Too Early/Too Late
Inspired by a letter by Friedrich Engels and a 1974 account of two militant Marxist writers who had been imprisoned by the Nasser regime, Straub-Huillet filmed this film in France and Egypt during 1980. They reflect on Egypt’s history of peasant struggle and liberation from Western colonization, and link it to class tensions in France shortly before the Revolution of 1789, quoting texts by Engels as well as the pioneering nonfiction film _Workers Leaving the Lumière Factory_.
| Director | Jean-Marie Straub et Danièle Huillet |
| Actor | Charlotte Lehoux |
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Revolutions always arrive too early, or too late. Yet they cross centuries without ever truly disappearing, persisting in the very fabric of the landscape. Straub and Huillet film French country roads, villages, Egyptian fields, factories, and passing crowds; layered onto these images are texts by Friedrich Engels and Mahmoud Hussein. The filmmakers confront us with a cinema in which history can only be told through these territories, transformed into surfaces haunted by past conflicts. Through the light falling on fields, deserted roads, and the rustling of the wind. Revolutions may fade, scatter, and lose their way, but they remain nonetheless—forever suspended within the landscapes they once traversed.
Charlotte Lehoux
Programmer
-
Français
1h45
Language: Français -
English
1h45
Language: Multilang
- Année 1982
- Pays France, Egypt
- Durée 105
- Producteur Jean-Marie Straub et Danièle Huillet
- Langue French, English
- Résumé court A two-part film that connects France and Egypt through a subtle exploration of the peasant struggles unique to each country.
- TLF_Applismb_CA 1
- Date édito CA 2026-05-22
Revolutions always arrive too early, or too late. Yet they cross centuries without ever truly disappearing, persisting in the very fabric of the landscape. Straub and Huillet film French country roads, villages, Egyptian fields, factories, and passing crowds; layered onto these images are texts by Friedrich Engels and Mahmoud Hussein. The filmmakers confront us with a cinema in which history can only be told through these territories, transformed into surfaces haunted by past conflicts. Through the light falling on fields, deserted roads, and the rustling of the wind. Revolutions may fade, scatter, and lose their way, but they remain nonetheless—forever suspended within the landscapes they once traversed.
Charlotte Lehoux
Programmer
-
Français
Duration: 1h45Language: Français1h45 -
English
Duration: 1h45Language: Multilang1h45
- Année 1982
- Pays France, Egypt
- Durée 105
- Producteur Jean-Marie Straub et Danièle Huillet
- Langue French, English
- Résumé court A two-part film that connects France and Egypt through a subtle exploration of the peasant struggles unique to each country.
- TLF_Applismb_CA 1
- Date édito CA 2026-05-22
