ROUGE—The Evening Class Index

Admittedly a continuing work-in-progress, I nonetheless felt that—with the publication of the recent issue of Rouge 12 and its attendant theme on archives—I could share my index with readers of The Evening Class. Though Rouge provides a table of contents for each specific issue, my studies required a more general index, which I've structured primarily to auteurist ends though now and then I've gone topical. This is a completely idiosyncratic organization catering to my own interests and approaches. I haven't included the image issue as of yet (and am not confident I will) and there is still much cross-referentiality to accomplish; but, for now, here's what I've got. I hope it helps others with their research.

Aboriginal Art / Culture & Film

Aboriginal Art and Film: The Politics of Representation—Marcia Langton; 6 (2005)

Beyond Assimilation: Aboriginality, Media History and Public Memory—Meaghan Morris; 3 (2004)

Chantal Akerman

La Chambre Akerman: The Captive as Creator—Ivone Margulies; 10 (2007)

Fatih Akin

Six Characters in Search of the Other: The Edge of Heaven—Yvette Bíró; 12 (2008)

Eddie Albert

The Unquiet American: Eddie Albert—Donald Phelps; 9 (2006)

Robert Altman

Tanner Redux: "Think Brave! Shoot Brave!! Be Brave!!!"—Jean-Pierre Coursodon; 12 (2008)

Mercedes Álvarez

El cielo gira—Miguel Marías; 6 (2005)

"An Affair to Remember"

The Gate of Heaven, The Place of the Other: An Affair to Remember—Carlos Losilla; 7 (2005)

Michelangelo Antonioni

Michelangelo and I—Enrica Antonioni; 4 (2004)

Lo Sguardo di Michelangelo: The Gaze of Antonioni—Jonathan Rosenbaum; 4 (2004)

Arab Cinema (Miscellaneous)

History of Our Present (1): New Arab Film and Video—Jayce Salloum; 1 (2003)

Architecture and Cinema

Los Toquis, or Urban Babel—Nataša Durovicová; 7 (2005)

An Architectural Promenade [Singing in the Rain]—Alain Masson; 7 (2005)

Humbert Balsan

Humbert Balsan 1954-2005—Dave Kehr; 6 (2005)

Raymond Bellour

The Film We Accompany—Raymond Bellour; 3 (2004)

Ingmar Bergman

Saraband: Bergman's Ship Sails On—Yvette Bíró; 6 (2005)

Brazilian Cinema (Miscellaneous)

Cinema: Music of Light—Jairo Ferreira; 9 (2006)

Stan Brakhage

Serious Mothlight: For Stan Brakhage (1933-2003)—Nicole Brenez & Adrian Martin; 1 (2003)

Tod Browning

Freaks Show—Thierry Kuntzel; 7 (2005)

Luis Buñuel

Buñuel Bows Out—Paul Hammond; 3 (2004)

John Cassavettes

Shops of Horror: Notes for a Visual History of the Reification of Emotion in a Capitalist Regime, or (to put it more bluntly) "Fuck the Money"—Nicole Brenez; 11 (2007)

Chinese Bookie: After Cassavetes—James Clayden; 11 (2007)

Nick Cave

From The Proposition—Nick Cave; 7 (2005)

Pierre Clémenti

There's Nothing More International Than a Pack of Pimps: A Conversation between Pierre Clémenti, Miklos Janscó, Glauber Rocha and Jean-Marie Straub convened by Simon Hartog in Rome, February 1970—3 (2004)

Pedro Costa

A Closed Door That Leaves Us Guessing—Pedro Costa; 10 (2007)

Adventure: An Essay on Pedro Costa—Shigehiko Hasumi; 10 (2007)

Serge Daney

Montage Obligatory: The War, the Gulf and the Small Screen—Serge Daney; 8 (2006)

Gilles Deleuze

The Green Garbage Bins of Gilles Deleuze—Luc Moullet; 6 (2005)

Poubelle, ma belle—William D. Routt; 6 (2005)

Manoel de Oliveira

On the Uncertain Nature of Cinema (By Way of the Work of Manoel de Oliveira)—Víctor Erice; 4 (2004)

Stanley Donen

An Architectural Promenade: Singin' in the Rain—Alain Masson; 7 (2005)

Raymond Durgnat

"Culture Always is a Fog": Interview With Raymond Durgnat—Rick Thompson, et al.; 8 (2006)

Letter to Jean-Pierre—Raymond Durgnat; 8 (2006)

Red Psalm—Raymond Durgnat; 8 (2006)

DVD

A Fish in the Aquarium—Thierry Jousse; 9 (2006)

Stephen Dwoskin

Reflections: The Self, the World and Others, and How All These Things Melt Together in Film—Stephen Dwoskin; 3 (2004)

Víctor Erice

Erice-Kiarostami: The Pathways of Creation—Alain Bergala; 9 (2006)

Writing Cinema, Thinking Cinema ...—Víctor Erice; 4 (2004)

On the Uncertain Nature of Cinema (By Way of the Work of Manoel de Oliveira)—Víctor Erice; 4 (2004)

Risks and Revelations: Erice-Kiarostami—Miguel Marías; 9 (2006)

Sergei M. Eisenstein

Eisenstein, the Glass House and the Spherical Book: From the Comedy of the Eye to a Drama of Enlightenment—Oksana Bulgakowa; 7 (2005)

Of Mice and Men: Reflections on Eisenstein and Digital Imagery—Paul Willemen; 8 (2006)

Manny Farber

The Farber Machine—Patrick Amos & Jean-Pierre Gorin; 12 (2008)

Seers for the Sleepless—Manny Farber; 12 (2008)

The Qualities I Like: Impressions of Manny Farber—Adrian Martin; 12 (2008)

Critic Going Everywhere—Donald Phelps; 12 (2008)

My Budd by Manny Farber—Bill Krohn; 12 (2008)

Thinking About (Personal) History Lessons: The Movie Paintings of Manny Farber—Jonathan Rosenbaum; 12 (2008)

Harun Farocki

Harun Farocki's Images of the World—Christopher Pavsek; 12 (2008)

Alexei Fedorchenko

First on the Moon: The Totalitarian Echo in New Russian Cinema—Julia Vassilieva; 12 (2008)

Abel Ferrara

Come Into My Sleep: Body Snatchers—Nicole Brenez; 7 (2005)

John Ford

The Searchers: Dismantled—Ross Gibson; 7 (2005)

John Ford, or The Eloquence of Gesture—Shigehiko Hasumi; 7 (2005)

