Sicilia!
France, Switzerland, Italy
1999
76 Min
Black and White
1.33:1
Italian
Synopsis
After fifteen years in the north of Italy, a Sicilian returns to his homeland. He goes back to where his mother still lives. –Cannes Film Festival
Director
Danièle Huillet
Daniele Huillet was a German filmmaker best known for her close collaboration, so close that it is often uncredited, with Modernist director Jean-Marie Straub. According to Huillet, she is mainly in charge of sound and editing while her partner deals with camera work, but she also assists with script-writing and directing. The films of Huillet and Straub are usually based on and offer historical insight into high German literature or music. Films such as Chronik der Anna Magdalena Bach (1968) tend to be so intellectually demanding that they are rarely seen commercially, and are primarily to be found on the international festival circuits. Many of their works also tend to make strong political statements such as their examination of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict Fortini (1976).
(From http://www.allmovie.com/cg/avg.dll?p=avg&sql=2:95128)
Jean-Marie Straub
Filmmaker Jean-Marie Straub and Daniele Huillet, his wife and co-director, have become leading figures in New German cinema. Their films are not for passive viewers seeking light entertainment; films such as Not Reconciled or Only Violence Helps Where Violence Rules (1965) are intellectually demanding, and yet are among the most haunting films of German cinema. Prior to teaming up with Huillet, the French born Straub worked as an assistant to French directors such as Abel Gance, Jean Renoir, and Robert Bresson. He met and teamed up with Huillet in 1954. To avoid the draft, he fled to Munich, Germany in 1958 where they got involved with radical theater groups. By the early sixties he and his wife had become a prominent directors. They made their debut with the short Machorka-Muff in 1963. In 1968, their long-time friend Fassbinder appeared in The Bridegroom, the Comedienne and the Pimp. Straub and Huillet’s most famous film is Chronicle of Anna Magdalena Bach (1968). By the late ’60s… read more
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sam
7Oct11
The final sequence was sublime. As the actors recite the text they remain absolutely still, maintaining sculpture-like poses (although the muscles in their neck and face tense up and release according to the rhythms and inflections conjured up by the text); so when they move - usually into another carefully considered yet naturalistic pose - it evinces an event-like quality.
Cedric likes this
adrianmendizabal
20Jul11
It's a dialogue movie, wherein the subject matter is situated within the dialogue between two character. But what is unusual about this movie is that, the camera lays flat on one angle at one level, recording only one speaker. And for a couple of minutes, the conversation goes on with the other speaker off-cam redefining a conversation movie where shot-reverse shot technique pretty does that trick.
Arsaib
5Feb11
"Thank you for giving us such beautiful, lucid moments. They stand out in a dark and stupid world."—Jean-Luc Godard
Manny Lage and 2 others like this
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Image of the Day. Records of Material Objects in the Cinema #2
By Dave McDougall on May 6, 2010
A winter melon, from Jean-Marie Straub and Danièle Huillet's Sicilia! (1999); cinematography by William Lubtchansky, one of the great artists
Tuesday Morning Foreign Region DVD Report: Three Films by Danièle Huillet and Jean-Marie Straub
By Glenn Kenny on April 13, 2010
When considering the paucity of works by the filmmaking team of Danièle Huillet and Jean-Marie Straub available in the DVD format, it behooves
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SICILIA! (1999)
By adrianmendizabal on July 20, 2011
A film of four ‘movements’ centering upon a returning son to his homeland, Sicily. He encountered in his journey four set of people: an orange vendor, three men on the train, his mother, which encompass… read review
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