Pour yourself a cup of tea and crack open a box of madeleines. It's time for a contemplation of all things Proustian. Well, French filmmaker Véronique Aubouy thinks so, anyway. Later this month, the Paris-based cinéaste is giving people from all over the world a chance to participate in an interactive film devoted to the French writer Marcel Proust. All you have to do is sign up to Véronique's blog, equip yourself with a webcam and a volume of A La Recherche du Temps Perdu, et voilà.

A self-claimed Proust lover, Véronique began her literary film project in 1993. Roving around Europe with her camera, she has filmed Proust fans reading out favourite extracts from the author's seminal work, A La Recherche du Temps Perdu. The cinematic collage is entitled Proust Lu, and was screened in July at the La Rochelle International film festival. At that stage, 742 people had taken part and footage ran to over 77 hours. Her new project, entitled Le Baiser de la Matrice (The Kiss of the Die), is a continuation of Proust Lu but on a larger scale. Participants from all around the world can take part. Judging by figures so far, around 3,000 people are set to feature in this interactive film. Do you have a hidden desire to express your admiration for Proust and time past? Véronique thinks you do. But just in case you're hesitating, here are a few words from the filmmaker herself.

Dazed Digital: So, why Proust?
Véronique Aubouy: Because Proust speaks about the human soul. He can touch everyone. He deals with all the subjects that move the soul: love, time, art. And, through his exploration of time past, he reaches a kind of freedom. It's extremely joyful, inspiring, rejuvenating. Also, his relationship with time has inspired my cinematic work, helping me deal with time. A La Recherche du Temps Perdu is so rich. It's a material, a mine that we can dig to infinity and always find gold. It can be a companion for life that we can never tire of. It's a book that has everything – humour, suspense, emotions, thought.

DD: Who are your other artistic inspirations, in terms of cinema and the wider arts?
VA: The Lumière brothers. The films of the New Wave, in terms of their relationship with literature, which is very present in my films. I love literature in cinema! It allows us to 'see' a book, not just hear it. The moving image and the reading book make a marvellous match. And literature in general - I see the world through books. When I was 26, I traveled around South America on my own for a year. I needed to "find my own time", know who I was, what I wanted. Travelling from place to place, I read any books I could lay my hands on.  I discovered each country through the bias of its novels, its poems. I fantasised the whole journey at the same time as actually living it. It was a marvelous sensation. It was as if I passed by the characters I'd read in novels at every corner of the road. I followed the routes they dictated, choosing to visit villages that featured in books… I felt I was actually part of the stories. Reality and fiction seemed to fuse into one. It was also during that trip that I began reading A La Recherche du Temps Perdu.

DD: Do you think that young people today can identify with Proust?
VA: Young people today and old people from yesterday! Everything he wrote is true today, because man is the same, he still loves, he's jealous, he wants to succeed in life, he's moved by art… And also if I look around me, I'm always seeing contemporary incarnations of characters from Proust, with their routines, habits and gestures. Everything is described in minute detail and hasn't changed. And also everyone needs to waste time, even young people, it's very important….

DD: Have some of your participants been inspired to make films themselves after taking part in your project? And have you yourself been inspired by participants?
VA: Some of my readers have created veritable mise-en-scenes. In fact, I have often felt that if I weren't there, the readers would have proposed even more personal ways of shooting. And that's what's going to happen with this new version that I'm doing on the web. Participants will film themselves with their own webcam. Each person will create a little self-portrait.

DD: OK, so what about Dazed readers who want to sign up but aren't fluent in French?
VA: Well, I first want to say that I'd love to hear Proust being read with different accents! No one should be afraid of "reading badly", because what counts above all is that readers are "present", that they reveal something of themselves via Proust's text. In fact, I don't like it when a text is too well read. It takes away something. I'm interested to see how people from different parts of the world approach the project.