Marcel Proust: A Writer's Life (1993)

This engrossing documentary traces the life of French writer Marcel Proust, considered by many to be the greatest novelist of the 20th century. Filmed on location in France, the film depicts Proust's struggle to create his 3,000-page masterpiece, "Remembrance of Things Past", the groundbreaking novel that has come to epitomize a genre. With dramatic re-enactments of key scenes from Proust's life, and with rare archival footage that brings to life the rich period of French history from 1870 to 1925, A WRITER'S LIFE shows how, after years of failure and bad luck, Proust finally found the key to his art - and the will to undertake what is perhaps the most ambitious novel ever conceived.