Wednesday, January 8, 2020

January 08 - Jean-Marie Straub


Happy 87th Birthday, Jean-Marie Straub! Born today in 1933, this French editor, producer and director was one-half of a duo of filmmakers who made two dozen films between 1963 and 2006. 

His partner was also his former wife: French editor, producer and director Danièle Huillet. They had been married from 1959–2006.

In May 2001, American film critic and author Jonathan Rosenbaum wrote: This 1981 color documentary by Jean-Marie Straub and Daniele Huillet, one of their few works in 16-millimeter, is almost certainly my favorite landscape film. 


There are no characters in this 105-minute feature about places, yet paradoxically it’s the most densely populated work in their oeuvre to date. 

 

One of the film’s formal inspirations is Beethoven’s late quartets, and its slow rhythm is central to the experience it yields; what’s remarkable about Straub and Huillet’s beautiful long takes is how their rigorous attention to both sound and image seems to open up an entire universe, whether in front of a large urban factory or out on a country road. 

As in Jacques Tati’s studio-made Playtime, their subject is the sheer richness of the world we live in."   

The duo's films are noted for their rigorous, intellectually stimulating style and radical, communist politics. 

Straub had been active from 1963present. 
  
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