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Les yeux ne veulent pas en tout temps se fermer ou Peut-être qu’un jour Rome se permettra de choisir à son tour (Othon)

Eyes Do Not Want to Close at All Times or Perhaps One Day Rome Will Permit Herself to Choose in Her Turn (Othon)
Forum 50 2020
© BELVA Film
Based on a play by Pierre Corneille, Straub & Huillet’s film is about Othon, who must forsake his bride and marry the niece of the current ruler in order to become emperor. The story is narrated by way of largely static arrangements of one, two or three people before scenes of present-day Rome, complete with traffic noise. Eschewing conventional intonation, the dialogues become a torrent which sweeps details away, even as the theme of the individual and society still remains apparent at its core. Les yeux ne veulent pas en tout temps se fermer ou Peut-être qu’un jour Rome se permettra de choisir à son tour (Othon) is a film of discrepancies which are negotiated between screen and audience in aesthetic terms: between seeing and understanding, between past and present, theatre and cinema, politics and feelings.
by Jean-Marie Straub, Danièle Huillet
with Adriano Aprà, Anne Brumagne, Ennio Lauricella, Olimpia Carlisi, Anthony Pensabene, Jubarita Semaran, Jean-Claude Biette, Leo Mingrone, Gianna Mingrone, Marilù Parolini, Eduardo De Gregorio, Sergio Rossi, Sebastian Schadhauser, Jacques Fillion Federal Republic of Germany / Italy 1970 French 88’ Colour

With

  • Adriano Aprà (Othon)
  • Anne Brumagne (Plautina)
  • Ennio Lauricella (Galba)
  • Olimpia Carlisi (Camilla)
  • Anthony Pensabene (Vinius)
  • Jubarita Semaran (Laco)
  • Jean-Claude Biette (Marcianus)
  • Leo Mingrone (Albinus)
  • Gianna Mingrone (Albiane)
  • Marilù Parolini (Flavia)
  • Eduardo De Gregorio (Atticus)
  • Sergio Rossi (Rutilkus)
  • Sebastian Schadhauser (First soldier)
  • Jacques Fillion (Second soldier)

Crew

Director Jean-Marie Straub, Danièle Huillet
Screenplay Jean-Marie Straub, Danièle Huillet adapted from 'Othon' by Pierre Corneille
Cinematography Ugo Piccoune, Renato Berta
Sound Louis Hochet, Lucien Moreau

Produced by

Janus Film und Fernsehen Vertriebsgesellschaft

Jean-Marie Straub

Born in Metz, France in 1933. In 1951, he started studying in Strasbourg and Nancy and ran a film club in Metz on the side. Straub went to Paris in the mid-1950s, where he met his future wife Danièle Huillet. Since the death of his wife in 2006, Straub has continued to make films on his own.

Filmography

1962 Machorka-Muff; 18 min., Retrospective 2002 1965 Nicht versöhnt oder es hilft nur Gewalt, wo Gewalt herrscht; 53 min., Retrospective 2002 1967 Chronik der Anna Magdalena Bach (Chronicle of Anna Magdalena Bach); 94 min, Retrospective 1990 and 2010 1972 Geschichtsunterricht; 88 min. 1975 Moses und Aron; 110 min. 1979 Von der Wolke zum Widerstand; 104 min. 1983 Klassenverhältnisse (Class Relations); 130 min., Competition 1984 1986 Der Tod des Empedokles – oder: Wenn dann der Erde Grün von neuem euch erglänzt (The Death Of Empedocles); 132 min., Competition 1987 1990 Cézanne; 65 min., Forum 1991 1991 Antigone; 100 min., Panorama 1992, Panorama (Special Screenings) 2000 1997 Von heute auf morgen. Oper in einem Akt von Arnold Schönberg; 62 min. 1999 Sicilia!; 66 min. 2001 Arbeiter, Bauern; 123 min. 2006 Quei loro incontri; 68 min. 2014 À propos de Venise; 23 min. 2017 Où en êtes-vous, Jean-Marie Straub?; 7 min.

Bio- & filmography as of Berlinale 2020

Danièle Huillet

Born in Paris in 1936. In the mid-1950s she met her future husband Jean-Marie Straub, with whom she worked closely from then on. In 1958, they moved to Germany and made their first short film Machorka-Muff. From the late 1960s onwards, Straub and Huillet lived in Italy, where they made their first colour film Les yeux ne veulent pas en tout temps se fermer ou Peut-être qu’un jour Rome se permettra de choisir à son tour (Othon) (1970). Huillet died in 2006.

Filmography

1962 Machorka-Muff; 18 min., Retrospective 2002 1965 Nicht versöhnt oder es hilft nur Gewalt, wo Gewalt herrscht; 53 min., Retrospective 2002 1972 Geschichtsunterricht; 88 min. 1975 Moses und Aron; 110 min. 1979 Von der Wolke zum Widerstand; 104 min. 1983 Klassenverhältnisse (Class Relations); 130 min., Competition 1984 1986 Der Tod des Empedokles – oder: Wenn dann der Erde Grün von neuem euch erglänzt (The Death Of Empedocles); 132 min., Competition 1987 1990 Cézanne; 65 min., Forum 1991 1991 Antigone; 100 min., Panorama 1992, Panorama (Special Screenings) 2000 1997 Von heute auf morgen. Oper in einem Akt von Arnold Schönberg; 62 min. 1999 Sicilia!; 66 min. 2001 Arbeiter, Bauern; 123 min. 2006 Quei loro incontri; 68 min.

Bio- & filmography as of Berlinale 2020