Ford's Depth—Miguel Marías; 7 (2005)

"The Doddering Relics of a Lost Cause": John Ford's The Sun Shines Bright—Jonathan Rosenbaum; 7 (2005)

Péter Forgács

"It's Just a Waste of Time to Walk and Play Tennis": Interview with Péter Forgács—André Habib; 12 (2008)

William Friedkin

Friedkin Out—Bill Krohn; 3 (2004)

French Cinema (Miscellaneous)

For Danièle Huillet (1936-2006) and Jean-Marie Straub (1933-)—Miguel Marías; 10 (2007)

"1750 Percussion Rifles": Work of the Document, Rights and Duties of Cinema—Nicole Brenez & Michael Witt; 9 (2006)

Samuel Fuller

Fuller By Two [I Shot Jesse James / Park Row]—Donald Phelps; 8 (2006)

Philippe Garrel

Philippe Garrel's L'Enfant secret (1982)—Serge Daney; 1 (2003)

German Cinema (Miscellaneous)

Antigone Agonistes: Urban Guerrilla or Guerrilla Urbanism? The Red Army Fraction, Germany in Autumn and Death Game—Thomas Elsaesser; 4 (2004)

Downfall: Almost the Same Old Story—Klaus Neumann; 6 (2005)

Come On, Baby, Be My Tiger: Inventing India on the German Screen in Der Tiger von Eschnapur and Das indische Grabmal—Meenakshi Shedde and Vinzenz Hediger, 7 (2005)

Ritwik Ghatak

Her Mother's Son: Kinship and History in Ritwik Ghatak—Moinak Biswas; 3 (2004)

Ritwik Ghatak: Reinventing the Cinema—Jonathan Rosenbaum; 10 (2007)

Jean-Luc Godard

According to JLG—Dominique Païni; 9 (2006)

Le rouge (1968): A Painting by Gérard Fromanger—Gérard Fromanger; 1 (2003)

Philippe Grandrieux

The Body's Night: An Interview with Philippe Grandrieux—Nicole Brenez; 1 (2003)

"Grbavica"

Plain, Pain: Grbavica—Yvette Bíró; 10 (2007)

José Luis Guerín

Work in Progress—José Luis Guerin; 4 (2004)

In Sylvia's City—Miguel Marías; 11 (2007)

Simon Hartog

There's Nothing More International Than a Pack of Pimps: A Conversation between Pierre Clémenti, Miklós Janscó, Glauber Rocha and Jean-Marie Straub convened by Simon Hartog in Rome, February 1970—3 (2004)

Vinzenz Hediger

Politique des archives: European Cinema and the Invention of Tradition in the Digital Age—Vinzenz Hediger; 12 (2008)

Alfred Hitchcock

Desire Roped In: Notes on the Fetishism of the Long Take in Rope—Jean-Pierre Coursodon; 4 (2004)

When I Made The Paradine Case—Alfred Hitchcock & Mark Rappaport; 4 (2004)

In and Around The Paradine Case: Control, Confession and the Claims of Marriage—Douglas Pye; 4 (2004)

Hou Hsiao-hsien

Café Lumière—Shigehiko Hasumi; 6 (2005)

In Search of New Genres and Directions for Asian Cinema—Hou Hsiao-hsien; 1 (2003)

John Hughes

The Director as Psychoanalyst: An Interview with Jacques Rivette—John Hughes; 4 (2004)

Autodialogue (1978)—John Hughes; 4 (2004)

John Hughes On (and With) Jacques Rivette: Introduction—Jonathan Rosenbaum; 4 (2004)

"I'll Be Your Eyes, You'll Be Mine"

I'll Be Your Eyes, You'll Be Mine—Keja Kramer and Stephen Dwoskin; 9 (2006)

Shohei Imamura

Shohei Imamura: The Insect's Game—Jairo Ferreira; 9 (2006)

Guillermo Cabrera Infante

A Scattered Homage to Guillermo Cabrera Infante (1929-2005)—Victor Fowler Calzada; 7 (2005)

Iranian Cinema (Miscellaneous)

Ebrahim Golestan: Treasure of Pre-Revolutionary Iranian Cinema—Mehrnaz Saeed-Vafa; 11 (2007)

"The Ister"

The Ister: An Excerpt, From Novi Sad to Vukovar—David Barison and Daniel Ross; 3 (2004)

Miklós Jancsó

There's Nothing More International Than a Pack of Pimps: A Conversation between Pierre Clémenti, Miklós Janscó, Glauber Rocha and Jean-Marie Straub convened by Simon Hartog in Rome, February 1970—3 (2004)

Red Psalm—Raymond Durgnat; 8 (2006)

Kent Jones

Can Movies Think?—Kent Jones; 12 (2008)

Abbas Kiarostami

Erice-Kiarostami: The Pathways of Creation—Alain Bergala; 9 (2006)

Risks and Revelations: Erice-Kiarostami—Miguel Marías; 9 (2006)

"King Kong"

Magnificent Animal—Adrian Martin; 8 (2006)

Robert Kramer

Robert Kramer and the Jewish-German Question—Hironobu Baba; 9 (2006)

Letter to Bob Dylan—Robert Kramer & Bobby Buechler; 4 (2004)

Robert Kramer Films the Event—Adrian Martin; 9 (2006)

Carole Landis

Homage to Carole Landis—Donald Phelps; 11 (2007)

Fritz Lang

Machinations of an Incoherent, Malevolent Universe: Fritz Lang's Spione—Adrian Martin; 7 (2005)

Mitchell Leisen

Mitchell Leisen—Mark Rappaport; 12 (2008)

Val Lewton

Fear Itself: Val Lewton's The Ghost Ship—Donald Phelps; 8 (2006)

David Lynch

The Author is on Fire—Yvette Bíró; 11 (2007)

Terrence Malick

Things to Look Into: Terrence Malick—Adrian Martin; 10 (2007)

E.J. Marey

The Marey Project: A Work in Progress—James Clayden; 4 (2004)

Chris Marker

Markeriana: A Scarcely Critical Description of the Work of Chris Marker—Roger Tailleur; 11 (2007)

Jonas Mekas

"I'm an Outsider. I'm a Monk. I'm Somewhere Else": Interview with Jonas Mekas—Stefan Grissemann; 12 (2008)

Tsai Ming-Liang

The 400 Blow Jobs: The Wayward Cloud—Helen Bandis, Adrian Martin, & Grant McDonald; 7 (2005)

Perhaps the Flood ...—Yvette Biro; 1 (2003)

