This sculpture is located in the most bohemian area of Paris, Montmartre. Established a little over a quarter of a century ago, in terms of popularity among tourists, it may well compete with the magnificent basilica located nearby. “Passing Through the Wall” is an unusual work in every respect, from the theme to the personality of the author.
The sculpture is a bronze figure of a man coming straight out of a stone wall. The head, upper body, arms have already appeared ... It seems that in a few more moments the viewer will see the entire sculpture, but the bronze man is forever destined to remain captive to the cold stone.
"Passing Through the Wall" is a monument to the hero of the novel of the same name, very popular in the second half of the last century. According to the plot, an unremarkable accountant Leon Dutelel suddenly found a strange gift - to pass through walls. This amazing ability helped Leon to overcome many difficult life situations and even find love. That's just the chosen one of the hero, unfortunately, was married to another. The tyrant husband often kept his wife locked up, and only thanks to the gift to pass through the walls, Dutelel was able to visit his beloved. But one day a terrible thing happened - the accountant suddenly lost his supernatural ability, and it happened just at the moment when he was almost out of the wall.
The author of this novel was the talented writer Marcel Aime, and the sculpture “Passing Through the Wall” is installed just a few meters from the house where he lived almost all his life. Many critics point out that the face of the bronze man has a portrait resemblance to the writer, so the sculpture is a monument to both the literary hero and his creator.
But the creator of the monument itself was a well-known actor in our country, the famous Fantomas - Jean Marais. As you know, a talented person is talented in everything, and the artist’s long-standing passion for sculpture turned out to be so fruitful that his work took its rightful place among the sights of Paris.
“Passing Through Walls” is not in vain so popular with tourists, the sculpture really makes a strong impression. In addition, she has another little secret. They say that if you take a bronze accountant by the left hand and make your deepest wish, it will certainly come true, and your whole life will begin to change for the better. True or not, you can only check on your own experience, so when you are in Paris, do not miss the opportunity to shake the left hand of the unfortunate Léon Dutelel.
I think there are many people in the world who want to have the ability to freely, without any damage to personal health, penetrate through all sorts of walls. Agree, this gift would not be superfluous, just imagine how many advantages it contains, but science, and with it some competent authorities, flatly deny such a possibility, which is a pity.
However, one person still managed to take advantage of this truly fabulous gift. His name was Monsieur Dutilleul. He lived in Paris in the middle of the last century. The French writer Marcel Aimé told about his adventures in detail in the short story, which is called “The Man Passing Through the Walls”. A rather interesting work, replete with a lot of funny situations, where the main character, using an incredible ability, brings his boss to a psychiatric hospital, easily penetrates closed financial institutions, escapes from prisons, and in addition, like a true Frenchman, seduces a married lady languishing locked up.
True, a date with the object of passion, as well as some apothecary powders taken at the wrong time, will cost Monsieur Dutilleul dearly, he will simply get stuck in the wall, forever. But Marcel Aimé left us the address where we should look for that ill-fated wall. In the last lines of his novel we read:
“Sometimes on winter nights, Jean-Paul (friend of Dutilleul) takes a guitar with him and goes to the deserted Norven street to console the poor prisoner with a song, and the notes, falling from the tips of his frozen fingers, penetrate into the heart of the stone like drops of moonlight”
Let's go and we will go to the indicated address and try to find the "Man passing through the walls" or what is left of him.
A part of the torso, a head, a right arm and a leg, and also a hand of the left hand - this is all that Monsieur Dutilleul managed to release on that unkind morning for him. Here it should be noted that his modern image, made in bronze, appeared thanks to Marcel's close friend Aime - the outstanding French theater and film actor Jean Marais.
A talented person is talented in everything. By the way, in the guise of "The Man Passing Through the Wall" the features of Marcel Aime himself clearly appear. This is probably how Mare decided to perpetuate the memory of his friend, the man who taught him to walk through walls. Not literally, of course, because the walls are different, and the most difficult are those that we ourselves create inside ourselves. Jean Mare managed to escape from the shackles and, like the mythical Orpheus, to visit hell and heaven.
However, let's return to the ground and once again turn our attention to the unusual bronze sculpture. I confess, the longer you look at it, the more associations arise. And now it is not Marcel Aimé who is seen in bronze, but another close friend of Jean Marais - the French writer, playwright and artist Jean Cocteau. By the way, their portraits are very similar. However, I could be wrong.
And finally, it is worth paying attention to the left hand of the "Man passing through the wall." Thin, with sharply protruding veins and joints, polished to a shine, it looks like spider legs. For some reason, everyone believes that her handshake brings good luck. And I think it's time for her to help herself. It's not easy to get through walls.
