Foolish Wives

With live piano accompaniment by Makia Matsumura on October 7.

Please note the Sunday, October 8th show has been canceled due to a technical issue; ticket holders will be notified.

Dir. Erich von Stroheim. 1922, 147 mins. Tinted and toned 35mm print from a restoration by the San Francisco Silent Film Festival and the Museum of Modern Art. With Erich von Stroheim, Rudolph Christians, Miss Dupont, Maude George, Mae Busch. After his surprise hit debut Blind Husbands, von Stroheim upped the ante with his third feature, in which the multi-hyphenate again assumes the lead role of a louche European charmer who cons American innocents abroad. Assisted by his two sultry “cousins” Vera (Busch) and Olga (George), von Stroheim’s phony count Sergius Karamzin has established himself at Monte Carlo, where he plans to blackmail an ambassador’s wife (Dupont). Shot over the course of a budget–busting, 11-month period on enormous and extravagant stage sets that rivaled the famed casino itself, von Stroheim’s elephantine opus was ultimately reduced by Universal to nearly a third of its original running time. Yet even in its surviving form this lavish spectacle remains one of the sensational works of early Hollywood cinema. 

Tickets: $15 / $11 senior and students / $9 youth (ages 3–17) / free for MoMI members at the Senior/Student level and above. Please pick up tickets at the Museum’s admissions desk upon arrival. All seating is general admission. Review safety protocols before your visit.