Proust as the foundation for 6 million French films

Toward the end of the first section (at mme Swann's) of "In the Shadow of Young Girls in Flower," Proust does a hilarious exposition on happiness and misery - the loover always miserable and depressed when the beloved won't return his affections but, once she (or he) does is equally distressed because of, what?, disappointment? abatement of the passion expended in pursuit the beloved? - who knows? - except that it leads Proust to the very weird conclusion that, when you get right down to it: Happiness is impossible. This may be a ridiculous statement, but it become the basis for about 6 million French movies (and novels maybe) and (mostly French) literary criticism through the 20th century and up to today. I can remember endless analysis in grad school of the narcissism of minor differences and the "double" and how love and hate are so entwined and the impossibility of falling in love with the right person: think of Midsummer Night's Dream as the ur-text here. It all comes from Proust and his obsession about his pursuit, as a young man, of Gilberte (and later of Albertine): he loves her so much he changes his entire career to be near her in Paris, he waits for letters, when they don't arrive he vows that he will never see her again, he turns down invitations to meet with her, then he goes to meet her and is horrified to see her walking on the Champs with a young man, then begins another cycle of not seeing her, and so forth. You can't always get what you want = but in Proust it's an endless cycle of rejecting what you want when you can get it.