Archipelago Books x Theater of the Matters: These Encounters of Theirs

In the final collaboration of a personal and creative partnership that spanned decades, Jean-Marie Straub and Danièle Huillet returned to Cesare Pavese’s fantastical book The Leucothea Dialogues, the source material for their 1979 film From the Clouds to the Resistance, working with the non-professional actors of the Teatro Comunale di Buti, a working-class theater company in Tuscany. In the forests and hills of Mount Pisano, these peasants-turned-immortals declaim the last five dialogues of Pavese’s book, voicing the words of mythical figures, ancient gods, and poets as they muse on the toils and predicaments of humanity.

Jointly presented by The Theater of the Matters and Archipelago Books, this special 35mm screening celebrates the publication of Minna Zallman Proctor’s new translation of Pavese’s The Leucothea Dialogues, published by Archipelago. Proctor will introduce the film alongside curator Edward McCarry.