Journal of Film Preservation - FIAF
Journal of Film Preservation - FIAF
Journal of Film Preservation - FIAF
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Reconstructing the German<br />
Version <strong>of</strong> Lola Montes<br />
Stefan Droessler<br />
<strong>FIAF</strong> Award<br />
Prix <strong>FIAF</strong><br />
Premio <strong>FIAF</strong><br />
When Max Ophüls’ Lola Montes premiered in Paris on December<br />
22,1955, it had to meet expectations: a lot had been heard about the<br />
most expensive European super-production, shot in French, German<br />
and English versions, in Eastmancolor and in CinemaScope with fourchannel<br />
magnetic sound. The prestigious international cast was<br />
headed by Martine Carol, whose name since Caroline chérie (1950),<br />
Lucrèce Borgia (1953), Madame du Barry (1954) and Nana (1955)<br />
promised another frivolous and piquant period movie. But Ophüls’<br />
movie, set against the background <strong>of</strong> a big circus show in which Lola<br />
Montes exposes herself while remembering in flashbacks various<br />
episodes <strong>of</strong> her life, received furious reactions by the audience and<br />
reserved reviews by the critics - the beginning <strong>of</strong> a financial disaster<br />
which was survived by neither the production or distribution<br />
companies or the director or the film itself. In vain, Ophüls fought<br />
against the mutilation <strong>of</strong> his work; he couldn’t prevent the reediting <strong>of</strong><br />
the three original negatives and thus, the destruction <strong>of</strong> his film.<br />
The framing story: Lola in the circus like a puppet in the show business<br />
Only after 1968, when producer Pierre Braunberger purchased the<br />
rights <strong>of</strong> Lola Montes from a bankrupt estate and duped an old<br />
distribution print was a restored French version <strong>of</strong> 110 minutes length<br />
available and distributed all over the world. But rumour had it that a<br />
German version print from the Munich <strong>Film</strong>museum had the<br />
advantages <strong>of</strong> four-channel magnetic sound and a wider CinemaScope<br />
gauge over the Braunberger print, whose structure it shared, plus 3<br />
more minutes in length (yet without any additional scenes: some shots<br />
are longer in the German version).<br />
Attempts to preserve this print were confronted with an insoluble<br />
problem: The Eastman Colour print from the fifties showed strong<br />
signs <strong>of</strong> colour fading, in some parts only the magenta had survived. It<br />
5 <strong>Journal</strong> <strong>of</strong> <strong>Film</strong> <strong>Preservation</strong> / 65 / 2002
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