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FULL-LENGTH RESTORED VERSION! 35MM ARCHIVAL PRINT!
A banner event for lovers of Lang, silent cinema, or just plain pulse-pounding entertainment: we have imported from Germany a gorgeously restored print of SPIONE, which was for fifty years known only in a severely truncated form (88 minutes as opposed to the three-hour print we present today). The thrilling, quick-cut opening sequence, in which a crime spree culminates with an assassination, announces just how virtuoso the film's editing and visual design will be - and how mad its narrative contraptions. The film's reptilian master criminal Haghi doubles as respected director of an international bank and evil mastermind, head of a spy ring specializing in the theft of government documents. (His henchman wear leather coats and seem to be rehearsing for Cocteau.) At the crossroads of German expressionism and what looks very much like continental surrealism, SPIONE offers one audacity after another, one “top that!” image after every “what the -?” camera set-up. “It is clear that this complex masterpiece of pulp fiction ranked with M and the Mabuse films as one of Lang's major pre-Hollywood accomplishments” (Elliott Stein, The Village Voice ).
Presented with live piano accompaniment by William O'Meara.
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