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Jun 24, 2009
Huillet-Straub : five star nerd. (1/8)
Fmff prophecy proved true. « You tube » features at least one short film by Danièle Huillet and Jean-Marie Straub : « En rachâchant ».
Thousands of visitors have hit the « play » button to watch it. Whether they went through its seven minutes is unknown ; what they got out of the experience, too.
A few dozens even rated the film : they were so ecstatic they awarded it five stars. Enough to start on-line « buzz » and attract millions to the video ?
As they watched « En rachâchant » on the tiny window of their computer screen, with lousy picture definition and contrasts, the enthusiastic reviewers missed the best about the film : Henri Alekan’s black and white cinematography.
With a good print on a big screen, the film would have earned at least six stars : Henri Alekan had filmed Cocteau’s « La belle et la bête » -beauty and the beast- and « Orphée », he would film Wenders’s « Der Himmel über Berlin » -wings of desire-.
Jean-Marie Straub once described his and Danièle Huillet’s filmmaking, accurately and elegantly, as « cinéma minoritaire » : minority cinema.
How does he -Danièle Huillet died in 2006- feel about their -authorised or not- contribution to the on-line « all-you-can-watch » bazaar ?
Probably amused at, and glad for, the opportunity to take a world wide audience by surprise : even a champion of « minority cinema » craves viewers and he does not spurn new technologies ; Huillet-Straub have their own « official » internet site.
« En rachâchant » ? Do not jump to your French dictionary, there is no such verb as « Rachâcher ». It is probably a mix of « ressasser » and « râbacher » ; both convey the idea of tire-less and -some repetition and are often used to describe and criticise the old-fashioned ways of school teaching : education by rote, brain stuffing, if not washing.
« En rachâchant » is the film adaptation of a short tale, « Ah ! Ernesto », by another French intellectual icon, who, unlike Huillet and Straub, eventually achieved mainstream and even gossip magazine recognition : Marguerite Duras.
« En rachâchant » tells the story of Ernesto, a child who will no longer go to school, because there, he « must learn things he does not know ».
Ernesto wears glasses, looks like a « nerd » and is filmed like an « insect » : in an interview about the movie, Jean-Marie Straub explains this is how Bunuel advised to film characters. Compared to Ernesto, Justin, in « Les voleurs », looks like a delightful kid.
« En rachâchant » features three more insects : Ernesto’s parents and a teacher. During seven minutes, the four of them « rachâchent ». The non-existing verb perfectly describes how the actors deliver their lines : as if they were brain-dead ; maybe they are and this is Duras’s point about traditional education.
The more the on-screen insects « rachâchent », the more they get on your nerves, as the three authors live up to their intimidating reputation : the film feels much longer than seven minutes.
Duras wrote « Ah ! Ernesto » in 1971, Huillet and Straub filmed « En rachâchant » in 1982 ; according to Jean-Marie Straub, it all started in 1969, as the filmmakers and the writing diva met for the first time in Paris.
Duras explained her son would no longer go to school. What could she do ? One year after the students’ riots of May 68, traditional education was not held in high esteem by left-wing intellectuals.
Jean-Marie Straub, who did most of the off screen talking for the filming couple, explains their films usually result from « chance » encounters and the ensuing revelation of « affinités électives » : « elective affinities ».
This is a supposedly obvious reference to Goethe’s eponymous novel, « Die Wahlverwandschaften », which the Taviani brothers and others brought to the screen.
Very little in Jean-Marie Straub’s conversation and cinema is not culturally referenced : at Ernesto’s age, he was probably subjected to much « rachâchage » ; perhaps, he even looked like Ernesto : the boy is played by Olivier Straub, his relation to the filmmaker is unknown.
« En rachâchant » was shown in French cinemas before Eric Rohmer’s « Pauline à la plage » : Rohmer’s film looked by contrast a delightful and fashionably boring piece of light entertainment.
The film may prove useful for parents whose child refuses to go to school : sit him before the movie and he will promptly change his mind by fear of looking like Ernesto.
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