Othon

Overview

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.

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Cast

Adriano Aprà

Othon

Anne Brumagne

Plautine

Ennio Lauricella

Galba

Olimpia Carlisi

Camille

Anthony Pensabene

Vinius

Jean-Marie Straub

Lucus

Jean-Claude Biette

Martianus

Marilù Parolini

Flavie

Eduardo de Gregorio

Atticus

Sergio Rossi

Rutile