Films under Discussion I (3)

Lumière magazine presents the “Straub International” project, a process of documentation of Straub’s method conducted alongside filmmakers and collaborators (actors, technicians, etc.) of Straub and Huillet, bringing together working materials, sketches, screenplays, videos and new texts, interviews and pieces created for the project on the website. The session presents Jean-Marie Straub’s two new films: O somma luce, based on Dante’s “Paradiso”; and L'inconsolable, an adaptation of Pavese (Dialogues with Leuco) in Buti. This is followed by De son appartement: in the solitude of his apartment, Rousseau reads shorts excerpts from Racine’s Bérénice, images of separation; he films in a café, musicians in the street, a dance, domestic intimacy, in a self-portrait that reflects the contradiction between desires and time. “For a long time I have wanted to try and see if I could create a drama with the simplicity of action which the Ancients so favoured. There are those who believe that this very simplicity is a sign of a lack of inventiveness. They do not consider that, on the contrary, all invention is to create something out of nothing.” (Racine, preface to Bérénice, 1670.)

6 p.m. (Free admission) Presentation of the Straub International digital project, followed by the video screenings: O somma luce, Jean-Marie Straub, 2010, 17 min.; L'inconsolable, J.-M. Straub, 2011, 17 min.

8 p.m. Screening: De son appartement, Jean-Claude Rousseau, 2007, video, 70 min. Followed by a talk by Jean-Claude Rousseau.