In the Country

1966 / USA / English / B&W / 65 min / 16mm

Script: Robert Kramer
Photography, Editing: Robert Machover
Sound: Norman Fruchter
Continuity: Jane Kramer
Cast: Catherine Merrill, William Devane, and others
Producers: Robert Kramer, Robert Machover
Source: Cinémathèque Française

A young couple, both anti-Vietnam-war militants, are temporarily living in a country house. The man is pained by his guilty conscience. He feels frustrated by his inability to continue the struggle. The woman is searching for her own identity and clashes with her partner, hinting to him that she may have been unfaithful to him by having an affair with one of their friends. A self-destructive emotional vortex is set in motion that will bring them to feel ever more lonely and distant from each other.

“The film is a reflection of the way people use words to hide, to use them as masks and anti-truth. The real influence behind the film is Gertrud. I love that movie so much.”

—Robert Kramer (Festival Cinema Giovani 1997)