Austerlitz

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WG Sebald's last novel, like its predecessors, is illustrated with mysterious photographs. Sebald scholar Jonathan Long visits locations featured in the book and explores how the photographs correspond to (or conceal) reality. Clive Scott, Sebald's former colleague, recalls conversations with the author about the book. Michael Brandon-Jones, the technician who prepared Sebald's manuscripts for publication, talks about how the books were arranged and the different sources of the visual material they contain.
credits:
Directed and edited by Richard West
Camera: Brian Morrison
Title Sequence: David Haughey
Film Clips: Die Nibelungen, Siegfried's Death (1924) Fritz Lang (Director)
Rights: Friedrich-Wilhelm-Murnau-Stiftung Distributor: Transit Film GmbH
Stock Footage: getty Images
Music: Beethoven, Sonata No.9 in A, Op. 47 ('Kreutzer')
recording by Bronislaw Huberman and Ignaz Friedman (1930)
Sound Recording: Bruges Bells, Bethan Davis
bethandavis.bandcamp.com/track...

[@blossie33]

I have just finished reading Austerlitz which I borrowed from the library after going on a guided walk in East London with the poet Stephen Watts who knew Sebald - the rucksack in the book was actually his and Sebald asked if he could photograph it. On another occasion some time ago, I have been inside the Masonic Lodge in the hotel next to Liverpool Street Station. Thank you for this interesting film which has given me an extra insight into more details of the book. I loved the way the book was written, very poetic and descriptive.

[@tmsztrsz]

Great video, thank you. Austerlitz, and Sebald's work in general, with The Rings of Saturn being probably the most outsanding piece, is truly amazing. I can't think of any other author from the late XX/early XXI century who would be able to create such a unique literary style.

[@stewartconacher6552]

As an admirer of Sebald's work I am delighted to have found this video.Thanks for posting.

[@isabellevasko362]

Currently studying Austerlitz for an English Literature degree, and have found it the only book that I could ever completely understand, through my inability to understand it. This documentary was brilliant, and has given me many useful notes, thank-you very much!

[@SourcePhotoFilms]

Glad you liked it, it is a mysterious book. I found Rings of Saturn similar in that way.

[@Une_Baguette]

That's quite peculiar. That book was written originally in German, wasn't it? And you chose a translated book for an Enlgish degree?

[@vackrakristaller]

@@Une_Baguette Sebald assisted the English translators of the 4 near-fictions; yes they are all tremendously “European,” as opposed to English, and stylistically intriguing in a way that is obviously in communication with a canon including Bernhard, Walser, Kafka, etc. as befits books written by a professor of European Literature; but also, yes, they are eminently important to an English reader and base a lot of events in the Anglosphere and its history.

[@VentiVonOsterreich]

You're studying Austerlitz for an English lit degree, I'm studying Austerlitz for a potentially cringe-y anime crossover fanfiction light novel EDIT: I meant the Battle of Austerlitz

[@isabellevasko362]

@@Une_Baguette part of the degree was also the caveats of translating different languages into English, and it's limitations

[@sbingham1979]

I find this very interesting to follow, as an admirer of Sebald's work. Thank you for making this!

[@MegaArt4life]

I was thrilled to find this after just reading Austerlitz for the first time. In fact I have just read all the Sebald novels I could find at one go, beginning with Rings of Saturn, just absorbing them, but now I want to re-read them and give them more study. The info on the photographs is enormously helpful. I also want to take more time to translate the many lines and passages that are in French, Italian, and German. I lived in Berlin thirty years ago and have traveled in some of the areas the narrator travels in across all the novels, so everything resonates in a particular way with my own experiences. Sebald has been a major find for me. Thank you for posting this documentary!

[@SourcePhotoFilms]

MegaArt4life Glad you like it. For more photo literature try the rest of our literature season www.source.ie/feature/literature.html For more Sebald related things try Terry Pitt's blog Vertigo sebald.wordpress.com/

[@luciasanpayodelemos3421]

@@SourcePhotoFilms thank you for all the information you give us

[@vickidrozdowski6195]

Thoroughly enjoyed this video. I studied Austerlitz as part of my German studies at university and it was a very powerful read through its photographs and rich narrative. It was however, a very challenging read due to its lack of clear paragraph structure and very long subordinate clauses. I can now see how this fitted in with the book's intent and idea that nothing has a clear beginning and end but a series of events that are closely connected. I am now looking forward to viewing the film Austerlitz which I believe is closely connected to Sebald's Austerlitz.

[@SourcePhotoFilms]

Glad you liked it. There is also Patience (After Sebald) by Grant Gee, if you're after Sebald related films.

[@higgsbosongirl]

Thanks for posting. Very informative. I had wondered about the photographs since discovering Sebald's writing recently.

[@SourcePhotoFilms]

Glad you like it. The origin of many of the pictures was a discovery for us when we made the film and I'm sure there's a lot more to say about them.

[@ronbent]

wonderful

[@suecondon1685]

I found that absolutely fascinating. Pleased it came up in my recommendations, presumably because I just ordered the Rings of Saturn. A world within a book and as I live on the train line to Liverpool Street a trip to the beautiful Great Eastern Hotel is now in my diary.

[@SourcePhotoFilms]

Glad you liked it. I don't know how easy it is to visit the Masonic temple, it's very unexpected when you go inside.

[@sugahtank]

great

[@Leibo07]

version 2.0 of the Proustian cookies?

[@Kardelenn_]

Thanks for video.I was asked what's wrong with the Stower Grange? and I'm not really sure what does this question mean and what's the response, so do u have an idea ?

[@SourcePhotoFilms]

I'm afraid not, what does it relate to?

[@SourcePhotoFilms]

You're welcome.

[@findbridge1790]

was A not circumcised as an infant? if he was, then though he knows about that physical fact, he doesn't realize what was done, nor why. In which case, he is like so many American boys who are aware of the stitching under the glans and the scar, but do not know what was done, nor why, nor that others are different. and the reason this was done to them is ______

[@mathiasmary6031]

Does This video exist with subtitle (french for instance) ?

[@SourcePhotoFilms]

No, I'm sorry there are no subtitles for this video. Do you think the film would reach a significantly larger audience if there were subtitled versions?

[@mathiasmary6031]

Of course I think so. For instance I can not understand everything just a part of it, so it will be so great to understand everything :)

[@marichristian1072]

Any ideas of the location of the French Library which is excoriated for its architectural modernity and impractibility for research?

[@davidganz8523]

Sadly this is the bibliothèque nationale de France Bibliotheque Francois Mitterand Paris XIII built on the site of the station where French Jews were deported.