Aug 24 – FOOLISH WIVES [silent film accompaniment]
When: Wednesday, August 24th, 2022 at 8:00PM
What: Foolish Wives
https://www.moma.org/calendar/events/8062
1922. USA. Directed by Erich von Stroheim. With Erich von Stroheim, Rudolph Christians, Miss Dupont, Maude George. Silent. 147 min.
Advertised as “the first million-dollar movie” when it was released in 1922, Erich von Stroheim’s Foolish Wives offered American audiences a sweeping vision of European decadence, unforgettably embodied by the director himself in his starring performance as Count Sergius Karamzin, a phony Russian aristocrat who bilks the naïve tourists of Monte Carlo with the help of his two dubious “cousins” (Mae Busch and Maude George). Marking the film’s centennial, this will be the New York premiere of a major new restoration of this silent classic, produced by MoMA and the San Francisco Silent Film Festival. The sole surviving nitrate print of the American release version, preserved in MoMA’s archive since the 1930s, has been scanned, regraded, and digitally restored to remove dirt, scratches, and printing imperfections, to yield a visual quality not seen since the film’s initial release, and augmented with a recreation of the film’s long-unseen original tinting, including a spectacular hand-colored fire sequence at the film’s climax. Stroheim’s performance as the egregiously amoral count has lost none of its wickedness and subversive appeal—100 years later, he remains the Man You Love to Hate.
This film accompanies Film in the Sculpture Garden.
Where: The Sculpture Garden at the Museum of Modern Art
11 East 53rd Street, New York, NY 10019
Directions: http://www.moma.org/visit/
Nearest Subway: 5 Ave/53 St on M/V, 57 St on F, 47-50 Sts on B/D/F/M
Admission: $12 ($10 for senior citizens, $8 for students / free for children ages 16 and under & Museum members, screening ticket required)
Admission to the day’s film program is free for Museum ticket holders, but separate screening tickets are required.
Film admission is partial Museum admission. The price of a film ticket can be applied toward the price of Museum admission or MoMA membership within 30 days of your purchase. For more info, visit https://www.moma.org/visit/film.
