The notion of the “testament”–the final work of a major filmmaker–is an important one to film lovers. It can be traced back to the 60s, specifically to the French New Wave and the forging in this country of the concept of the film auteur, a time when these and related phenomena were altering the official canons of movie culture. Starting next Tuesday, May 17, the Film Center of the Art Institute will present a weekly series of testaments to run through the end of June.
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Fritz Lang’s The Thousand Eyes of Dr. Mabuse (1960), for example, and John Ford’s Seven Women (1966) are movies that separate the sheep from the goats as far as aficionados of their directors are concerned. Both films premiered mostly in seedy grind houses; most reviewers promptly dismissed or ignored them. Dr. Mabuse, made in West Germany, was released in the United States only in a dubbed version; and because it has never been subsequently subtitled in English, the Film Center will be showing the dubbed version.
Richard Pena, the director of the Film Center and the one who selected these films, believes they represent the essence of these filmmakers’ visions. My own particular favorites in the series–Carl Dreyer’s Gertrud (1964), The Saga of Anatahan, and Max Ophuls’s Lola Montes (1955) are, for me, three of the most powerful and beautiful films ever made; many of the others are not far behind, and all are eminently worth seeing.
