PARIS LETTER
MALRAUX'S PROGRAM
The statements of M. Andre Malraux, made in his capacity as
Minister of Culture, on the reorganization of the national theaters have
had at least one exceptional characteristic: this is the only time, since
he has been Minister, that Malraux has expressed himself without disap–
pointing those who have always admired him.
As
for his press confer–
ence when he announced the creation of Algerian "pilot departments"
which existed only in his imagination, as for the North African visit of
three Nobel Prize winners, one of whom was about to die and none
of whom had
been
consulted, as for his speech in the Place de la Re–
publique or his futile and bombastic rhetoric on the Acropolis: all his
speeches have been wretched failures. He has seemed to be parodying
himself, accentuating his faults which are no longer outweighed by a
vanished genius. However contestable the statements Malraux made
last April 9, when he set forth his policies regarding the theaters of
the government to which he belongs, at least he said nothing foolish.
And we all heaved a sigh of relief.
Before discussing these measures in detail, Andre Malraux offered
a critical account-extremely critical-of the recent activity of the
Comedie-Franc;aise. What he could not say was that this venerable com–
pany has been under the direction of the most mediocre administrator
it has had for a long time. Of course, the powers of an administrator,
defined by Napoleon's famous "Moscow decree," are both vague and
inadequate. It is the Societe des Comooiens Franc;ais, that is, the whole
group of the actors appointed as societaires by their peers, which decides
all essential matters as far as the life of the troupe is concerned. The
administrator's role is a difficult one, and he can fill it only if his
qualities are such that his decisions awaken few dissensions within the
troupe itself. Which was the case when Maurice Bourdet filled the post
and, to a certain degree, when Pierre-Aime Touchard was its incum–
bent. But Pierre Descaves has had nothing on which to base his au–
thority. A mediocre man of letters, a critic without influence, he has
constructed his entire career on his father's connections-that father
being Lucien Descaves, a friend of the Goncourts whose literary reputa–
tion derives solely from his book
Sous-Offs,
a pamphlet violently attack-
