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Eurocinema: Cinema of Our Times – Huillet & Straub Jean-Marie Straub met Danièle Huillet as a student in 1954. Straub was involved in the Parisian cinephile community of the time, and was a friend of François Truffaut. Between 1954 and 1958, Straub worked as an assistant to the film directors Robert Bresson, Abel Gance, Jean Renoir, and Jacques Rivette. Straub and Huillet made their first film together in 1963, a 18-minute short called Manchorka-Muff. It was based on a story by Heinrich Böll. Their next film, Not Reconciled, was also a Böll adaptation. They did not make a full-length feature until 1968's with Chronicle of Anna Magdalena Bach, after which they made films at a fairly even rate, completing a feature every 2-3 years. In 1968, they also made a short film starring Rainer Werner Fassbinder and his theatre troupe called ‘The Bridegroom, the Actress and the Pimp.’ During their career, they adapted two Arnold Schoenberg operas, as well as Franz Kafka's first novel, Amerika. They got married in 1959, and lived together for most of their lives. They had no children. Huillet died of cancer in Cholet on October 9, 2006. Straub currently resides in Rome and Paris. |