(Photo from personal archive)
On the bohemian Montmartre, in Paris, on the small Place Marcel-Ayme, there is a strange bas-relief monument. A man comes out of a stone wall towards the audience (Le passe-muraille). Face, knee, hands pointing forward... This bronze statue has a real prototype - the writer Marcel Aimé (1902 - 1967), who worked in the genre of mysticism and absurdity, fairy tale, surreal humor, grotesque […]
Bohemian Montmartre, V paris, on a small Place Marcel-Ayme, there is a strange monument-bas-relief. A man comes out of a stone wall towards the audience (Le passe muraille). Face, knee, hands pointing forward... This bronze statue has a real prototype - the writer Marcel Aime(1902 - 1967), who worked in the genre of mysticism and absurdity, fairy tale, surreal humor, grotesque and tragedy.
Based on the work of Aime " Man walking through walls”, a mysterious sculpture was created. The story of a simple accountant Dutilleul, endowed with an unusual ability to penetrate walls, fell in love with readers. The writer's fantasy comes up with unexpected plot twists for the "superhero". Using his gift, the arrogant Dutilleul, in love, enters the house of a married woman, whom her jealous husband locks up. Suddenly, the action of magic ends, the hero freezes forever, squeezed between stones, squeezed by a wall.
The popular story was the subject of a 1959 film Ladislao Vaida. And the writer's friend, the well-known Fantomas, is an actor Jean Marais, who was fond of sculpture and painting, created this original sculpture.
They say that if you take this bronze "accountant" by the hand, life will mysteriously change. Whether this is true is unknown - but the left brush of the sculpture is always polished to a shine.
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Not everyone knows that the actor Jean Marais (1913-1998), known to us from the films "Parisian secrets", "Fantômas" and "The Count of Monte Cristo", was also a writer, artist and sculptor. Pablo Picasso, seeing some of Mare's early sculptural work, was surprised how a person with such a talent as a sculptor "wasted his time on some kind of filming and work in the theater." Jean Marais himself spoke of his hobbies as follows: “I don’t make sculptures because I’m a sculptor, I don’t draw because I’m an artist, I don’t write because I’m a writer. I just have fun, and you know that ... I don’t even know if I'm a real actor."
In Paris, on Boulevard Montmartre, you can see one of the unusual works of Jean Marais - a monument depicting a man half stuck in a wall.
This monument was created in honor of the famous French writer Marcel Aimé (1902-1967). One of Marcel's stories describes the life of a simple accountant who had the unique ability to walk through walls. This gift, initially unused, later became the reason for the transformation of the hero into a person who does not know the words "no" and "impossible", thirsting for more and more glory. In the end, the ability that opened all the doors for him killed him. You can read the story.
To assess the similarity of the writer himself with the image embodied in the monument, I quote a photograph of Marcel Aimé:
This monument is from the category of inconspicuous attractions that are in any major city. It is not a place of pilgrimage, tourists do not come for it and do not book excursions. Walking along the quiet streets of Montmartre, you can unexpectedly meet him and, like an old friend, shake his bronze hand.
The two meters and thirty centimeters high bronze sculpture "Man passing through the wall" - the work of the famous actor and sculptor Jean Marais, made in 1989, depicts the hero of the story of the French writer Marcel Aimé, who lived for more than 40 years in Montmartre, on Paul Feval .
As if he comes out of the wall right to the entrance of his own house. The sculpture has the recognizable features of a writer who left behind a considerable creative legacy. In the image of a man, the writer and the ambiguous character of the protagonist of his famous story "The Man Passing Through the Wall" were combined.
According to the plot of a short novel, an ordinary modest official, accountant Leon Dyutilel once discovered in himself a magical, but quite practical gift to pass through walls. Taking advantage of an unexpected opportunity, he used it to secretly visit his beloved, whom a jealous husband 
kept locked up. But once the magic ran out when Dutilel almost went out into the street - this moment was captured by the sculptor. From the stone wall in the smallest square in Paris, Place Marcel-Ayme, protrudes the head, the upper body of the unfortunate accountant, the right arm, leg and the famous left hand, which, according to legend, grants any wish if it is rubbed. Judging by the golden sheen of the left brush of the sculpture, there are many who want to test its magical power. However, not all passers-by reveal their secret desires to a loving accountant, who knows if he can be trusted at all?
Here is an incomplete translation of the story - made by Valeria Verbinina.
In Montmartre, on the fourth floor of 75 bis, rue Orshan, lived a remarkable man named Dutilleul. What was remarkable about him was that 
possessed an enviable gift for passing through walls without experiencing the slightest inconvenience. He wore pince-nez, a small black beard and worked as a petty official in the Ministry of Registration. In the winter, he took the bus to work, and in the summer, he put on a bowler hat and walked.
