On Straub-Huillet

Married radical filmmaking duo Jean-Marie Straub and Danièle Huillet made more than two dozen feature films between 1963 and 2006, often adapting literary works, plays, operas, and political texts. Working primarily in Europe, they became known for their austere style, intellectual rigor, and political radicalism. Made by two of their famous protégés, Where Does Your Hidden Smile Lie and Jean-Marie Straub and Daniéle Huillet at Work on a film based on Franz Kafka's "Amerika” offer glimpses into the duo’s filmmaking process, revealing their meticulous working methods and celebrating their uncompromising artistic vision.

Jean-Marie Straub and Daniéle Huillet at Work on a film based on Franz Kafka's "Amerika” (1983)
Dir. Harun Farocki
With Jean-Marie Straub, Danièle Huillet
26min; Digital
In French with English subtitles

This film is at once a self-portrait and an homage to Jean-Marie Straub, director Harun Farocki's role model and former teacher at the Film Academy. Farocki's admiration for Straub was so great that he said of Between Two Wars: "Perhaps I only made this film to earn Straub's recognition."

In this observation-driven film, Farocki documents the fulfillment of his wish. He films himself rehearsing the role of Delamarche under Straub's direction for Klassenverhältnisse, a film co-directed by Straub and his wife, Daniéle Huillet, based on Franz Kafka’s unfinished novel Amerika. The resulting scenes offer a revealing glimpse into their filmmaking process. Straub and Hulliet’s methods are so repetitive and detail-oriented that the performers are made to rehearse the scenes, sometimes to the point of exhaustion. Through his close observation, Farocki captures a form of resistance against traditional cinema, against which his own films rebel.

Where Does Your Hidden Smile Lie (2001)
Dir. Pedro Costa
With Jean-Marie Straub, Danièle Huillet
104min; Digital
In French with English subtitles

"The best film ever made about editing and cinema." – Jean-Luc Godard

Undaunted by a commission to make a film about his mentors and aesthetic exemplars, the filmmaking team of Jean-Marie Straub and Danièle Huillet, Costa records with great sensitivity and insight the exacting process by which the two re-edit their film Sicilia!, discussing and arguing over each cut and its effect.

Incorporating comments about the influence of figures as diverse as Chaplin and Eisenstein, about the ethical and aesthetic implications of film technique and such matters as rhythm, sound mixing, and acting. The film becomes a tour de force, immersing us in the mysteries of cinema as practiced by some of its greatest creators. Costa calls the film both his first comedy and his first love story.