Foolish Wives (1922): South West Silents

One of the great visionaries of the silent era, Erich von Stroheim, wrote, directed and starred in this extravagant erotic melodrama about a predatory Russian count, out to make a killing in Monte Carlo. A trio of Russian con artists, the monocled von Stroheim (‘the man you love to hate’) as Count Karazmin and his two female ‘cousins’ take a luxurious villa above Monte Carlo to defraud wealthy women in the playground of European post-war decadence. This was Hollywood’s first million-dollar movie, originally planned as a six-hour epic, and the opulent sets – with the California coast standing in for Monaco – glow in this glorious new restoration. 

Brand new restoration by MoMA and San Francisco Silent Film Festival with live accompaniment by Meg Morley.