Othon

5.5

88m

1971

Drama

Straub-Huillet’s first color film, adapts a lesser-known Corneille tragedy from 1664, which in turn was based on an episode of imperial court intrigue chronicled in Tacitus’s Histories. The costuming is classical, and the toga-clad, nonprofessional cast performs the drama’s original French text amid the ruins of Rome’s Palatine Hill while the noise of contemporary urban life hums in the background. Their lines are executed with a terrific flatness and frequently through heavy accents; the language in Othon becomes not merely an expression but a thing itself, an element whose plainness here alerts us to qualities of the work that might otherwise be subordinated.

Starring

Adriano Aprà, Anne Brumagne, Ennio Lauricella, Olimpia Carlisi, Anthony Pensabene, Jean-Marie Straub, Jean-Claude Biette, Marilù Parolini, Eduardo de Gregorio, Sergio Rossi

Directed By

Danièle Huillet, Jean-Marie Straub