Minimalism

The Fullness of Minimalism—Yvette Bíró; 9 (2006)

Miscellaneous

How Violence Made a Real Mother-of-a-Mother of Me—Kathleen Mary Fallon; 6 (2005)

Moments of Choice—V.F. Perkins; 9 (2006)

Ukiyo-e/Hollywood—Penny Webb; 7 (2005)

The Zoom in Popular Cinema: A Question of Performance—Paul Willemen

Robert Montgomery

The Rich Boy: The Reticent Artistry of Robert Montgomery—Donald Phelps; 1 (2003)

Michael Moore

The Rhetoric of Fahrenheit 9/11—Gilberto Perez; 12 (2008)

Luc Moullet

Gags, Nonsense, Seeing, Imagination: Luc Moullet and Parpaillon's Pataphysical Theatre—Fabien Boully; 6 (2005)

The Green Garbage Bins of Gilles Deleuze—Luc Moullet; 6 (2005)

Poubelle, ma belle—William D. Routt; 6 (2005)

Guido Mutis

Dear Guido ...—Juan Pablo Miranda; 12 (2008)

Mikio Naruse

Kimiko in New York—Kiyoaki Okubo; 10 (2007)

"Night Cries: A Rural Tragedy"

Beyond Assimilation: Aboriginality, Media History and Public Memory—Meaghan Morris; 3 (2004)

Nyinkka Nyunyu

The Bush TVs of Nyinkka Nyunyu—Alison Alder; 6 (2005)

Yasujirô Ozu

Ozu's Angry Women—Shigehiko Hasumi; 4 (2004)

Maurice Pialat

Maurice Pialat: A Cinema of Surrender—Fergus Daly; 1 (2003)

Roman Polanski

Double Chinatown—Ross Macleay; 11 (2007)

Elvis Presley

Elvis Presley, Last New York Concert—Jonas Mekas; 6 (2005)

Jacques Rancière

A Thwarted Fable—Jacques Rancière; 8 (2006)

Carol Reed

Wrong Geometries in The Third Man—Richard Misek; 7 (2005)

Edgar Reitz

Heimat 3: Signing Off On The German Century—Roger Hillman; 6 (2005)

Alain Resnais

Marcel in Marienbad—Mark Rappaport; 1 (2003)

Jacques Rivette

The Director as Psychoanalyst: An Interview with Jacques Rivette—John Hughes; 4 (2004)

Autodialogue (1978)—John Hughes; 4 (2004)

John Hughes On (and With) Jacques Rivette: Introduction—Jonathan Rosenbaum; 4 (2004)

Glauber Rocha

There's Nothing More International Than a Pack of Pimps: A Conversation between Pierre Clémenti, Miklós Janscó, Glauber Rocha and Jean-Marie Straub convened by Simon Hartog in Rome, February 1970—3 (2004)

George Romero

Land of the Dead—Tony Williams; 7 (2005)

Marie-Claire Ropars

A Cinematic Language—Marie-Claire Ropars; 11 (2007)

Reading with Marie-Claire—Tom Conley; 11 (2007)

On Filmic Rewriting: Contamination of the Arts or Destruction of Art's Identity?—Marie-Claire Ropars; 11 (2007)

Jean Rouch

Jean Rouch 1917-2004: A Valediction—Michael Eaton; 3 (2004)

A Tribute to Jean Rouch—Paul Stoller; 3 (2004)

Raúl Ruiz

The Expropriation (La Expropriacíon, Chile, 1971)—Barthélemy Amengual; 2 (2004)

Time Regained (Le Temps retrouvé, France, 1999)—Cyril Béghin; 2 (2004)

Treasure Island (L'île au trésor, France, 1986, released 1991)—Cyril Béghin; 2 (2004)

Le Vertige de la page blanche (Vertigo of the Blank Page, Belgium, 2003)—Marie-Luce Bonfanti; 2 (2004)

La Querelle de jardins (Quarrel of Gardens, short, France, 1982)—Christine Buci-Glucksmann; 2 (2004)

Le Borgne (The One-Eyed Man, 4 episodes, France, 1980)—Christine Buci-Glucksmann; 2 (2004)

Les Divisions de la nature: Un homme, un château, "Chambord" (The Divisions of Nature: A Man, a Castle, "Chambord", short, France, 1978)—Christine Buci-Glucksmann; 2 (2004)

Dans un miroir (In a Mirror, short feature, France, 1984)—Ian Christie; 2 (2004)

The Penal Colony (La Colonia Penal, Chile, 1970)—Ian Christie; 2 (2004)

The Real Presence (La Présence réelle, France, 1983)—Ian Christie; 2 (2004)

Los Tres Tristes Tigres (Three Sad Tigers, Chile, 1968)—Ian Christie; 2 (2004)

Bérénice (France, 1983)—Olivier Curchod; 2 (2004)

Manoel on the Island of Marvels (3 part TV series, France, 1985)—Fergus Daly; 2 (2004)

Wind Water (aka Feng Shui, short, UK, 1996)—Fergus Daly; 2 (2004)

The Hypothesis of the Stolen Painting (L'Hypothese du tableau volé, France, 1978)—Thomas Elsaesser; 2 (2004)

That Day (Ce jour-là, France, 2003)—Filipe Furtado; 2 (2004)

City of Pirates (La Ville des pirates, France/Portugal, 1983)—Paul Hammond; 2 (2004)

Genealogies of a Crime (Génealogies d’un crime, France, 1997)—Maximilian Le Cain; 2 (2004)

A TV Dante (UK, 1989)—Adrian Martin; 2 (2004)

Dark at Noon or Eyes and Lies (L'œil qui ment, France, 1992)—Adrian Martin; 2 (2004)

Great Events and Ordinary People (Des grands événements et des gens ordinaires: Les Élections, short feature, France, 1979)—Adrian Martin; 2 (2004)

A Place Among the Living (aka A Taste for Murder, Une place parmi les vivants, France/Rumania, 2003)—Adrian Martin; 2 (2004)

Responso: Homage to Huub Baals (video, work-in-progress, 2004)—Adrian Martin; 2 (2004)

The Territory (Portugal/USA, 1981)—Adrian Martin; 2 (2004)

Three Lives and Only One Death (Trois vies et une seule mort, France, 1996)—Adrian Martin; 2 (2004)

Ruiz and the Devils: La recta provincial—Gonzalo Maza; 11 (2007)

