Sicilia!

press release:

Italy | 1998 | 35mm | 66 min. | Italian with English subtitles

Director: Jean-Marie Straub, Danièle Huillet

Cast: Gianni Buscarino, Vittorio Vigneri, Angela Nugara

After a long absence, a native Sicilian returns home in this acclaimed adaptation of Elio Vittorini’s 1941 antifascist novel Conversations in Sicily. Through rich dialogues with an orange peddler, knife sharpener, and his own mother, he reckons with the state of 1930s Sicily. The editing of Sicilia! served as the basis for Pedro Costa’s 2001 documentary about Straub/Huillet, Where Does Your Hidden Smile Lie? Preceded by The Bridegroom, the Comedienne, and the Pimp (1968, 35mm, 23m mins), a radical triptych featuring a performance by future auteur Rainer Werner Fassbinder, along with many of the actors who would come to form his stock company.

Not Reconciled: The Films of Jean-Marie Straub and Danièle Huillet

Icons of avant-garde cinema, the husband-wife team of Jean-Marie Straub and the late Danièle Huillet provided film history with one of its most intimate collaborative relationships. Beginning in 1954 and ending with Huillet’s death in 2006, Straub-Huillet worked closely together on every aspect of every project starting with a conceptual stage and carrying through to the final editing process. Together, they produced a body of work that includes several adaptations and re-thinkings of classical texts. This sampling of Straub-Huillet features seven of the duo’s best known features and shorts presented in original 35mm prints and new DCP restorations overseen by Jean-Marie Straub.

All Cinematheque screenings are free and open to the public.