Chronicle of Anna Magdalena Bach

Director: Jean-Marie Straub, Danièle Huillet, Jean-Marie Straub, Danièle Huillet, Jean-Marie Straub, Danièle Huillet, Jean-Marie Straub, Danièle Huillet, Jean-Marie Straub, Danièle Huillet, Jean-Marie Straub, Danièle Huillet, Jean-Marie Straub, Danièle Huillet, Danièle Huillet, Jean-Marie Straub, Danièle Huillet, Jean-Marie Straub, Danièle Huillet

1968 / 94min / DCP

Renowned harpsichordist Gustave Leonhardt plays—and plays as—Johann Sebastian Bach in Straub and Huillet’s remarkable film on the composer, based in part on a fictional journal by his second wife, and built around live-sound recordings of Leonhardt performing in the actual locations where his works originally premiered. Explaining their unique and radical reinvention of the oft-clichéd musician biopic, Straub explained: “The point of departure for our Chronicle of Anna Magdalena Bach was the idea of attempting to make a film in which we use music, not as accompaniment, nor as commentary, but as aesthetic material.”

The subtitles on this film was overseen and approved by Danièle Huillet and Jean-Marie Straub. The subtitles follow two unorthodox principles: they are as literal as possible and certain sections are left un-translated. This represents a break within the film with the notion that the meaning of a text is in the words and their interpretation alone. Furthermore, the passages without subtitles allow audiences a chance to hear and see the film without reading.