Mirror of Tunisia/Tunisia, the Trance and the Stone (Miroir de Tunis/Tunis, la transe et la Pierre, Tunisia/France, 1993)—Abdelwahab Meddeb; 2 (2004)

Miotte vu par Ruiz (Miotte by Ruiz, France, 2001)—Jean Miotte; 2 (2004)

The Blind Owl (La Chouette Aveugle, France/Switzerland, 1987)—Luc Moullet; 2 (2004)

Dialogue of Exiles (Diálogo de exilados, France 1974)—Zuzana Mirjam Pick; 2 (2004)

Three Crowns of the Sailor (Les Trois couronnes du matelot, France, 1982)—Bérénice Reynaud; 2 (2004)

Dogs' Dialogue (Colloque de chiens, short, France, 1977)—Jonathan Rosenbaum; 2 (2004)

Mammame (France, 1985)—Jonathan Rosenbaum; 2 (2004)

The Roof of the Whale aka On Top of the Whale (Hek dak van de Valvis / Le Toit de la baleine, Netherlands/France, 1981)—Jonathan Rosenbaum; 2 (2004)

Snakes and Ladders (Le Jeu de l'Oie: La Cartographie, short, France, 1980)—Jonathan Rosenbaum; 2 (2004)

The Comedy of Shadows (La Comédie des ombres): Fragments of a Screenplay—Raúl Ruiz; 2 (2004)

El Realismo Socialista [Considerádo Commo Una de las Bellas artes] (Socialist Realism [Considered as One of the Fine Arts], Chile, 1973)—Raúl Ruiz; 2 (2004)

The Golden Boat (USA, 1990)—Raúl Ruiz; 2 (2004)

Handbook of French History (Petit manuel d'histoire de France, 2 part TV series, France, 1979)—Raúl Ruiz; 2 (2004)

Palomita Blanca (Little White Dove, Chile, 1973)—Raúl Ruiz; 2 (2004)

Las Soledades (The Solitudes, UK, 1992)—Raúl Ruiz; 2 (2004)

Suspended Vocation (La Vocation suspendue, France, 1977)—Raúl Ruiz; 2 (2004)

Love Torn in Dream (Combat d'amour en songe, France/Portugal/Chile, 2000)—Guy Scarpetta; 2 (2004)

Cofralandes: Chilean Rhapsody (Cofralandes: Rapsodia Chilena, Chile/France, 2002)—Clemente Sobourin; 2 (2004)

Life is a Dream (Mémoire des apparences, France, 1986)—Lesley Stern; 2 (2004)

Letter from a Filmmaker, or The Return of a Library Lover (Lettre d'un cinéaste ou Le Retour d'un amateur de bibliothèques, short, France, 1983)—Charles Tesson; 2 (2004)

Ken Russell

Ken Russell's Portraits of Elgar, Delius and Mahler—Donald Phelps; 8 (2006)

Russian Postmodernism

Life Times 4, or: Postmodernism à la Russe—Julia Vassilieva

Paul Schrader

Pretending that Life has no Meaning: Interview with Paul Schrader—George Kouvaros; 11 (2007)

Jean-Jacques Schuhl

from Ingrid Caven: A Novel—Jean-Jacques Schuhl; 4 (2004)

Louis Skorecki

Louis Louie—Adrian Martin and Guillaume Ollendorff; 10 (2007)

Henri Storck

Subjects and Details Which Have Caused Fear Among Children—Henri Storck; 6 (2005)

Jean-Marie Straub

There's Nothing More International Than a Pack of Pimps: A Conversation between Pierre Clémenti, Miklós Janscó, Glauber Rocha and Jean-Marie Straub convened by Simon Hartog in Rome, February 1970—3 (2004)

Mitch Torres

Whispering In Our Hearts—Adrian Martin; 6 (2005)

Paolo Cherchi Usai

Passio: An Interview With Paolo Cherchi Usai—Grant McDonald; 10 (2007)

Agnès Varda

Agnès Varda's Open Harbour—Yvette Bíró; 9 (2006)

Dziga Vertov

Dziga Vertov: Storyboard—Roland Fischer-Briand; 9 (2006)

Order—Barbara Wurm; 9 (2006)

Entuzijazm: Symfonija Donbasu; Ukranian Film Poster for Enthusiasm—Dziga Vertov; 9 (2006)

Jean Vigo

À propos de Nice and the Extremely Necessary, Permanent Invention of the Cinematic Pamphlet—Nicole Brenez; 7 (2005)

Amos Vogel

The Vogel Call—Nicole Brenez; 3 (2004)

Bill Viola

The Arc of Passions: Bill Viola's New Works—Yvette Bíró; 6 (2005)

Andy Warhol

The '60s Without Compromise: Watching Warhol's Films—Thom Andersen; 8 (2006)

Chelsea Girls—Omar Diop; 8 (2006)

Orson Welles

Wrong Geometries in The Third Man—Richard Misek; 11 (2007)

Peter Whitehead

Peter Whitehead: The Exigency of Joy—Nicole Brenez; 10 (2007)

Billy Wilder

Norma and Delilah [Sunset Boulevard]—Mark Rappaport; 10 (2007)

Shelley Winters

Shelley Winters Top and Bottom—Georgia Lea; 8 (2006)

Alan Wright

Scuppered: Of Fish and Film—Alan Wright; 12 (2008)

Updated: 11/05/08

"November Spawned (Another) Monster"—Michael Hawley Heroically Faces His Fears

October and its dizzying number of film festivals has come and gone, leaving some Bay Area cinephiles bleary-eyed and others begging for more. Well for better or worse, more is exactly what we get in November—much, much more. With seven significant festivals tripping over each other in mid-month and some truly great rep and art house programs on the way, there'll be no choice but to take a deep breath and soldier on.

Fresh off the success of its inaugural French Cinema Now series, the San Francisco Film Society presents two back-to-back festivals in November—the 3rd San Franciscso International Animation Festival (Nov. 13–16) and New Italian Cinema (Nov. 16–23). Both take place at Landmark's Embarcadero Cinema. Animation isn't really my thing, so it's fortunate that Michael Guillén loves the stuff and has written an excellent preview piece here. Irregardless, I wouldn't dream of missing Ari Folman's Waltz With Bashir, which is Israel's 2008 Oscar submission and one of the most acclaimed films from this year's Cannes Film Festival. Critics universally praised Folman's creative use of animation to explore clouded memories of Israel's 1982 war with Lebanon. Afterwards, I'll want to stick around for Idiots and Angels, the latest from indie animation king Bill Plympton. The film screened at the recent Mill Valley Film Festival (MVFF), and comes highly recommended by folks who saw it there. Play It By Eye, a collection of the latest in animated music videos, also sounds tempting to me.

