Dissolving & Reconstituting Narrative Cinema

3	Not Reconciled	1968 – Jean Marie Straub (Germany)
	Historical deconstruction	Profile - Jean-Marie Straub; textual compression & cycles; political demythologization; anti-texts

A: Background

Jean-Marie Straub - born 1933 France ; lived in Germany from early 60s. In the 50s worked as assistant to Robert Bresson and Jaques Rivette. Makes, films in collaboration with his wife Daniele Huillet. All his films are fairly austere and severe : Brechtian in form, and often highly politicized in content. Loosely fits the stereotype of the 'radical' filmmaker. Films : MARCHORKA MUFF (63); NOT RECONCILED (65); CHRONICLE OF ANNA MAGDALENA BACH (68); THE BRIDEGROOM, THE COMEDIENNE & THE PIMP (68); OTHON (70); HISTORY LESSONS (73); MOSES & ARON (75); FORTINI/CANI (77); FROM THE CLOUDS TO THE RESISTANCE (79); CLASS RELATIONS (84?)
 
B: Construction

NOT RECONCILED is based on a book by German writer Heinrich Boll titled BILLIARDS AT NINE. The basic plot is as follows :

1910: Rise of the Kaiser Heinrich Fahmel, architect in Cologne; designs the new abbey of St. Joseph ; marries Johanna.

1914 1918: WWI Fahmel builds barracks, hospitals etc; first daughter dies at birth; son dies; two more sons Robert & Otto ; Johanna starts to go mad.

1934 1935 : Rise of Nazism Robert at school befriends Schrella & Progulske all are opposed to Nazism ; tormented at school by fellow student Nettlinger and sports master Vacano; Robert & friends try to kill Vacano but fail ; Progulske caught and executed ; Schrella flees to Holland; Robert becomes intimate with Schrella's sister Edith; Robert flees to Amsterdam; Johanna persuades authorities to let Robert come home; Robert joins army; marries Edith who has had his child, Joseph; they have another child, Ruth; Schrella remains abroad.

1939 1945: WWII Robert becomes a demolition expert in army; Otto becomes Nazi along with Nettlinger & Vacano; Otto dies in battle; Edith dies at home; Johanna goes fully mad and is interned; Robert blows up St.Anthony's cathedral in
protest of German military hypocrisy

PRESENT (c.63): Robert is architectural estimator; Vacano is chief of police; Nettlinger is an official in department of Defence; Schrella returns to Germany and is arrested at border because of tie in with Vacano's attempted murder; Nettlinger gets Schrella out of jail and has lunch with him; preparations are under way for Heinrich's 80th birthday ;Johanna, Robert and his children Joseph (with fiance Marianne) and Ruth will be present; Robert had recently given Joseph a job on the reconstruction of St.Joseph's which Joseph quit when he discovered his father blew it up; this same day coincides with a military parade honouring war veterans; this reminds Johanna of the horrible past and she resolves to shoot Vacano marching in the parade; meeting her at the hotel, Heinrich suggests she shoot Minister M. on the balcony ; she does; minister M. is not fatally wounded; the birthday party takes place without Johanna.
 
C: Deconstruction

Straub has edited out all the ingredients and elements in the book which he was not interested in for the making of the film. Essentially, this means that what is most important in the film is not what he left out, but what he left in. Rather than trying to piece the story together, the viewer is asked to reflect upon or analyse those pieces that do exist in the film. For Straub, those gaps or missing links in the story are actually what define the narrative fragments as a deconstructed mosaic.

The notion of deconstruction is mirrored in the main driving force of the story architecture vs. demolition. The development of the generations (both the family as a microcosm and Germany as a macrocosm) is based on moral and political positions of this dichotomy. Consider the central. relationship between Heinrich, Robert and Joseph in this respect. Also consider the notion of 'building' the German empire as a series of' I revitalizations of a nation' from the Kaiser to Hitler to the post war economic recovery. This of course would be evident to a certain extent it ) the original book, but Straub has edited out many details, sections and scenes to leave this particular political framework standing atone.
 
D: History

NOT RECONCILED deliberately confuses the past(s) with the present(s) in order to stress a particular 'present view' (ie. culturally and politically determined and posited) which frames the story This is basically in order to suggest that the phenomenon Nazism is not simply a historically circumscribed event or period, but rather has been a pervasive and even endemic part of German culture at least for this century. Thus the self enveloping, cyclical, repetitive and self assimilating structure of the narrative is in fact a demonstration of Straub's cultural/political perspective. The subtitle to NOT RECONCILED is "Only Violence Helps Where Violence Rules".
 
E: Brecht and Straub

Two quotes for consideration
(a) "Instead of wanting to create the impression that he is improvising, the actor should rather show what the truth is : that he is quoting." (Brecht)
(b) "Films must be documentary or at least they must have their roots in documentary. Only when each element of a film is true, correct, can one then rise above the documentary to aim al something higher." (Straub)