Un Conte de Michel de Montaigne

"Que scais-je?" (What do I know?)"

— Michel de Montaigne, Les Essais

"When the legend becomes fact, print the legend."

— from John Ford's The Man who Shot Liberty Valence (1962)

In the first of this trio of films that slyly probe history's mark upon our contemporary moment, master filmmaker Jean-Marie Straub continues his exploration of classic texts in a "collaboration" with celebrated sixteenth- century writer Michel de Montaigne. Featuring a passage from Beethoven, recitations from Montaigne's Essais (II, 6) and appearances by the author himself (in monumental form), Un Conte de Michel de Montaigne draws incisive parallels between Montaigne's era and today — both periods of extraordinary transition, rampant corruption and instability, but also ones of great scientific discovery and profound transformations in human perception. ANDRÉA PICARD