Too Early/Too Late (1981)

A sequence of shots of rural landscapes accompanied by readings of texts about the struggles of poor farmers.

Directors:

Danièle Huillet, Jean-Marie Straub

Writers:

Friedrich Engels (texts: "Letter to Karl Kautsky" and "The Paesant Question in France and Germany"), Mahmoud Hussein (text: "La lutte de classe en Egypte de 1945 à 1968")

Stars:

Danièle Huillet, Bahgat Elnadi, Gérard Samaan

Cast

Cast overview:
Danièle Huillet	...	Narrator (segment A) (voice)
Bahgat Elnadi	...	Narrator (segment B) (voice) (as Bahgat el Nadi)
Gérard Samaan	...	Narrator (segment B) (voice)

Storyline

A sequence of shots of rural landscapes accompanied by readings of texts about the struggles of poor farmers.

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Plot Keywords:

marxism | film essay | reference to gamal abdel nasser | archival footage | revolt | 

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Genres:

Documentary

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Certificate:

G

Details

Country:

France Egypt

Language:

French German Arabic

Release Date:

17 February 1982 (France)

Also Known As:

Cedo Demais/Tarde Demais

Filming Locations:

Paris, Île-de-France, France

Company Credits

Technical Specs

Runtime:

100 min

Color:

Color Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Included among the "1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die", edited by Steven Schneider.

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Connections

Edited into Kommunisten (2014)

User Reviews

Time And Time Again

The locations were the locations in the letters the narrator read The present-day locations were the locations of yesterday impoverished villages the narrator listed, villages destroyed by poverty a hundred years after the French Revolution of 1789 (lessons not learned) The very first shot was of the multiple revolutions through the Place de la Bastille (hint hint....) The purposeful camera movements were expertly executed to elide the present into the past, to carry viewers on a counterclockwise revolution into the history of revolution and on a clockwise revolution into the unknown future, an ebb and flow structure, the expertise camera work winding back the hands of time These landscapes were the seeds of revolution where revolution was sown The steady panoramic pans of natural landscapes in France framed in human abandonment and Thracianesque decay were contemplative pans meant to recall how the landscapes were once run riot with innumerable people and the hustle-bustle of life and the cries of hunger and upheaval and revolution, and how now in the present the locations are seemingly abandoned, decayed, returning to their natural state, emptied, nothing changed, the landscape itself reclaiming everything that once stood on it The clockwise revolution through the town that began with an empty field (once seeded and sown, the birth of fruit; the field like a womb, seeded and sown, birth of children) then passed by empty abandoned farm buildings hundreds of years old (once the scene of life and energy, children and marriages, play and work, time and tide, etc) and ended with the old cemetery was extremely evocative, hundreds of years of days and nights and tides and time and work and play and death encapsulated in the directors' highly expertise clockwork camera circuit spanning a mere breath of air The camera captured the sound of the wind as it was bending the grass and the trees, a universal metaphor: the poor and the starving were wind who for brief periods of time bent the grass and trees The revolt and revolution continue in the present-day French country as the camera captures clouds breaking up and flocks of birds bursting out of trees, raucous moments briefly overthrowing the landscape requiem, expertise camera work perfectly capturing the spontaneity of clouds and birds The text recited from the book during Part B/Egypt (diptych-structured film) was of 100% interest, it was a passage about an Egyptian peasant revolt and the ensuing Egyptian Revolution of 1952, which nicely enveloped together the first part of the film (Part A: French revolts and revolutions)