A black-and-white clip from 1904 showing a man in a bowler hat and a pearl grey suit at a wedding party might be the only time French writer Marcel Proust was caught on film, a Canadian researcher has claimed. Jean-Pierre Sirois-Trahan, a theatre and cinema scholar at Quebec’s Université Laval, reported his discovery in an essay published earlier in February, Quartz reported.

The video is believed to be from the wedding of Élaine Greffulhe, the daughter of the Countess of Greffulhe, who was close friends with Proust. The countess is widely believed to have inspired the character of Oriane de Guermantes in his most well-known book, In Search of Lost Time. Sirois-Trahan identifies Proust as the man in the clip walking rapidly down a flight of stairs past several couples who have adopted a more languid pace.

Several Proustian scholars have said there is no doubt that it is him in the video. Luc Fraisse, the director of the Revue of Proustian Studies, told Le Point magazine that the writer was known for wearing a bowler hat and a pearl grey suit exactly like the one seen in the clip. “It’s moving to say to ourselves that we are the first to see Proust since his contemporaries.” However, other researchers have said that there can never be absolute proof of the fact, The Guardian reported.

Proust is considered one of the most influential writers of the 20th century. He was born in 1871 and died at the age of 51. He started writing In Search of Lost Time in 1909. The book is more than 3,200 pages long and was published in seven volumes.

Can you spot him in the clip?

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