Longtemps, je me suis couché de bonne heure follows Sebastian Ponchelet, an ex-convict whose life is profoundly affected by the famous first eight words of Marcel Proust’s masterpiece. Recently released from prison, Sebastian finds a job in a prestigious Parisian publishing house sorting submissions. One day, he comes across a giant manuscript littered with the author’s annotations, and is so entranced by the first sentence that he feels the urge to smuggle it out of the office. He can never bring himself to read past the first line – For a long time I used to go to bed early – but something in the prose deeply affects him, and sets him off on a journey of artistic self-exploration. Soon, the theft is noticed, but by that time the manuscript has mysteriously vanished from his apartment and the transgression could cost him his job. Meanwhile, after a rash of museum thefts, Sebastian’s parole officer is exerting pressure on him to provide information about his former cellmate, a legendary art thief named Sholam. Sebastian’s dilemma intensifies when a famous Courbet painting, L’Origine du monde, disappears from the Musée d’Orsay, and Sholam resurfaces. As these literary and artistic mysteries swirl around him, Sebastian begins to court a woman he spies on the street, instinctually drawn to her in the same way he is drawn to the Proust manuscript and the Courbet painting. Too shy to approach her, he anonymously leaves books in her mailbox and witnesses her reactions from afar. When the two finally meet after their bookish courtship, Sebastian must choose between her and a dangerous life surrounded by stolen, and stunning, masterpieces.

Though it has all the elements of a suspense novel, this wonderfully paced story is at heart a profound meditation on the relationship of the artist to his or her audience, the way people relate to each other through works of art, and, perhaps most importantly, art’s redemptive power. Both Proust’s manuscript and the stolen Courbet painting open Sebastian’s eyes, allowing his previously incarcerated mind to see the world in an entirely new light.

Jean-Jacques Beinex of Cargo Films has already acquired the film rights to Longtemps.