FRANCE/WEST GERMANY 35MM, 1.37:1, COLOR/B&W, 51′
[Opening credits, black text on white]
– Cézanne
– Dialogue avec Joachim Gasquet (Les éditions Bernheim-Jeune)
[White text on black]
– Film by Danièle Huillet and Jean-Marie Straub
– Photography: Henri Alekan
– Lighting: Louis Cochet, Assistant: Hopi Lebel
– Camera: Stefan Zimmer, Michael Esser, Moviecam by Cinécam, Argenteuil
– Sound: Louis Hochet, Georges Vaglio
[End credits, white text on black]
– We thank Éditions Gallimard for the excerpt from the film Madame Bovary by Jean Renoir
– Monsieur Antoine Salomon for the photographs of Paul Cézanne
– and Virginie Herbin for having provoked this film
– The works by Cézanne that we filmed are found in the following museums: National Gallery, London; Musée d’Orsay, Paris; National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh
– Kunstmuseum, Basel; Petit Palais, Paris; Courtauld Institute Galleries, Tate Gallery, London; Cabinet des Dessins of the Musée du Louvre
– Production/Copyright 1989, Musée d’Orsay, SEPT, Diagonale, Straub-Huillet
– Visa d’exploitation n° 71526 The film also exists in a German version, co-produced by Hessischer Rundfunk: Paul Cézanne im Gespräch mit Joachim Gasquet. The two versions are different (two negative edits), and the German version is 12 minutes longer.
TEXT: Joachim Gasquet, from “Ce qu’il m’a dit…” in Cézanne (Paris: Éditions Bernheim-Jeune, 1921). The film includes a reel of Madame Bovary (Jean Renoir, 1934, based on the novel by Gustav Flaubert) centered around the “comices agricoles” as well as two excerpt from The Death of Empedocles and various documents (photos of Cézanne by Maurice Denis, paintings by Cézanne). The words attributed to Cézanne are spoken by Danièle Huillet, those of Gasquet by Jean-Marie Straub in both the French and German versions. The French version is sub titled in English.
PRODUCTION DATES AND LOCATIONS: September–October 1989, three weeks in Paris, London, Edinburgh, Basel, Ascona and Mount St.- Victoire. BUDGET: 900,000 F. The film was rejected by the Musée d’Orsay which had commissioned it.
FIRST SCREENING: Club Publicis, Paris (April 3, 1990, a few days after a TV broadcast on La Sept); National Film Theater, London (February 27, 1991); Miguel Abreu Gallery, New York (March 17, 2006).
