Once again, I watched yet another film by the two most boring husband/wife filmmaking team to ever grace the director's chair. For some reason, Straub and Huillet's films keep showing up on lists of the greatest films of world cinema. They never should have taken up filmmaking because they have no desire to actually make movies. Instead, they just want to point a camera at someone reading classical works of literature or shoot three hours of communist propaganda or in this case, have someone perform Bach music while reading letters written by his wife. That's the thing that bugs me the most about their movies. I realize Straub and Huillet don't usually use actors in their films. But the least they could have done was require the people in the film to actually learn their lines. There is absolutely NOTHING entertaining about watching some guy in 18th Century dress READ his lines. This is common in all of their films. From Clouds to Resistance showed people reading poetry and classical literature while dressed like Greek gods. I don't mind the concept but why not have them learn the lines? Or at least hold up some cue cards? Every time I watch one of Straub/Huillet's films, I wonder why they didn't either make a documentary or better yet, write a book? That would have totally suited their purposes much better than film as they have no concept of filmmaking. I feel like they are trying to share their love of classical music here and perhaps interest the audience in Bach. They failed miserably because they forgot the first rule of filmmaking: TO ENTERTAIN. Once again, they are so wrapped up in their own agenda they don't think about how the film will be perceived. Those who say this is a masterpiece are confused or just plain wrong. I have read countless reviews of Straub and Huillet's films where the reviewers confessed to not understanding what they were trying to do but gave it a "thumbs up" anyway. Not understanding something does not make it a masterpiece. These two rely on audience confusion to keep making movies. It's simply ludicrous. This is not a masterpiece. Just because you feel insecure for not finding it interesting or not understanding it, does not make you any less of an intelligent person. It's ok to say this movie is dreck. It IS. You don't have to pretend this was interesting or engaging. It wasn't. Even the Bach fans have trouble sitting through this. My colleague is a music professor and HE could barely make it through. In fact he was insulted that these two "directors" managed to take a man who already had a horrible life but was a genius composer and make him mundane and boring. Bach fans should be outraged at this horrid rendition of his story.
