Othon

Othon (1971)

Drama

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.

Directors: Jean-Marie Straub, Danièle Huillet.
Writers: Danièle Huillet, Jean-Marie Straub.

Casts

	Adriano Aprà as Othon
	Anne Brumagne as Plautine
	Ennio Lauricella as Galba
	Olimpia Carlisi as Camille
	Anthony Pensabene as Vinius
	Jean-Marie Straub as Lucus
	Jean-Claude Biette as Martianus
	Marilù Parolini as Flavie
	Eduardo de Gregorio as Atticus
	Sergio Rossi as Rutile

Crew