Literally one hour after the animation festival concludes, 2008's New Italian Cinema kicks off with two screenings of Paolo Virzi's Napoleon and Me. The film stars Daniel Auteuil, an actor whose increasingly hammy performances in recent years have made me wary of anything he stars in. He does seem perfectly cast, however, as the French emperor living out his years of exile on the island of Elba. That fact, combined with the expected personal appearance by director Virzi makes this an opening night I won't miss.

Speaking of Paolo Virzi, each year New Italian Cinema honors an established director with a tribute, and this year it's Virzi's turn. Although best known in the U.S. for his mid-sized 2003 arthouse hit, Caterina in the Big City, he first appeared on my radar when the San Francisco International Film Festival (SFIFF) screened Hardboiled Egg in 1998. This stirring, working-class coming-of-age tale was one of my 10 favorite films of that year, and I'm thrilled the Film Society is bringing it back as one-half of a Virzi mini-retrospective (the other half being the director's 1994 debut, Living It Up). Both will screen on the second night of the festival.

While I'm pleased that New Italian Cinema is spotlighting Paolo Virzi, I had hoped this might be the year we'd be brought up to date with Paolo Sorrentino. In 2002 the festival presented the director's debut feature One Man Up, and since then he's has had three films in competition at Cannes: 2004's The Consequences of Love, 2006's Friend of the Family and this year's Il Divo, which walked away with the festival's Prix du Jury. To the best of my knowledge, none of these have screened in the Bay Area. But it's hard to complain about not getting to see the jury prize when the festival has gone one better by programming Cannes' 2008 Grand Prix champion, Matteo Garrone's Neapolitan mafia epic Gomorrah. It's one of New Italian Cinema's two closing night films (the other is Paolo Benvenuti's Puccini and the Girl) and is also Italy's 2008 Oscar submission. You can watch the film's startling trailer here.

In between opening and closing nights, New Italian Cinema will feature the works of seven "emerging" Italian directors, all of whom are competing for the audience-awarded City of Florence Award. Three have grabbed my attention. Andrea Molaioli's The Girl by the Lake is an atmospheric murder mystery which won a staggering 10 Donatello Awards (Italy's Oscar). In Francesco Munzi's The Rest of the Night, a wrongfully fired Romanian maid (Laura Vasiliu, the pregnant girl in 4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days) strikes back at her wealthy Italian employers. This topical tale of immigration and xenophobia premiered in Director's Fortnight at Cannes, and earned a rave review from Jay Weissberg in Variety. Weissberg is less enthusiastic about Carmine Amoroso's Cover Boy: The Last Revolution, but I'm planning to see it anyway. In this cinematic swipe at fame and consumerism, a handsome Romanian immigrant goes from being coveted by a closeted train station janitor to being coveted on the catwalks of Milan. Check out the film's website and see if you can resist clicking your browser's refresh button. (It's interesting to note that three of the seven competing films deal with the issue of Romanian immigrants in Italy—the third film being Federico Bondi's Black Sea).

Managing to overlap both the animation and Italian fests is 3rd i: San Francisco International South Asian Film Festival, which runs from November 13 to 16 at the Brava Theater Center and the Castro Theater. Now in its sixth year, 3rd i once again features the latest cinema from South Asia (India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal, Tibet, Bhutan and the Maldives) and its global Diaspora. Permit me to cherry-pick a few possible highlights:

* In the Saturday morning Castro timeslot usually reserved for a vintage Bollywood film, 3rd i reaches back to 1929 for the silent A Throw of Dice, recently restored by the British Film Institute.

* The Saturday night contemporary Bollywood timeslot features a buffed-up Shah Rukh Khan in the romance, revenge and reincarnation fable, Om Shanti Om. The film is a curious choice, given that the SF International Asian American Film Festival (SFIAAFF) also showed it at the Castro back in March. But I have to say, that evening was the most fun I've had at the movies all year—and it if weren't for a conflict with Waltz With Bashir at the animation fest, I'd happily entertain the idea of sitting through it again.

* Two years ago, 3rd i screened Omkara, Vishal Bharadwaj's fascinating Bollywood adaptation of Shakespeare's Othello. In 2003, the same director adapted Macbeth, and that film, Maqbool will be shown at this year's 3rd i. By the way, curiously M.I.A. from this year's line-up is The Last Lear, by Indian arthouse director (and 3rd i regular) Rituparno Ghosh. The film features Bollywood veteran Amitabh Bachchan as an aging actor who takes on the role of King Lear.

* In K.M. Madhusudanan's Bioscope, a man in 1920s Kerala buys a bioscope projector and consequently arouses the superstitious fears of his fellow villagers.

* For those interested in something completely different I'd recommend Omar Ali Khan's Hell's Ground, which has the distinction of being Pakistan's first slasher flick. Five attractive pot-smoking teens defy their Islamic culture and sneak off to see a rock concert. They take a shortcut through the jungle and soon find themselves fleeing a blood-stained, burka-clad, flail-wielding maniac (along with some flesh-eating zombies to boot). Decently acted, atmospherically filmed and plain old grisly fun.

* If you missed it at the SFIFF or during its recent brief theatrical run, 3rd i is providing another opportunity to see Irene Salina's documentary Flow: For Love of Water. The film investigates how the world's most precious natural resource is being hijacked by corporate greed.

* 3rd i closes with Slumdog Millionaire. This Toronto Film Festival audience award winner is the story of a poor Mumbai teen and how he comes to win the top prize on India's version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? The film is scheduled to open at the Embarcadero Cinema several days prior to its festival screening, but I imagine it would be great fun to see at the Castro with an enthusiastic 3rd i audience.

As I've followed the international festival circuit throughout 2008, I've been salivating over what's come out of Latin America. Nearly all of my favorite directors have released new films and the rookies have followed promising debuts with career-validating second films. Humor me while I name-check a bunch of them. From Mexico: Fernando Eimbcke's Lake Tahoe, Rodrigo Plá's Desert Within, Gerardo Naranjo's I'm Going to Explode, Ernesto Contreras' Blue Eyelids and Amat Escalante's The Bastards. From Argentina: Lucrecia Martel's The Headless Woman, Daniel Burman's Empty Nest, Pablo Trapero's The Lion's Den, Lisandro Alonso's Liverpool, Carlos Sorin's The Window, Eliseo Subiela's Don't Look Down and Pablo Aguero's Salamandra. From Brazil: Bruno Barreto's Last Stop 174, Walter Salles' Linha de Passe, Marcos Jorge's Estômago and José Padilha's Elite Troop. From Uruguay: Federico Veiroj's Acné and César Charlone and Enrique Fernández' The Pope's Toilet. From Chile: Pablo Larrain's Tony Manero.

