Compare And Contrast Le Retour De Martin Guerre

The purpose of media is an important part of its eventual delivery, often impacting manner and intensity of the creators’ attempts to manipulate the emotions and inclinations of their audience. In an academic work, for example, the purpose is to convince a scholarly audience that a specific argument is true. However, in more mainstream works, such as novels - or even commercially produced cinema - the intention is to entertain rather than inform, with education either sidelined or unintentional. These themes carry over to two accounts of the same events - The Return of Martin Guerre, by Natalie Zemon Davis, is a scholarly work. However, Le Retour de Martin Guerre (‘The Return of Martin Guerre’) is a piece of French cinema - although Davis participated in the making of the film as a historical advisor. The book has a specific agenda, which is at least in part the …show more content…
Because of this, the general facts are extremely similar between the two works. The differences are in the small things - snippets of dialog, facial expressions, daily goings-on in the background - things that convey emotion and generate sympathy that are the work of artistic license and cannot be found in the historical accounts that the academic text draws from, such as Arrest Memorable. The Return of Martin Guerre (the film version will be referred to by its French title to avoid confusion) is a retelling and academic investigation into the mid-16th century imposture of the Basque Martin by another man named Arnaud du Tilh. Arnaud is accosted by two of Martin’s friends near to the Guerre family’s home village of Artigat, and they mistake him for a returned Martin. Martin then uses these friends to gain knowledge of life, and after a period of time he declares himself to be Martin Guerre, returned