Dutilleul was already 43 years old when he accidentally discovered his gift. One evening, while he was in the hallway of his tiny bachelor apartment, the lights suddenly went out. Dutilleul moved at random in the darkness, and when the electricity flared up again, he appeared to be standing on the landing of the fourth floor. Since the door of his apartment was locked from the inside with a key, this strange incident made Dutilleul think hard, and, despite the arguments of reason, he decided to return to himself in the same way as he had left - that is, through the wall.
However, this amazing ability, so little corresponding to his aspirations, did not cease to disturb him. The next day, Saturday, Dutilleul took advantage of the fact that the working day was shortened and went to the district doctor to explain his situation to him. Convinced that the patient was telling the truth, the doctor examined him and found the cause of the disease in the spiral hardening of the strangulation wall of the thyroid gland. He ordered the patient to lead an active lifestyle and take a powder consisting of rice flour and centaur hormone twice a year.
After taking the first powder, Dutilleul put the medicine in a drawer and completely forgot about it. With regard to an active lifestyle, his duties at work were strictly regulated and did not allow any excesses in this sense, and in his spare time Dutilleul read the newspaper and fiddled with his stamp collection, so that even here he did not have to waste his energy senselessly. Thus, a year later, his ability to pass through walls still remained with him, but Dutilleul was not inclined to adventure and indifferent to the temptations of the imagination, so that if he used his gift, it was only through oversight. Even in his apartment, he did not seek to return otherwise than through the door, opening the lock with a key, like all ordinary people. Perhaps he would have grown old in the world of his habits, without being tempted to flaunt his gift, if his existence had not been disturbed by an unexpected change. His immediate superior, Monsieur Mouron, was reassigned and replaced by a certain Monsieur Lecuyère, who spoke curtly and wore a brushed mustache. From the very first day, the new boss did not like Dutilleul with his pince-nez on a chain and a black beard, and he began to treat his subordinate as some kind of 
burdensome, worthless junk. Worst of all, however, was that Lecuyère was about to introduce significant reforms in his department, as if deliberately intended to disturb the peace of his subordinate. For a good 20 years, Dutilleul began business letters as follows: "In response to your letter dated such and such date of the current month, and reminding you of our previous exchange of letters, I have the honor to inform you that ..." Monsieur Lecuyère demanded that this formula be replaced another, more energetic in American style: "In response to your letter of such and such date, we inform you that..." But Dutilleul could not get used to the new epistolary fashion. Unconsciously, he returned to the traditional beginning again and again, with a tenacity that brought on him the growing irritation of his boss. The atmosphere in the Ministry of Registration became more and more oppressive. In the morning Dutilleul went to work with a heavy feeling, and in the evening, already in bed, he happened to meditate for a full quarter of an hour before falling asleep.
Irritated by the opposition of the retrograde, which nullified all his reforms, Lecuyère exiled Dutilleul to a dim closet adjacent to his own office. On the small, narrow door of the closet, which looked out into the corridor, was the inscription "PANTRY" in capital letters. Reluctantly, Dutilleul resigned himself to this unheard-of insult, but when he was at his place in the evening and read in the newspaper an account of some bloody and extremely criminal incident, he caught himself dreaming that Monsieur Lecuyère would be a victim in him.
One day the boss burst into the closet, brandishing a letter, and roared:
Rewrite this piece of paper immediately! Rewrite, you hear, this vile piece of paper, which dishonors my department!
Dutilleul wanted to protest, but Monsieur Lecuyère cursed him with a thunderous voice like an old cockroach and, before leaving, crumpled up the letter and threw it in the face of a subordinate. Dutilleul was a modest but proud man. Alone in his closet, he felt his cheeks heat up, and suddenly he had an insight. Rising from his seat, he entered the wall separating his room and the boss's office, and leaned out of it, but in such a way that only his head was visible from the other side. Sitting at his desk, Monsieur Lecuyère, with his pen, still dancing with anger, was rearranging a comma in the text of one of the employees sent for his approval, when suddenly a cough reached his ears. Raising his head, he saw with unspeakable horror Dutilleul's head clinging to the wall like a hunting trophy. Moreover, the head was alive and through a pair of pince-nez on a chain fixed a look full of hatred on the boss. And, as if that wasn't enough, she spoke!
Dear sir, - declared the head, - you are a boor, a scoundrel and a scoundrel.
Mouth gaping in horror, Monsieur Lecuyère could not take his eyes off the nightmarish vision. Finally, somehow getting out of the chair, he ran out into the corridor and rushed to the closet. Dutilleul, pen in hand, sat in his usual place, and his peaceful appearance showed that he was hard at work. The chief looked at him for a long time and, at the end, muttering a few words, returned to his office. But as soon as he sat down again, the head reappeared on the wall...
