Convergence for my birthday (5/5/09)

by Ryland Walker Knight

Chronik der Anna Magdalena Bach, where death begets art.

by Ryland Walker Knight

One of the first film nerd moments in New York back in January was the opportunity to see this Straub-Huillet piece projected big and loud at the Walter Reade. Given my transient status that month, it took me a little longer to finish a piece on the film. Long enough so that Kasman decided to sit on the piece until now. I like to think it's more than a space filler and implore you to click right here and gauge for yourself.

Reminder: Straub-Huillet (and Ophüls) this weekend.

by Ryland Walker Knight

While it feels funny to shill for no good reason other than sheer nerd excitement, I am really thrilled at what's on the horizon. Thus: Friday at the Walter Reade theatre there's a 2-for-1 double bill that any self-aware cinephile (such as yours truly) would be remiss to skip: Straub-Huillet's The Chronicle of Anna Magdalena Bach and Max Ophüls' La Ronde. Both films intrigue me for a variety of reasons but I must cop to the fact that I'm more excited about the chance to see another Straub-Huillet film on a big screen after falling so heedlessly in love with the first and only other feature of theirs that I have had the pleasure to see (Sicilia!, which I wrote about last spring). It would be plain dumb to be blasé about seeing another Ophüls on a big screen, so with the promotional aid-motivation, it makes a lot of sense to just dive in and enjoy that big and loud as well. But this isn't just some programming lark, mind you, it's a tribute, too. Richard Roud died 20 years ago and his stamp, though faint in name-drop terms, remains an ink blot on our movie-going as can't-fail compass J. Hoberman attests: "Program director (and then just director) of the New York Film Festival from 1963 through 1987, Richard Roud was one of the most influential cine-tastemakers to ever give New York the benefit of his sensibility—an early, loyal champion of such once-outré artists as Robert Bresson, Jean-Luc Godard, Jacques Rivette, Agnès Varda, Sergei Paradjanov, Dusan Makavejev, and R.W. Fassbinder, to name but a few." If my meager patronage is a vote of appreciation, I'm all for saying "Thanks." Those are some names to give to the world. (Or, at least, this little world I like to inhabit.)

On Sunday, as a bonus, the Walter Reade will screen Straub-Huillet's Moses and Aaron at 2pm, but that ticket costs $35, and apparently New Yorker Films will be releasing the film on DVD next week for a shade less cash. So I may skip that one. Still, that's probably something to see big, too, while the opportunity presents itself. Luckily, a friend of mine says, the Straub-Huillet pictures are all pretty sexy bookings guaranteed to attract a crowd (of fellow formalist goofs like me) in New York so there should be plenty more opportunities to see their emulsion shine in my time ahead here. For now, though, I'm pretty happy with what Friday should bring. Here's a sneak peak at the opening shot of La Ronde:

Oranges and knives, bread and wine. Sicilia!

Here are the beginning and ending of the only Straub-Huillet film I've seen, Sicilia!. Their subtitles are not in English so watching these are a test of my Romance language background understanding; and yet, at the same time, the way the Straubs direct their actors to speak is like music. It's just as pleasurable to simply let the sound run and look at other things. If you speak Italian, though, I imagine it's a different experience. You can appreciate the conversations for their constative elements as much as their musical rhythms (especially during the list at the end), as well as the subtle psychology of the Straubs' editing. It's all in the grammar. Here's that electrifying compulsion: I have to see more. --RWK