Chronicle of Anna Magdalena Bach

Chronicle of Anna Magdalena Bach follows the life and work of composer Johann Sebastian Bach as told through the perspective of his wife, Anna Magdalena. The film traces roughly the last three decades of Bach's life, showing the daily realities he faced and the often difficult relationships he had with the patrons who supported him. Rather than staging a conventional dramatic biography, the film builds its portrait from documents, readings from Anna Magdalena's diary, and above all the music itself, performed on screen by musicians in period dress.

The film is the first feature directed by the pair Danièle Huillet and Jean-Marie Straub, who also wrote the screenplay. Their later joint credits include Antigone, and Straub went on to direct La Madre and Venice 70: Future Reloaded. Keyboard player Gustav Leonhardt, known as an interpreter of early music, plays Bach, with Christiane Lang as Anna Magdalena. The sizable credited cast runs to twenty-two performers.

Released in early 1968, the film runs ninety-four minutes and was produced across Germany and Italy by HR, Franz Seitz Filmproduktion, IDI Cinematografica and Neue Filmkunst Walter Kirchner. On IMDb it holds a rating of 6.8 from around 1,700 votes, while on TMDB it stands at 6.3 from a much smaller base of about forty-five.