From Today Until Tomorrow

Based on a rarely performed Schoenberg opera from 1929, From Today Until Tomorrow explores one night in a marriage. A husband and wife return from a party where she has flirted with another man while he has cast an appraising eye toward one of her acquaintances. Huillet and Straub present the opera to us in long fixed shots and austere black and white, so that the focus remains on the brilliance of the twelve-tone score and the singers’ voices. That Schoenberg would choose to use his challenging musical language to convey a relatively lighthearted message only adds to the compelling mystery of this film.