Jean-Marie Straub and Daniele Huillet

Best films:

History Lessons (1972)
From the Cloud to the Resistance (1979)
Chronicle of Anna Magdalena Bach (1968)
Class Relations (1984)
Eyes Do Not Want to Close at All Times (1970)
Every Revolution Is a Throw of the Dice (1977)

Links:

If English is your first language and you could translate my old Italian text, please contact me.

Attraverso altre sconvolgenti riletture di classici, ma questa volta moderni come Schönberg, Brecht, Fortini, Pavese, Straub ha condotto un dibattito anche intellettuale sulla lotta di classe, l'imperialismo, i mass media. L'apice formale raggiunto da Straub nel suo procedimento di lettura di un testo è Toute Revolutiòn est un Coup de Des (1977), sul poema di Mallarmé; come sempre meditazione storica, riflessione esistenziale e afflato ideologico.

Gli scandali generati dalle sue prime trasposizioni di Böll nel 1964-65, in cui il senso della matrice originale viene violentemente deflagrato mescolando presente e passato; dopo un film su Bach, con pretesti sociopolitici e intervalli documentari sugli attori e sui musicisti del film e dove la colonna sonora guida il dramma, The bridegroom, the comedienne and the pimp condensa in 23 minuti un dramma di Bruckner, un documentario sulla prostituzione e un melodramma amoroso fra un'attricetta e un soldato americano di colore.

Un Othan che viviseziona la decadenza dell'antica Roma coi rumori della Roma moderna in sottofondo (il film è girato all'aria aperta); History lessons, demistificazione della storia romana attraverso la lettura di un testo di Brecht eseguita da personaggi in toga contrappuntata da scene da scene di traffico romano.

Jean-Marie Straub (France, 1933), who relocated to Germany after refusing to serve in France's war in Algeria, and Daniele Huillet (France, 1936) were among the most radical filmmakers of their time, both in terms of the unconventional format of their films and in terms of their political (communist) ideology. All of the their films are based on literary works: novels (Marguerite Duras, Franz Kafka, Elio Vittorini), plays (Bertolt Brecht), letters (Friedrich Engels, Wassily Kandinsky, Bach), and operas (Arnold Schoenberg). And they are characterized by manically rigorous montage.

Their collaboration began with Machorka-Muff (1963), an 18-minute short film based on a Heinrich Boell short story. This was followed by: Nicht versoehnt oder Es hilft nur Gewalt wo Gewalt herrscht/ Not Reconciled of Only Violence Helps (1965), a 52-minute film derived from another Boell novel ("Billard um Halbzehn/ Billiars at Half Past Nine"); Der Braeutigam, die Komoediantin und der Zuhalter/ The Bridegroom, the Comedienne and the Pimp (1968), a short film starring German filmmaker Rainer Werner Fassbinder and his theatre troupe; Chronik der Anna Magdalena Bach/ Chronicle of Anna Magdalena Bach (1968), their first full-length feature film and their first venture into classical music, an austere work in which they analyze Bach's life through both musical performances of his music (period orchestration by Nikolaus Harnoncourt) and the testimony of his second wife; and Les Yeux ne Veulent pas en Tout Temps se Fermer, ou Peut-etre qu'un jour Rome se Permettra de Choisir a son Tour/ Eyes Do Not Want to Close at All Times (1969), an adaptation of Pierre Corneille's verse play Othon (1664) recited by non-actors in the middle of noisy Rome traffic.

Geschichtsunterricht/ History Lessons (1972) was an adaptation set in Rome of Bertold Brecht's historical novel "The Business Affairs of Mr Julius Caesar". Moses and Aaron (1975), a film dedicated to a communist terrorist jailed in Germany, was an adaptation of Schoenberg's unfinished opera, the first of their three films based on Schoenberg. Fortini/Cani (1976) was based on the Italian poet Franco Fortini's essay "I Cani del Sinai". Toute Revolution est un Coup de Des/ Every Revolution Is a Throw of the Dice (1977) was based on the French poet Stephane Mallarme's poem "Un Coup de des Jamais n'Abolira le Hasard" (1897) on its 80th anniversary (recited by nine different people). Dalla Nube alla Resistenza/ From the Cloud to the Resistance (1979) was based on stories by Italian novelist Cesare Pavese set in a bucolic landscape. In between there was Einleitung zu Arnold Schoenbergs Begleitmusik zu einer Lichtspielscene/ Introduction to Arnold Schoenberg's Accompaniment to a Cinematic Scene (1973).

Too Early Too Late (1982) was based on an essay by communist pioneer Friedrich Engels and an essay by Mahmoud Hussein about the failed Egyptian revolution of 1952. After the 7-minute short En Rachachant (1982), Der Tod des Empedokles/ The Death of Empedocles (1987) was an adaptation of Friedrich Hoelderlin's play (1798), Klassenverhaeltnisse/ Class Relations (1984) was a diligent adaptation of Kafka's novel "Amerika", the short Black Sin (1989) was also based on Hoelderlin's play although on a different version, and Paul Cezanne im Gespraech mit Joachim Gasquet/ Cezanne (1989) was their tribute to the French painter.

Then came Die Antigone des Sophokles nach der Hoelderlinschen Uebertragung fuer die Buehne Bearbeitet von Brecht 1948/ Antigone (1992), an adaptation of Brecht's "Antigone", Lothringen/ Lorraine (1994), a 20-minute tribute to Straub's homeland, Von Heute auf Morgen/ From Today Until Tomorrow (1997), based on Arnold Schoenberg's opera, Sicilia (1999), an adaptation of Elio Vittorini's novel "Conversations in Sicily" (1939), Operai Contadini/ Workers Peasants (2001), an adaptation of Vittorini's "Women of Messina" (1950), Quei loro Incontri/ Those Encounters of Theirs (2006), also based on Pavese, Une Visite au Louvre/ A Visit to the Louvre (2004), Il Ritorno del Figlio Prodigo - Umiliati/ The Return of the Prodigal Son - Humiliated (2003), another work inspired by Vittorini's "Women of Messina" (1950), and finally Dialogue d'Ombres/ Dialogue of Shadows (2013), based on a short story by Georges Bernanos.

He died in 2022 in Switzerland.