Elective affinities: the films of Daniele Huillet and Jean-Marie Straub

221 Pages·2017·3.15 MB·English

by  Claudia Alexandra Pummer

University of Iowa
Iowa Research Online
Theses and Dissertations
Fall 2011
Elective affinities: the films of Daniele Huillet and
Jean-Marie Straub
Claudia Alexandra Pummer
University of Iowa
Copyright 2011 Claudia Pummer
This dissertation is available at Iowa Research Online: https://ir.uiowa.edu/etd/2761
Recommended Citation
Pummer, Claudia Alexandra. "Elective affinities: the films of Daniele Huillet and Jean-Marie Straub." PhD (Doctor of Philosophy)
thesis, University of Iowa, 2011.
https://doi.org/10.17077/etd.8j5oobaz
Follow this and additional works at:https://ir.uiowa.edu/etd
Part of theFilm and Media Studies Commons
ELECTIVE AFFINITIES:
THE FILMS OF DANIÈLE HUILLET AND JEAN-MARIE STRAUB
by
Claudia Alexandra Pummer
An Abstract
Of a thesis submitted in partial fulfillment
of the requirements for the Doctor of
Philosophy degree in Film Studies
in the Graduate College of
The University of Iowa
December 2011
Thesis Supervisor: Professor Lauren Rabinovitz
1
ABSTRACT
This study examines the collaborative work of the filmmakers Danièle Huillet and
Jean-Marie Straub (1962-2006) in respect to current and future formations of political
avant-garde filmmaking. Throughout their joint career the Marxist filmmakers
understood their work as part of an ongoing effort to participate in the class struggle,
despite of an overall decline in faith regarding revolutionary politics. Straub-Huillet
pursued social and political change not simply on the level of filmic content, but rather by
employing specific formal techniques on the basis of a distinct practice of creative labor.
In order to delineate this practice, I am engaging in poststructuralist discourses
that will be discussed alongside traditional forms of Marxist-oriented critical theories in
an attempt to replace metaphysical paradigms with an aporetic structure that is
affirmative of difference, rather than identity.
For instance, based on the notion of an elective affinity, Straub-Huillet's film
adaptations challenge traditional forms of cinematic authorship and collaboration. Instead
of simply referencing other authors, Straub-Huillet allow the author to enter and
intervene in the film-text. This creative relationship is characterized by an act of
resistance that is established by an adaptation practice based on direct quotations. The
quotation and recital of other works introduces a principle of repetition and reproduction
into the films that defines the couple's filmmaking process as a practice of creative labor.
1 1

The textual figure of the border draws out further how this practice gives rise to new
understandings of cinema in regard to nation, culture, and history. Figurations of ruins
outline, in addition, how these issues pertain at once to the necessity and to the limits of
representation.
This points, in conclusion, to the difficulty of reinventing images that have not
already been incorporated into the mainstream; a central dilemma affecting all political
filmmaking practices. Straub-Huillet's work addresses this problem in a specific way. The
2
couple works toward the production of cinematic images by envisioning a (future)
revolutionary event on the basis of a deliberate return to a classical genealogy.

Abstract Approved: ____________________________________
Thesis Supervisor
____________________________________
Title and Department
____________________________________
Date
2 2
ELECTIVE AFFINITIES:
THE FILMS OF DANIÈLE HUILLET AND JEAN-MARIE STRAUB
by
Claudia Alexandra Pummer
A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment
of the requirements for the Doctor of
Philosophy degree in Film Studies
in the Graduate College of
The University of Iowa
3

