Jean-Marie Straub, who has died aged 89, and his wife, Danièle Huillet, worked together as film-makers for more than 30 years. Straub-Huillet, as they were often called by French critics, broke away from accepted notions of realism, disengaged from bourgeois values and questioned the primacy of narration.
Their films were almost exclusively taken from pre-existing texts, whether from literature, theatre or music. The principal stylistic devices were a usually static camera, sometimes with a pan or tracking shot lasting up to several minutes, the use of non-professionals as actors and direct sound, to the extent that background noises and even wind rustling on a microphone were retained. The pair’s intention, they stated, was to teach people “how to think, see and hear”. Straub was notoriously critical of “lazy” viewers unwilling or unable to engage with his films.
