Danièle Huillet and Jean-Marie Straub Film Retrospective  

I was recently reminded that Jean-Marie Straub grew up under Nazi occupation and it’s no surprise that from their very first films Straub-Huillet were indicting the continuity between Nazi Germany and Germany after WWII. In the Schoenberg film (made for television!) our outrage mixes with Schoenberg’s as we read the news from March of 1972: “Auschwitz Architect Goes Free“. (Rastko Novaković)

Introduction to Arnold Schoenberg's Accompaniment to a Cinematic Scene

Director: Jean-Marie Straub
Screenplay: Arnold Schönberg, Bertolt Brecht
Cinematography: Renato Berta, Horst Bever
Editing: Jean-Marie Straub, Danièle Huillet
Sound: Jeti Grigioni, Harald Lill, Adriano Taloni
Music: Arnold Schönberg
Producers: Danièle Huillet, Jean-Marie Straub
Production: Straub-Huillet
Germany, 1972, 15 min.

The Schoenberg film centers on the letters he wrote in 1923 attacking the antisemitic policies which were being adopted by his friends and colleagues in Germany. His music for an imaginary film is headlined with the prophetic words: “threatening danger, fear, catastrophe” launching the film into a montage of texts and images. The Fortini film features the writer himself reading from his essay The Dogs of Sinai which confronts his memories of anti-Nazi resistance, his Jewish heritage in Italy and the shadow of the Six Day War of 1967. It is a meditation on mass media, personal political responsibility, and memory.

Awards

German Film Critics Association Awards – Best Short Film, 1973

Fortini/Cani

Directors: Danièle Huillet, Jean-Marie Straub
Screenplay: Franco Fortini
Cinematography: Renato Berta, Emilio Bestetti
Editing: Danièle Huillet, Jean-Marie Straub
Sound: Jeti Grigioni
Producers: André Engel, Danièle Huillet, Jean-Marie Straub, Daniel Talbot, Stéphane Tchalgadjieff
Production: Straub-Huillet, Artificial Eye, New Yorker Films
Italy, UK, USA, France, 1976, 86 min.

The Fortini film features the writer himself reading from his essay The Dogs of Sinai which confronts his memories of anti-Nazi resistance, his Jewish heritage in Italy and the shadow of the Six Day War of 1967. It is a meditation on mass media, personal political responsibility, and memory.