WEST GERMANY, 35MM, 1.37:1, B&W, 23′
[Opening credits – white text over a shot of graffiti: “stupid old Germany I hate it over here I hope I can go soon Patricia 1.3.68”]
– [With] Irm Hermann [Désirée], Kristin Peterson [Irene], Hanna Schygulla [Lucy], Peer Raben [Alt/Willy], Rudolf Waldemar Brem [Petrell]
– James Powell [James]
– Lilith Ungerer [Marie/Lilith], Rainer W. Fassbinder [Freder/the Pimp]
– Der Bräutigam, die Komödiantin und der Zuhälter
– By Jean-Marie Straub
– [Image] Klaus Schilling, Hubs Hagen, [sound] Peter Lutz, Klaus Eckelt [theater sequence], Herbert Linder
– [Technicians] Herbert Meier, Heina Pust, Dietmar Müller, Bernward Wember, Jan Bodenham
– [Texts] Juan de la Cruz, Ferdinand Bruckner, Helmut Färber
– [Production] Danièle Huillet and Klaus Hellwig, Janus Film und Fersehen [Frankfurt]
TEXT: Ferdinand Bruckner, Krankheit der Jugend (Pains of Youth, 1926), condensed by Jean-Marie Straub; Juan de la Cruz (1542–1591), “Romance on the Gospel,” “Spiritual Canticle,” stanza 22 (first version) or stanza 29 (second version), translated into German by Straub, Huillet and Helmut Färber.
MUSIC: J. S. Bach, Cantata BWV 11, “Du Tag, wenn wirst du sein… Komm, stelle dich doch ein.”
PRODUCTION DATES AND LOCATIONS: half-day in the Action Theater (Munich), April 1, 1968, four days in Munich,
May 1968.
EQUIPMENT: 1 Arriflex 300, 1 Nagra, Kodak 4-X (5224) and Double-X (5222) film stock (7,000 m.).
FINAL LENGTH: 630 m.
BUDGET: 17,500 DM.
ENGLISH SUBTITLES by Danièle Huillet and Bernard Eisenschitz, FRENCH SUBTITLES by Huillet.
FIRST SCREENING: 1968 Mannheim Film Festival (October 10); New Yorker Theater (February 23, 1969); 1969 London Film Festival (November 28).
