A Reflection on Revolution in Egypt:
Saturday 12 February 2011, 19.00
Jean-Marie Straub and Danièle Huillet: Trop tôt,
trop tard (Too Early, Too Late)
Germany/France/Egypt 1981, 16mm, 105 minutes
Momentous events have been unfolding in the Middle East, pressing for
meaningful ways to engage with what is happening in Egypt. As
instantaneous newsfeeds pull us in different directions, there is a
need to counter the speed of media coverage overwhelming our present.
This event features a screening of the rarely seen film "Too Early, Too
Late" (Trop tôt, trop tard) by Jean-Marie Straub and Danièle Huillet,
as a means to open up and reflect on the current moment. It will also
include voices of artists and curators speaking from Egypt.
Shot in the summer of 1980 in France and spring of 1981 in "Egypt, Too
Early, Too Late" (Trop tôt, trop tard) investigates the changing
relationship between people, land and society within successful and
failed revolutions in both countries. The formal and structural basis
for the film consists of two texts: a letter sent by Friedrich Engels
to his disciple Karl Kautsky, and Mahmoud Hussein's Class Struggles in
Egypt (1969, Maspero Editions). The latter is a historical account of
the squashed Egyptian revolts prior to Naguib's revolution of 1952,
narrated as a voice-over of footage of the specific places where the
uprisings occurred.
What emerges is a document that functions as a history of Marxist
thought, a contemplative landscape film and a potent commentary on
Egyptian society. Danièle Huillet and Jean-Marie Straub's films are
concerned with the politics of place and its topography, tackled
through film-making as a structural medium: Trop tôt, trop tard starts
with an 8 minute shot filmed from a moving car circling the Place de
la Bastille in Paris; a visually constructed argument on revolution
through the repeated revolutions of a camera.
Rarely seen film from Egypt
A revived film from Egypt at an epochal moment reflects on revolutionary outcomes both unfulfilled and potential.
View Article details
- 11 February 2011
- London
The screening will be introduced by artists Céline Condorelli and
Uriel Orlow, and will be followed by words from Bassam El Baroni from
Alexandria Contemporary Arts Forum (ACAF) and other artists/curators
from Egypt, and an open discussion with the audience.
With kind support from the BFI.
Danièle Huillet and Jean-Marie Straub
Too Early, Too Late (Trop tôt, trop tard)
Germany / France / Egypt 1981, 16mm, 105 minutes
Camera: William Lubtchansky, Caroline Champetier (in France); Robert
Alazraki, Marguerite Perlado (in Egypt)
Sound: Louis Hochet, Manfred Blank
Voice over: Danièle Huillet (part A), Bhagat el Nadi (part B)
Production: Straub-Huillet
Free, first-come, first-served, no booking required
Tate Modern Starr Auditorium
Bankside, London, SE1 9TG
Nearest Tube: Southwark / London Bridge