Jean-Paul Toraille

In the summer of 1986, Danièle Huillet and Jean-Marie Straub were working in the park of an old Sicilian mansion and in a clearing at the foot of Mount Etna shooting Der Tod des Empedokles. Assistant cameraman Jean-Paul Toraille toyed around, so to speak, with his first video camera, filming the daily work on the set. Now, 24 years later, he was joined by Jean-Marie Straub in editing the material into a film. Anyone who expected the shooting of Les Avatars de la mort d’Empédocle to be an austere affair, an exercise entirely devoid of humour or a Straubian tour de force is proven wrong: so much lightness, joy, concentration, spells of waiting for the sun to come out – and even proper slapstick in between – is hard to find.

In the summer of 1986, Danièle Huillet and Jean-Marie Straub were working in the park of an old Sicilian mansion and in a clearing at the foot of Mount Etna shooting Der Tod des Empedokles. Assistant cameraman Jean-Paul Toraille toyed around, so to speak, with his first video camera, filming the daily work on the set. Now, 24 years later, he was joined by Jean-Marie Straub in editing the material into a film. Anyone who expected the shooting of Les Avatars de la mort d’Empédocle to be an austere affair, an exercise entirely devoid of humour or a Straubian tour de force is proven wrong: so much lightness, joy, concentration, spells of waiting for the sun to come out – and even proper slapstick in between – is hard to find.

In the summer of 1986, Danièle Huillet and Jean-Marie Straub were working in the park of an old Sicilian mansion and in a clearing at the foot of Mount Etna shooting Der Tod des Empedokles. Assistant cameraman Jean-Paul Toraille toyed around, so to speak, with his first video camera, filming the daily work on the set. Now, 24 years later, he was joined by Jean-Marie Straub in editing the material into a film. Anyone who expected the shooting of Les Avatars de la mort d’Empédocle to be an austere affair, an exercise entirely devoid of humour or a Straubian tour de force is proven wrong: so much lightness, joy, concentration, spells of waiting for the sun to come out – and even proper slapstick in between – is hard to find.

In the summer of 1986, Danièle Huillet and Jean-Marie Straub were working in the park of an old Sicilian mansion and in a clearing at the foot of Mount Etna shooting Der Tod des Empedokles. Assistant cameraman Jean-Paul Toraille toyed around, so to speak, with his first video camera, filming the daily work on the set. Now, 24 years later, he was joined by Jean-Marie Straub in editing the material into a film. Anyone who expected the shooting of Les Avatars de la mort d’Empédocle to be an austere affair, an exercise entirely devoid of humour or a Straubian tour de force is proven wrong: so much lightness, joy, concentration, spells of waiting for the sun to come out – and even proper slapstick in between – is hard to find.

In the summer of 1986, Danièle Huillet and Jean-Marie Straub were working in the park of an old Sicilian mansion and in a clearing at the foot of Mount Etna shooting Der Tod des Empedokles. Assistant cameraman Jean-Paul Toraille toyed around, so to speak, with his first video camera, filming the daily work on the set. Now, 24 years later, he was joined by Jean-Marie Straub in editing the material into a film. Anyone who expected the shooting of Les Avatars de la mort d’Empédocle to be an austere affair, an exercise entirely devoid of humour or a Straubian tour de force is proven wrong: so much lightness, joy, concentration, spells of waiting for the sun to come out – and even proper slapstick in between – is hard to find.

Jean-Marie Straub's first film after the death of Danièlle Huillet is a love poem to her. Le Genou d'Artémide is based on Cesare Pavese's "Dialogues of Leuco", which had already been adapted by Straub et Huillet as Ces Rencontres Avec Eux (2006).

In Italy, immediately subsequent to the war, a group of people who lost all they possessed during the conflict, settle in a village in ruins. They intend to restore the city from the rubble and re-start life, in imitation of the women of Messina who rebuilt their city, destroyed as it was by an earthquake. Oscillating between respect and suspicion, co-existence between group members is tense. Things become complicated when an envoy from the government arrives to say that nothing there belongs to them. The film is a free adaptation of fragments of the novella ‘The Women of Messina’, by Sicilian writer Elio Vittorini.

A group of men and women have been brought together after World War II, when Italy regained its national and territorial unity. They make up a primitive community which seeks to erase not only the distress created by the war but also the hardships of life, and look to protect themselves from violence, misery and fear. Amid the ruins of this post-war period, these men and women build a new rapport between themselves, between sexes, between generations, between social and geographical origins, between political camps.

Действие происходит в сонной сельской усадьбе на юге Франции в мае 1968 года, когда столица была парализована студенческими волнениями. Смерть престарелой матери пчеловода Милу ознаменовала распад привычного уклада жизни в усадьбе. Собравшиеся на похороны родственники непрестанно выясняют отношения и спорят о наследстве. Воссоединение семейства затягивается из-за того, что даже могильщики подключились к всеобщей забастовке.

В центре сюжета странноватая семья фермеров из Канзаса, которая оказывается запертой в собственном доме из-за надвигающегося смерча.

Film adaptation by Straub and Huillet of Hölderlin's 1798 tragedy on the symbolic death of Empedoclus, the legislator in Ancient Greece.

Вторая мировая война, Франция оккупирована нацистами. Настоятель католического колледжа для мальчиков решается дать приют нескольким еврейским детям. Главный герой, мальчик-француз по имени Жюльен Кантен, подружился с одним из них. И когда гестапо по чьей-то наводке обнаруживает прегрешение настоятеля, и его вместе с еврейскими детьми увозят на верную смерть, это становится для Жюльена страшным ударом на всю жизнь.

Красивая и необыкновенно сексуальная девушка, из тех, в кого безоглядно влюбляются мужчины, приезжает из провинции в Париж, мечтая стать актрисой. Судьба сталкивает ее с молодым актером, переживающим, как выяснится позже, страшную личную трагедию…

Стажерка в фирме по дизайну интерьера, Луиза, живет со своим любовником Реми недалеко от Парижа. Он хочет жениться и завести детей, но Луиза еще молода, ей нравятся вечеринки и танцы до рассвета. Когда давление Реми становится невыносимым, она снимает квартирку в Париже. Часто проводит время с Октавом, писателем, который мучается и страдает из-за того, что Луиза отказывает ему в близости. На одной роковой вечеринке Луиза встречает Бастьена и приглашает его в свою парижскую квартиру. Очень скоро, однако, она начинает жалеть об этом, поняв, что любит Реми…

The time is the 1930s and two Soviet spies (both Frenchmen by nationality) have been helping Communist factions during the Civil War in Spain. It is the time of Stalin's iron rule in the USSR, and the two agents are suddenly called to Moscow by the KGB. Knowing that they are in trouble for no fault of their own, fear drives one of them to suicide while the other gets his lover and her child and begins a run for his life, knowing that the KGB will never let him go free.