Chronik der Anna Magdalena Bach

Straub- Huillet, 1967, like nothing else seen
Literally her chronicle; and the huge musical takes, completed by the virtuous who are not so much actors as musicians. Opening shot of stunning performance, ‘shock-pan’ to see not alone.
This marks the key motif of the film; the absorption in the individual act. Frequent use of shots of the back of heads, barely ever see the performers. Forced to focus on the music. But in a kind of human (inhuman?) reality.
Supreme focus in Straub-Huillet mean never anything outside the frame. This is despite the diagonal framings in this work. And how characters are sunk into framing, as crystal intensities, framed as just part of a larger whole.
Smooth pans in and out on occasion. Laconic, almost Bressonian under-acting when necessary. The voiceover is quite astonishing; the mentions of the dead children, broken lives, in this world of the obsession of the artist. Quiet, but clearly political.
A one-off for its huge Back performances. For music lovers, for film lovers, for both. Though film in a new way. What is film? Documenting another artform? Does it add anything? It must, it’s seen here...