GEORGES RODENBACH — BRUGES-LA-MORTE

Image: plate from first edition

I was out drinking last night with a man from Bruges. He missed his hometown and told me why it is the way it is. Bruges was the center of the commercial world for a while in the Middle Ages. What brought on its decline was silt. The canal silted up. Boats couldn’t get in. Trade stopped. Nobody built anything new. And Bruges became a mausoleum of its ancient self.

If you’ve seen Vertigo you know the plot of Bruges-la-Morte: a man obsessed with his dead wife becomes obsessed with a living woman who resembles her. It ends badly for this fellow. But one could contend that he is not the protagonist of Bruges-la-Morte. That would be Bruges itself. And Bruges comes out alright in the end. Bruges will always come out alright.