Alas, not a single one of these films is to be found in the line-up for the 12th International Latino Film Festival, which takes place throughout the Bay Area from November 7 to 23. What IS in the festival? Well, for starters, a lot of movies we've already seen, including the opening night film. Dikayl Rimmasch's Cachao: uno mas had a Spotlight Screening at this year's SFIFF, complete with an in-person appearance from producer Andy Garcia. Other SFIFF reruns include Israel Cárdenas and Laura Amelia Guzmán's Cochochi and Alex Rivera's Sleep Dealer, both of which I'd recommend. Ann Kaneko's Against the Grain: An Artist's Survival Guide to Peru was one of my favorite docs from this year's SFIAAFF, and Esteban Sapir's wildly creative, B&W silent film La Antena screened at this year's Cinequest in San Jose. Michael Guillén and I both saw Francisco Franco's Burn the Bridges at Palm Springs and enjoyed it to varying degrees. Finally, director Gregory Nava will appear at this year's festival for a 25th anniversary tribute to his groundbreaking film El Norte.

As for the rest of the line-up, I look at the program and it stares back at me like so much mystery meat. I see that Alice Braga stars in Lina Chamie's The Milky Way, which is probably a good sign. Esteban Schroeder's Kill Them All won Best Actress and Screenplay prizes at the 2007 Havana Film Festival, while Simon Brand's Paraiso Travel (featuring John Leguizamo) took both the jury and audience awards at the recent L.A. Latino Film Festival. Does anyone have other suggestions? Regarding all those titles not in the festival, we can only hope the SFIFF programming staff in its infinite wisdom, chooses to include many of these in their festival next spring.

Believe it or not, there are three more festivals elbowing for the limelight during the exact same 17-day period from November 7 to 23. Frank Lee of San Francisco's Lee Neighborhood Theaters (the 4-Star, Presidio and Marina) offers up his Chinese American Film Festival from November 11 to 20 (with a special opening night on November 8). Of the 12 feature films in the line-up, anticipated highlights include the latest from Johnnie To (Sparrow) and a return of Peter Chan's The Warlords, which was at the SFIFF. Also at the 4-Star from November 21 to 23 is the Korean American Film Festival, with seven films that play one-time each. If you missed last January's SF Film Society screening of Lee Chang-dong's devastating Secret Sunshine, consider yourself lucky to have another chance. I'm perversely intrigued by the festival's opening night film, Lee Hye-young and Lee Hye-Joon's Like a Virgin. The film is about a tubby, Madonna-obsessed teenage boy who plans to pay for a sex-change operation by winning a wrestling championship. Director Lee Hye-joon co-wrote the hilarious 1980s juvenile delinquent comedy Conduct Zero, which was one of my favorite films of 2004; so I'm confident this might be worth a look. Finally, the 33rd Annual American Indian Film Festival takes place from November 7 to 15 at Landmark's Embarcadero Cinema and the Palace of Fine Arts.

It's not just these seven festivals which are screaming for our movie-going attention this month. Landmark Theaters will be opening three of my five favorite movies of 2008, and I'm anxious to take a second look at all of three: Charlie Kaufman's Synecdoche, New York and Gonzalo Arijon's Stranded: I Have Come from a Plane That Crashed on the Mountains open this Friday, November 7, followed by Arnaud Desplechin's A Christmas Tale on the 21st. (Stranded won the Audience Award for Best Documentary Feature at this year's SFIFF, and A Christmas Tale opened French Cinema Now.)

When it's not hosting a film festival, the Castro Theater will be busy prepping audiences for an in-person Tony Curtis Tribute on the 18th (co-presented by the MVFF and Marc Huestis). They're screening six of his films between November 8 to 12, and I'm personally hoping to catch Trapeze, Sweet Smell of Success and The Boston Strangler. On Monday the 17th the theater hosts a very special event—Carl Theodor Dreyer's 1929 silent masterpiece The Passion of Joan of Arc, accompanied by 200 singers and musicians performing Richard Einhorn's Voices of Light soundtrack. Unfortunately, this is the same evening as the Paolo Virzi double-bill at New Italian Cinema, making this My Most Tortuous Movie Decision of the Month. From the 19th to the 25th, the theater hosts the "definitive" new 35mm restoration of Max Ophuls' 1955 Lola Montès, direct from its acclaimed screenings at this year's Cannes, Telluride and New York Film Festivals. I saw a press screening and can attest that Ophuls' Cinemascope and Eastman-colored tale of a 19th century mistress of scandal looks truly ravishing on the Castro's big screen. Then on the 26th of November, the theater begins a month-long run of Gus Van Sant's long-awaited Milk, and I can't imagine wanting to see it anywhere else.

Two of San Francisco's finest museums are also hosting some extraordinary film events this month. Over at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (YBCA), I'm planning to catch three programs. Wang Bing's acclaimed three-hour Fengming: A Chinese Memoir documents one woman's recollection of the Cultural Revolution. YBCA describes it as "emotionally devastating … not only a crucial historical document, but a love story and a conceptual art piece." Alexei Balabanov's Cargo 200 is a pitch dark political allegory set in pre-Perestroika Russia. "Part crime story, part horror film … an extreme work (that) has drawn comparisons to Pasolini's Salo," which if true, means I'll be watching much of it with my hands over my eyes. [Editor's Note: Michael Hawley didn't mention this, but the YBCA screening of the controversial Cargo 200 is the U.S. premiere of the film. It's taken nearly a year's worth of negotiations on Joel Shepard's part to bring the film to the Bay Area, along with all that went into bringing Fengming: A Chinese Memoir to YBCA as well. Support Joel's programming!] Most of all, I'm looking forward to Sexy Trailer Trash, a compilation of 60's, 70's and 80's exploitation/porn trailers assembled by YBCA's film and video curator extraordinaire Joel Shepard. This is actually one-third of a YBCA program titled Holiday Heat, which includes screenings of Gerard Domiano's Devil in Miss Jones (which I last saw at a suburban Pennsylvania shopping center at the height of 1970's "porno chic") and Gerri Sedley's Teenage Hitchhikers, "one of the smash hits of the Quentin Tarantino Film Festival held in Austin, Texas … uncut version, never released on VHS or DVD."

