Sightlines · reception
How Chronicle of Anna Magdalena Bach was received
1968 · Jean-Marie Straub · Chronicle of Anna Magdalena Bach on Sightlines
The arc
In 1968 it split audiences down the middle — many found its long, static takes of musicians simply playing Bach unwatchably austere, while a devoted critical camp hailed it as radical. Today it's securely canonized as a landmark of modernist cinema and the most-cited entry point into Straub-Huillet.
What’s debated
The perennial fight it starts: is watching period musicians perform Bach in real time a transcendent act of cinematic honesty, or the most beautiful film ever made that's still a chore to sit through?
Its footprint
Its image of a bewigged Gustav Leonhardt at the harpsichord, filmed in unbroken takes with live direct sound, became the touchstone for how cinema can present music performance without cutting it to pieces — a reference point for slow cinema and concert filming ever since.
Where it stands
A cinephile rite of passage: the Straub-Huillet film everyone tells you to start with, beloved on Letterboxd as 'difficult European cinema' that's secretly just gorgeous music.
Did you know? Bach is played not by an actor but by Gustav Leonhardt, the great Dutch harpsichordist, with fellow early-music pioneer Nikolaus Harnoncourt appearing as Prince Leopold — all the music was performed live on period instruments and recorded in direct sound.