IFFI, Goa 2008 saw a major event with the screening of the restored French ‘martyrised masterpiece’ Lola Montes to a packed house, reports Sandhya Iyer

The 1956 film, Lola Montes for long was considered a doomed big budget extravaganza, not least because some of its negatives were thought to be lost forever. This film paints the portrait of a femme fatale from the 19th century, whose life is shaped by scandalous affairs, and a woman not willing to give up her freedom, or at least the illusive idea she may have of freedom.

Directed by Max Ophuls, the film was met with outrage when it released. The film was rubbished by reviewers and rejected by audiences alike. Only a few critics gave the film a chance. And one of its first savours happened to be none other than critic Francois Trauffaut, who went on to direct some great films himself.

The film’s disappointing commercial fate led to the producers making various cuts to Lola Montes, infuriating its hapless director, Max Ophuls who died the next year.

The years passed. A few more or less maimed prints of the more or less orioginal version still circulated in film societies. In film schools, Lola Montes quickly earned the rather dubious reputation of a ‘martyrised masterpiece’

It was not until 1963 that some of the film’s greatness came to the fore, when it was screened at the New York Film Festival. Andrew Sarris, the doyen of American movie critics wrote, “Lola Montes, in my un-humble opinion is the great film of all time and I am willing to stake my critical reputation on this proposition,”

This excited some interest and gradually over the decades serious efforts were made by people – directly or indirectly involved with the film to locate all the materials to reconstitute the original French version.

The Thomson Foundation for Film and Television Heritage, with the support of Pune’s own FTII and the French Embassy in India took up the work of restoring this film that looked like it was going to be lost forever. It took two years of intense research, technical expertise and a great deal of money to restore the film and its grand unveiling happened this year at the Cannes.

Similarly, the film was premiered for the Indian audiences at IFFI to a rousing response on November 24. Lola Montes is part of the Film Heritage section - a segment dedicated towards representing significant cultural and historical documents as well as treasures of inspiration for future cinematic creations. The theme this year is Woman! and presents some of the great female characters portrayed on celluloid worldwide. From Lubitsch

Cluny Brown to Imitation of Life by Douglas Sirk and from Ritwik Ghatak’s Subarnalekha to Mikio Naruse’s Floating Clouds and Maurice Pialat’s Loulou, each film presents a different side of a woman.

To inaugurate the second edition of the Film Heritage section at IFFI were present Managing Director of the Thomson Foundation, Severnine Wemaere, Jean Francois Rauger, Director of Programming, Cinémathèque française and renowned filmmaker Mani Kaul. The focus was on the importance of preservation of classics that were under definite threat of extinction if measures are not taken in time. According to Mani Kaul, Indians have always been a bit indifferent to the idea of preservation. “Our epics were never written down. We’ve had a very oral tradition to pass down our stories to future generations. Hence we are not able to adapt to the idea that something we make must be physically preserved too. Many of my own films are not to be found and I fear they maybe lost forever,” he said.

The organisation has not taken up any Indian film for restoration yet, but Wemaere expressed that classics worldwide face similar problems and a lot needs to be done through combined efforts of all involved.

Talking about Lola Montes, they said how the film was a very important classic in the annals of cinematic history and its restoration was a historical moment in itself.