Moses and Aron
Posted by | Conversations at the Edge | Posted on | November 11, 2004
Thursday, November 11, 2004, 8pm
Possibly Schoenberg’s finest work and certainly one that he held close to his heart, the unfinished opera Moses und Aron represents Schoenberg’s finest attempt at meshing his philosophy with his art. It is a work that can be approached on many different levels: as an exemplar of his twelve-tone system, as a work of biblical commentary or as an attempt to work out the problems facing the Jew in the modern world. For Straub and Hulliet, it is the ideal contemporary text to argue their uncompromising position in cinema: austere, cerebral and politically engaged. The film Moses and Aron confronts the conditions of commercial cinema as effectively as Schoenberg confronted harmony and romantic expression, with an allegorical text, its classical locations and staging and insistence on the “idea” as the alpha and omega of cinema. It’s a classical confrontation between representation and abstract thought. In German with English subtitles (Daniel Eisenberg). With Gunther Reich, Louis Devos. 1975, Danièle Huillet & Jean-Marie Straub, Austria, 105 min, 35mm.
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Conversations at the Edge is a weekly series of screenings, performances, and talks by groundbreaking media artists.
CATE is organized by SAIC's Department of Film, Video, New Media, and Animation in collaboration with the Gene Siskel Film Center and SAIC's Video Data Bank.
Programs take place at the Gene Siskel Film Center (164 N. State / Chicago, IL / 312.846.2600), unless otherwise noted.
