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Othon

Othon

  • Overview
  • Cast
  • Crew
  • Recommendations

Status

Released

Release Date

Jan 13, 1971

Runtime

1h 28m

Genres

Drama

User Score

55%

Original Title

Les yeux ne veulent pas en tout temps se fermer, ou Peut-être qu'un jour Rome se permettra de choisir à son tour

Production Companies

Janus Film und Fernsehen

Director

Jean-Marie Straub

Description

Straub-Huillet’s first color film, adapts a lesser-known Corneille tragedy from 1664, which in turn was based on an episode of imperial court intrigue chronicled in Tacitus’s Histories. The costuming is classical, and the toga-clad, nonprofessional cast performs the drama’s original French text amid the ruins of Rome’s Palatine Hill while the noise of contemporary urban life hums in the background. Their lines are executed with a terrific flatness and frequently through heavy accents; the language in Othon becomes not merely an expression but a thing itself, an element whose plainness here alerts us to qualities of the work that might otherwise be subordinated.