Geschichtsunterricht

One of the most beautiful and difficult features of Jean-Marie Straub and Danièle Huillet, this 1972 filming of portions of Brecht’s novel “Die Geschäfte des Herrn Julius Caesar” is a major early summary of this masterful and radical filmmaking couple’s grasp of history and the material world. A young man in contemporary dress drives through contemporary rome and interviews characters from ancient rome – a poet, a jurist, a peasant, and a banker. Straub-Huillet’s unorthodox handling of space through editing is like no one else’s, and the duo’s passionate adherence to direct-sound recording is comparably powerful.

(Jonathan Rosenbaum)