I thought it would be pertinent to share this clip I stumbled across.
I was unaware until recently that a film was ever made of this magnum opus, and even then, until seeing it I couldn’t have imagined how captivating it would be on film. The version in question is Jean-Marie Straub & Danièle Huillet’s 1975 attempt at handling Schoenberg’s unfinished mammoth, Moses und Aron. Watch all the excerpts you can find online, and when you’re ready, begin the search for a copy online. I have no idea where to suggest looking as I am still without success in tracking one down. I did however manage to find a rather interesting 1975 review of the film by Richard Eder from the New York Times, and what a riot it was to partake in his editorializing. Perhaps it’s just his bemusing take on the so-called ‘experimentalism’ of the film that seems so cliche, but it more likely was a result of his bellicose remarks like:

In his latest film—it can’t be called a movie because virtually nothing moves, neither the camera nor what it is photographing — Mr. Straub has come close to purging the screen of anything to see. At the same time, he will come close to purging the movie theater of anybody to watch.1

Enjoy.

  1. Eder, Richard. “Straub’s Version of ‘Aaron and Moses’ by Schoenberg Is Uncompromising.” The New York Times. 5 October 1975 http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9B00E0D71E38E73ABC4D53DFB667838E669EDE.