December 2011
Thesis Supervisor: Professor Lauren Rabinovitz
Copyright by
Claudia Alexandra Pummer
2011
All Rights Reserved
4
Graduate College
The University of Iowa
Iowa City, Iowa
CERTIFICATE OF APPROVAL
_______________________
PH.D. THESIS
_______________
This is to certify that the Ph.D. thesis of
Claudia Alexandra Pummer
has been approved by the Examining Committee
for the thesis requirement for the Doctor of Philosophy
degree in Film Studies at the December 2011 graduation.
Thesis Committee: __________________________________
Lauren Rabinovitz, Thesis Supervisor
__________________________________
Rosalind Galt
1
__________________________________
Nataša Durovicová
__________________________________
Astrid Oesmann
__________________________________
Tom Lewis
ABSTRACT
This study examines the collaborative work of the filmmakers Danièle Huillet and
Jean-Marie Straub (1962-2006) in respect to current and future formations of political
avant-garde filmmaking. Throughout their joint career the Marxist filmmakers
understood their work as part of an ongoing effort to participate in the class struggle,
despite of an overall decline in faith regarding revolutionary politics. Straub-Huillet
pursued social and political change not simply on the level of filmic content, but rather by
employing specific formal techniques on the basis of a distinct practice of creative labor.
In order to delineate this practice, I am engaging in poststructuralist discourses
that will be discussed alongside traditional forms of Marxist-oriented critical theories in
an attempt to replace metaphysical paradigms with an aporetic structure that is
affirmative of difference, rather than identity.
For instance, based on the notion of an elective affinity, Straub-Huillet's film
adaptations challenge traditional forms of cinematic authorship and collaboration. Instead
of simply referencing other authors, Straub-Huillet allow the author to enter and
intervene in the film-text. This creative relationship is characterized by an act of
resistance that is established by an adaptation practice based on direct quotations. The
quotation and recital of other works introduces a principle of repetition and reproduction
into the films that defines the couple's filmmaking process as a practice of creative labor.
The textual figure of the border draws out further how this practice gives rise to new
understandings of cinema in regard to nation, culture, and history. Figurations of ruins
outline, in addition, how these issues pertain at once to the necessity and to the limits of
representation.
This points, in conclusion, to the difficulty of reinventing images that have not
already been incorporated into the mainstream; a central dilemma affecting all political
filmmaking practices. Straub-Huillet's work addresses this problem in a specific way. The
ii
couple works toward the production of cinematic images by envisioning a (future)
revolutionary event on the basis of a deliberate return to a classical genealogy.
3

iii
TABLE OF CONTENTS
TABLE OF FIGURES........................................................................................................vi

INTRODUCTION...............................................................................................................1

The Letters of Venice: Inscriptions of a Filmmaking Practice........................3

Straub-Huillet in Film History and Criticism...................................................8

Post-Theory, Post-Politics..............................................................................21

Toward a (new) Critique of Political Cinema................................................22

Notes...............................................................................................................28

CHAPTER ONE: ELECTIVE AFFINITIES....................................................................34

La Politique des Auteurs................................................................................38

The Politics of the German Autorenfilm.........................................................42

The Kluge-Straub Debate...............................................................................47

Collaborations: Mallarmé and the New Munich Group................................51

Love................................................................................................................55

Notes...............................................................................................................60

CHAPTER TWO: LABOR...............................................................................................64

From Text to Practice.....................................................................................66

The Rehearsal Scene.......................................................................................71

Theater and the Social....................................................................................78

Cinematography: The Train and the Factory..................................................84

Montage: Assemblage....................................................................................91

The Hidden Smile...........................................................................................96

Notes.............................................................................................................100

CHAPTER THREE: THE BORDER..............................................................................104

The Border as Double Bind..........................................................................106

Border Biography.........................................................................................109

Views Across the Rhine...............................................................................112

Border Archaeology and Corneille's Radical Return...................................117

Speaking One's Native Language in a Foreign Tongue...............................122

Fortress Europe.............................................................................................126

Notes.............................................................................................................131

CHAPTER FOUR: THE RUINS.....................................................................................134

Modernism vs. Realism................................................................................138

Allegorical Ruins..........................................................................................140

The Phenomenology of the Cinematographic Ruin-Image..........................148

Political Action after Auschwitz..................................................................155

The Invisible Ruins.......................................................................................164

Notes.............................................................................................................171

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