Kent MOMI is pleased to announce a new eight-week programme of screenings at the museum. The screenings, collectively entitled CINEMA OF DESIRE will run every Friday evening from 16th August to 4th October. See below for the intoxicating details!
WEEK THREE Friday 30th August
Lola Montès
Introduced by David. Running time: 116 minutes)
There is more controversy about Max Ophuls’s subtle and visually ravishing last film, Lola Montès (1955), than almost any other film. Considered by the Nouvelle Vague critics to be among the10 greatest films of all time, it was pronounced a flop on first release, in Paris, in a 140 minute version, and immediately withdrawn from circulation. The 114-minute 2020 French version restoration we present this evening is the most complete version available to date. (The film was shot simultaneously in French and German, and exists also in an English dubbed version.) This was Ophuls’ only film in Technicolor and Cinemascope, processes that showed his innovative tracking shots to best advantage and allowed him to use saturated colours as an ingredient in storytelling.
The film is loosely based on the life of the famed 19th-century courtesan Lola Montes, who excited and shocked her contemporaries in equal measure. Ophuls, however, is not interested in historical drama: he wants to show that women are still commodities, manipulated by men, in 1955. He purposely concentrates on the end of Lola’s life, when she is both dangerously ill and still determined to be her own woman, intercutting her present life as a circus performer and her life as mistress of, amongst a multitude of others, Franz List and King Ludwig 1 of Bavaria, who lost his throne as a result of their relationship.
Faced with a leading lady he had not chosen, Martine Carol, Ophuls turned her limitations to advantage, indicating to the audience that it was Lola’s physical involvement with the rich and famous rather than her beauty or talent that made her famous – by paying to kiss her hand they become intimate, at one remove, with a world-famous composer and a monarch. However, audiences disliked seeing their new star treated in this way, and shunned the film. It is held together by a superb performance by Peter Ustinov as a money-grubbing ringmaster – both the narrator of her life and her last exploiter.
To reserve places, please hit the button, below, or email info@kentmomi.org
First come, first served with a limited capacity of 30 places.
Doors open 5.30, for drinks, nibbles & classic cocktails by Dr. Natasha.
Films commence 6.30pm sharp.
Screenings are FREE to Kent MOMI yearly ticket holders, but a £5 donation is suggested, to help us keep the lights on. Museum tickets can be bought at the door, and are valid for a year.