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From Today Until Tomorrow
(Von heute auf morgen)

Screening on Film
Directed by Danièle Huillet and Jean-Marie Straub.
With Christine Whittlesey, Richard Salter, Claudia Barainsky.
France/Germany, 1996, 35mm, black & white, 62 min.
German with English subtitles.
Print source: Miguel Abreu Gallery

For the third time in their career, Jean-Marie Straub and Danièle Huillet deal with the work of Arnold Schönberg. This one-act opera was composed in 1929, with the libretto written by Schönberg's wife Gertrud. From Today Until Tomorrow explores one night in a not-quite loveless marriage. A husband and wife return from a party where she has flirted with another man, while he has cast an appraising eye toward an attractive, fashionably dressed acquaintance of his wife's. While relying on long, fixed shots in austere black-and-white, directors Straub and Huillet here depart from their usual penchant for shooting in actual locations, instead building on a large sound stage the set of the couple's apartment. This arrangement allowed the filmmakers to record the sound and the image at the same time, something that had not been possible for Moses and Aaron. The combination of the 1920s/1930s décor, the use of black and white, and the plot about a feuding couple led some critics to see a resemblance to screwball comedy. Asked if he would compare From Today Until Tomorrow to Hawks' Bringing Up Baby, Straub replied, "Let's say there is a certain kind of political and moral affinity between the two films at the end, a certain kind." Perhaps a better comparison would be the early comedies of Lubitsch, one of Straub's favorite directors.

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