema. “In the last breath” he glorified not only Godara, instantly turning him from severe film critic into an influential director, but also Jean-Paul Belmondo with Jin Sieberg, who became an exemplary cinematic love pair. The shooting took place from August 17 to September 15, 1959, without scenery, right on Parisian streets, in the sunlight, a manual camera. The actors did not know what the director would require from them in an hour. Hodar himself did not know this, who sometimes wrote dialogs just a few minutes before the filming to preserve the general spirit of the adventure, and then threw the sheets used.

The more expensive for cinema historians miraculously the preserved script manuscript. Previously not published, it consists of 72 pages written by a large, legible handwriting of Godard. These are descriptions of the initial credits, first frames, and synopsis scenes, and dialogs.

Among them are a dramatic introductory scene, a meeting with the heroine Syberg, Patricia, on the Champs Elysees, a moment with a telephone booth, a scene with a motorcyclist and a famous finale.

Letters of Godard, photographs of heroes, a rental certificate of the film are attached to the manuscript. All these materials are auctioned by the family of the producer of the film Georges de Boregar. The cost of the lot is estimated from € 400 thousand to € 600 thousand.

“At the age of 29, Jean-Luke Hodar made his first film, which became one of the iconic works of French cinema. Without Georges de Boregar, who hardly managed to find funding, he would never have seen the light. This rare manuscript combines the two outstanding figures of the New Wave, ”explained Ann Hailbron, the head of the Sotheby`s book and manuscripts in Paris.

Isn’t it a pity to the owners to part with the documents? No, as Pierre Amrush told us. He is only glad that these things will find a new owner who will carefully store them and love them – at least because he spent so much on them.