Quei loro Incontri

2005 adaption of five dialogues, from Cesare Pavese. Straub-Huillet.
Set in that forest idyll, with conversations about the mortals down below. Simple establishing shot, only two or three camera positions for each scene. Occasions where the speakers are obscured, focus on the voices.
Key Straub-Huillet motifs; overexposed sky, earth as key feature, low key by lyrical voices. One difficult thing about Straub-Huillet it there insistence on seemingly removing all contingency. The dead still actors, the clear and persistent (never slipping) exact voices that are clearly reading out lines. Can give the impression of a closed universe. The insistence perhaps is a tool to make us see that, in this world, the people are necessary, but nature is contingent. Small flutters, long shots, often pans, of the greenery they are among.
Emphasised by the motorcycle at the end marking such a change. As is the line between heaven and earth. This is quite a ‘typical’ Straub-Huillet picture, if stripped down to bare degress.