Across the street at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, we're being feted with a comprehensive Derek Jarman retrospective. Running through all of November and half of December, the series includes 35mm prints of all 11 of Jarman's feature films (16mm in the case of 1977's Jubilee), plus Issac Julien's 2008 Tilda Swinton-scripted documentary Derek. I've seen them all before, with the exception of War Requiem, The Angelic Conversation and Blue, and anticipate filling in those gaps. I may also take another look at Edward II, my favorite of the bunch.

There's always something worth seeing at UC Berkeley's Pacific Film Archive, and the programs on the November/December calendar are no exception. First up is Cinema Japan: A Wreath for Madame Kawakita, a 24-film, eight-director survey of post-war Japanese cinema. Madame Kashiko Kawakita is acknowledged as the person most responsible for bringing Japanese cinema to international attention, as well as for exhibiting foreign art films in Japan. The tribute includes familiar favorites and lesser known works by Kurosawa, Ichikawa, Suzuki, Imamura, Oshima and others. Mahjong: New Independent Chinese Cinema highlights the works of China's 21st century directors, "working between the cracks of private-studio commerce and a state system that now exists only as a censorship tool." There are nine films in the series, several of them Bay Area premieres, including Wu Wenguang's Fuck Cinema (whose title sort of speaks for the whole series). I highly recommend Zhang Lu's Grain in Ear, which was shown at 2006's SFIAAFF, and I'd be curious to hear what people might have to say about Ying Liang's The Other Half, which was my least favorite film of the 2007 SFIFF. One film being shown purely for the sake of contrast is the 1970 ballet version of The Red Detachment of Women, one of the Cultural Revolution's Eight Model Works. This was the infamous ballet performed for Richard Nixon when he visited China in 1972. Regrettably, I won't be able to attend the PFA screening of this, but can console myself by watching it on YouTube of all places. Every new PFA calendar features something lovably obscure, and this month's winner is Discovering Teuvo Tulio, a four-film retrospective dedicated to Finland's master of 1930's/1940's erotic melodrama. Finally, beginning in late November and running through December we'll see A Dirty Dozen: The Films of Robert Aldrich and Moments of Truth: Italian Cinema Classics.

LOLA MONTÈS—Stefan Drössler PFA Lecture

In mid-January earlier this year Stefan Drössler, the Director of the Munich Film Museum, delivered a lecture co-presented by Pacific Film Archive and the Goethe-Institut San Francisco on the restoration of the German premiere version of Max Ophüls' Lola Montès; a print acquired by PFA from a private collection with help from Drössler and the Munich Film Museum. Among the scope of Drössler's many specialities in film history are German cinema, Hollywood cinema (including his leading expertise on Orson Welles) and the history of 3-D, to name just a few. With Lola Montès currently poised for a theatrical run in San Francisco, I thought now would be a perfect opportunity to share his PFA commentary.

Admitting it is always a pleasure to lecture at PFA, Drössler likewise apologized for his modest English. He outlined that he would first discuss the production circumstances behind Lola Montès, followed by 10 minutes worth of production stills from the film, including a survey of the 1950s artwork used for the film's promotion, which might more fully provide insight as to why there was a near riot when the film was first released. Following that would be a separate 12-minute clip reel comparing the different versions of the film, including rarely-seen takes from the American version, the full version of which is now believed to be lost.

The French version of Lola Montès disastrously premiered in Paris on September 22, 1955. Billed as a "super-production", a huge crowd gathered for the premiere, both inside and outside of the cinema. After the film had run no more than a few minutes the audience began to laugh, jeer and shout boos. Truffaut described that the exiting audience warned those waiting for the next screening not to bother because the film was a disaster. On the night of the first showing the producers, responding to public disdain, immediately began editing the film, produced in Cinemascope with a magnetic sound track. They worked on the sound track to erase certain words, especially one word in a scene early on in the film where Lola (Martine Carol) as a young girl is entering the sleeping cabin of a ship. In the scene she is asked her age and—though in the existing print you can see her lips moving in response—you hear nothing. Originally she responded she was 16 and this is what started the disbelieving laughter in the audience who knew Martine Carol—considered the French sex star of the '50s—was far from 16. Carol, in fact, was reputably one of the first French actresses to bare her breasts for the camera, scenes with her were always provocative, and the audiences at Lola Montès were admittedly there to satisfy their salaciousness.

The German version of the film premiered three months later on January 12, 1956 and, once again, it proved disastrous, though this time the producers explained to the audience that they would be watching a preview print that would be cut and redubbed for general release three weeks later in Germany.

Thus began the unfortunate tale of the long butchering of Ophüls' last film Lola Montès. By the time the film was finally released in America in 1959 under the title The Sins of Lola Montès, its original two-hour length was cut down to 75 minutes, redubbed three times, with the sequential ordering of scenes changed. Unfortunately, all of these edits were done on the original negatives, which has made it extremely difficult to reconstruct the film; but, Drössler felt it important to recapitulate the sad production history of what was the most expensive European film after the second World War. It cost roughly 8 million deutschmarks (roughly $2,000,000), which meant that everyone in France and Germany would have had to go to the theatre and pay an entrance fee just to recover the film's costs. From its inception, it was an ill-fated project engineered by two producers who had no experience in film production; one of them an Italian-French producer Albert Caraco who had made his fortune in Swiss real estate. The other producer was a Nazi who had worked in Paris during the occupation but was unable to continue working in film production in France after the war. He returned to Germany to work in film distribution and made a fortune in bad, cheaply-produced German films. The two men met in Lausanne and began entertaining fantasies of creating a historical drama to rival Hollywood epics. They had no true idea of what they were doing but they began hunting for a property of a known character and came upon the passionate story of Eliza Rosanna Gilbert, better known as her stage name Lola Montez, an infamous cabaret dancer whose numerous affairs included such notable personalities as composer Franz Liszt and Ludwig I, King of Bavaria.

It was clear to them that their film needed to be an international co-production so that it could sell in all the countries. To that effect, they sought out a multilingual European film director. Jacques Tourneur was their first consideration, though Drössler is not sure if they actually contacted him. Michael Powell was their second choice and they contacted him at the Cannes Film Festival. While Powell was pondering the opportunity, the producers decided upon Max Ophüls, who was experienced in shooting films in Germany and then later—during his emigration—in the Netherlands, France, and eventually Hollywood. Ophüls was successful—especially in Germany with his 1950 film La Ronde—not so much for the film's artistic value but its adult themes of illicit love affairs, which passed the German censors only because Ophüls cleverly kept the raciest scenes in French. The producers felt that Ophüls skilled manipulation of censors would be invaluable in their production of Lola Montès.

