History Lessons

1972 [GERMAN]

Action / Drama / History

2
IMDb Rating 6.6/10 10 336 336

woman director

Plot summary

Set in contemporary Rome, the film shows through a series of encounters with “ancient” Romans, how the economic and political manipulation by ancient Roman society led to Caesar’s dictatorship. - British Film Institute

Director

Jean-Marie Straub Photo
Jean-Marie Straub

Top cast

Gottfried Bold Photo
Gottfried Bold as Der Bankier
Johann Unterpertinger Photo
Johann Unterpertinger as Der Bauer
Henri Ludwigg Photo
Henri Ludwigg as Der Anwalt
Carl Vaillant Photo
Carl Vaillant as Der Dichter
720p.WEB 1080p.WEB
812.95 MB
1280*916
German 2.0
NR
Subtitles de  
24 fps
1 hr 28 min
Seeds 2
1.47 GB
1508*1080
German 2.0
NR
Subtitles de  
24 fps
1 hr 28 min
Seeds 4

Movie Reviews

Reviewed by Ethan_Ford

A film ahead of its time

As usual the Straubs take as their starting point a literary text,this time Brecht's novel "The Affairs of Mr. Julius Caesar" which they use to deconstruct the harsh reality of Roman history.The dialogue is spoken in lengthy monologues by a peasant,a writer,a banker and a lawyer speaking directly to the camera.These dialogues are interspersed with three very long tracking shots of a car driven by a young man through the streets of modern Rome,a device which anticipates Kiarostami's "Ten" by thirty years.These modern scenes set up the dialectic between past and present,between the economic and civil corruption of ancient Rome with the decadence of its modern counterpart.While the ancient buildings have decayed,the same political and economic dilemmas which Brecht's characters describe still thrive amidst the new vistas of Rome's gleaming office blocks and skyscrapers.
Reviewed by eulman 10 / 10

Difficult and rewarding

Far from being drivel, as another commentator has suggested, History Lessons is one of Straub and Huillet's richest and most rewarding films. A young man from the present interviews a series of ancient Romans about the rise of Julius Caesar (the text is adapted from an unfinished novel by Brecht): what emerges is a brilliant (and funny) demythologization, an analysis of power whose contemporary relevance is underscored both by the young man's obvious modernity and by his 3 long drives through modern Rome. Straub and Huillet refuse to cover over the myriad contradictions in their project (the anachronisms, artifice vs. documentary, etc.); instead they heighten these into a rich and challenging dialectic which demands of the viewer intense critical engagement and the patience to learn new ways of looking and thinking.
Read more IMDb reviews

No comments yet

Be the first to leave a comment