Despite Ophüls's specific contractual demands that he have complete control over the screenplay, the producers next set their sights on lending their project a spurious air of prestige by finding a literary source upon which the film could be based. To accomplish this, they hired the French bestselling novelist Cecil Saint-Laurent to write a novel about Lola Montez. This is one of the first mysteries of the film. You read in the film's credits that it was based on the novel of Cecil Saint-Laurent but Saint-Laurent didn't write the novel until after the completion of the film. Ophüls wrote his screenplay independently from any novel.

In an interview, Ophüls stated that he had no original interest in directing Lola Montès; but, then he had an idea about a first draft, a treatment, wherein the story would be told as a big circus show so that—in effect—the film would be about show business. The film presents Lola at the end of her career as a performer in a circus with her life rendered in flashbacks. Throughout all the scenes money and business predominate and the film is full of caricatures of producers, by which Ophüls satirized the entertainment industry.

The producers insisted upon making an even bigger film and frequently came up with ideas that Max Ophüls didn't like. He would only agree to their ideas on the conditions that he would be given more money, more extras, and that no limits would be placed on his budget and artistic creativity. The producers wanted the film to be shot in Cinemascope and—though Ophüls didn't like the wide screen—he agreed to the condition but created a cinematographic design that frequently cut the wide screen through the use of side curtains and iris-like effects that reduced the horizontal image. The producers also wanted to shoot the film in color. At that time there were very few film productions in color. Again, Ophüls was in disagreement with the usage of color but circumvented the condition by creatively resisting a realistic usage of color and designing a concept of using special colors for each flashback sequence to indicate seasonal episodes. This necessitated the painting of houses and streets, separate costumes, to conform to his color concepts. The producers wanted to use a magnetic sound track, which Ophüls hated. He used only the front channels instead of the wide channels and decided to use overlapping soundtracks so that people in the foreground were talking as well as people in the background. Often you cannot understand everything everyone is saying. You can only understand the words Ophüls deemed especially important. Though this became a technique used by later filmmakers, at the time it proved confusing to audiences. Finally, the producers wanted to use Martine Carol, the sex star, which he agreed to but you can see what he did with her. There was a sequence where Carol rips open her dress, which the audience was anxiously awaiting, and Ophüls cuts away in a manner that proves comic. In retrospect one can see how brilliantly Ophüls was playfully frustrating audience expectations. Even the flashback structure has no logical sense. It's never made clear why they are not in chronological order; but, this was important for Ophüls and he insisted upon it. Ophüls' stormy relationship with his producers informed his creativity in such a way that—as Rodney Hill states it in his Senses of Cinema essay—"one of the core principles of auteur criticism is that a great director will turn such practical hardships to artistic advantage."

The final piece to this production history, which is less well known, is that the film was shot in three different languages. In the 1930s, before magnetic tapes were invented, sound was recorded on disks. It was difficult to dub a film so separate Italian, German and French versions of a film were made. Even though in the 1950s magnetic tape had come into use, it remained exceedingly difficult to match color negatives and so the practice of filming multiple versions of a film in separate languages persisted. Ophüls elected to shoot Lola Montès three times; once in English, once in French, once in German. This fact determined the selection of the actors. Fortunately Peter Ustinov was multilingual but Martine Carol was not as accomplished and so Ophüls had a lot of problems with her. She was completely dubbed in the English version and partially in the German.

The shooting of Lola Montès took place in the summer of 1955 over five months, beginning in France, with the last four weeks in Munich where the circus sequences were filmed. The film was set in a circus arena and—though there existed a circus arena in Munich—Ophüls insisted on building his own, which was so immense that it had space for 2,000 people. It was built at the Bavaria studios and cost a fortune, especially because Ophüls did not want to hire extras for the circus. He hired an actual circus that had a hundred animals, many of which you never see in the film. If you're lucky you see a few horses and the edge of a polar bear. For his circus audience he photographed extras that he positioned in the bleachers, some of them with moveable arms, and with some live actors inbetween. This process ended up being much more expensive than if he had hired extras.

Max Ophüls is well-known for his long tracking shots, a strategy he devised partially to keep producers from cutting his films. He used the same strategy in the circus sequences of Lola Montès and what is of interest is that you can actually see the tracks in some of the scenes only partially covered by carpeting.

There were many complications during the shoot. At one point Martine Carol went on strike because the producers had trouble securing the money to pay her. During one of Ophüls' color schematics, an owner of a house refused to allow the production company to paint his house red, so they had to make do by draping it in red fabric. For one sequence set in the Munich gardens, 1000 extras were employed for a scene that lasted no more than 30 seconds in the finished film. Since production was frequently postponed, Ophüls could not transfer the company to the high Alps to film the winter sequences so they re-created winter in Hamburg by using salt for snow, causing much architectural damage.

For much of the press photos used to publicize the film to generate interest for its premiere, Martine Carol's breasts were exposed. These are all scenes, some with very daring costumes, which do not appear in the finished film.

In the original film, the credits came first, then the circus, then the flashbacks of Lola's life; but, in the American version, the story was re-sequenced in chronological order so that the circus came last. Ophüls was outraged knowing the producers intended to do this and did everything he could to prevent them from editing his film, but to no avail. His death by heart attack in March 1957 saved him the disgrace of seeing the American version.

The remainder of Drössler's presentation was a fascinating and detailed comparison of various existing versions of the film that underscored the obstacles encountered in reconstructing the film: jumpcuts that were made to shorten the film that interfered with both visual and aural continuity; lefthand cropping of the original cinemascope ratio effected to enchance sound; aesthetic decisions on the part of Ophüls to grade the film darker in the positive print than its original negative, requiring reconstructionists to debate whether or not to use a negative or positive print and the ethical concerns of whether reconstructionists have the right to make a film look better than the author's intent. The reconstruction of Max Ophüls Lola Montès is the first to be completely done in high definition with a Dolby soundtrack. Drössler lobbied against a Dolby digital soundtrack to retain the sound of the film's original magnetic soundtrack, again believing reconstructionists do not have the right to make something sound clearer than Ophüls intended. Hopefully, the DVD extras will include a detailed summation of the restoration. Until then, I strongly recommend Dinko Tucakovic's FIPRESCI write-up from this year's Cannes Film Festival.

Cross-published on Twitch.