A rediscovered treasure

By Kevin Thomas

Nov. 24, 2005 12 AM PT

Times Staff Writer

HAVING been presumed lost for decades, “Beyond the Rocks” (1922), which stars Gloria Swanson and Rudolph Valentino in their sole teaming, was rediscovered by the Nederlands Filmmuseum in 2003 in a vast collection of unmarked film cans it inherited from a collector in 2000.

This major rediscovery and restoration will be screened by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in its Lost and Found series at its Samuel Goldwyn Theater on Tuesday, with live musical accompaniment by Michael Mortilla.

Although not unique, it was rare in that era that two stars of their magnitude would be paired in the same film. Swanson was the most glamorous star of the ‘20s and Valentino the most celebrated Latin lover of them all. Their chemistry is all that one could hope for in this elegant melodrama adapted from a 1906 Elinor Glyn novel and directed with sensitivity and sophistication by Sam Wood. Glyn, best remembered for dubbing Clara Bow the It Girl, wrote romances that were steamy for their time, and though they wouldn’t work as talkies, they were perfect fodder for silents.

Swanson’s well-born but impoverished Theodora is rescued from drowning by Valentino’s dashing Lord Bracondale. “Wonderful, but not the marrying kind,” declares one of Theodora’s two middle-aged spinster sisters, who successfully press her to marry a stout, elderly tycoon (Robert Bolder) to ensure the financial security of themselves and their father (Alec B. Francis).

Theodora and Bracondale cross paths again under dramatic circumstances only to realize their profound mutual attraction. Theodora, however, is not about to betray her husband. As the anguish builds between the thwarted lovers, Glyn comes up with a plot development that pays off handsomely, thanks to the beautifully shaded portrayals Wood elicited from not only his stars but also Bolder and others, including Gertrude Astor as Bracondale’s jealous would-be fiancee. “Beyond the Rocks” is indeed a special event for film buffs.

French fixation

Louis Malle’s “Au Revoir les Enfants” (1987) has the subtlety and devastating effect of Renoir’s prophetic classic “Rules of the Game,” and it is suffused with the calm, detached tragic irony and inevitability of the ancient Greek plays.

This superb, semiautobiographical film, which screens Friday in LACMA’s series “Human, Too Human: The French Films of Louis Malle,” takes the viewer into the ordered but kindly world of a French provincial Catholic boarding school for boys, establishing an atmosphere of affectionately remembered normality while gradually making one aware that the time in which his story is set is anything but normal. It’s January 1944, but the rural school seems far removed from the dangers of Occupied France. It’s a jolt when we glimpse through a window a young German soldier politely asking one of the priests to hear his confession, or when we hear the wail of an air-raid siren.

Malle tells a tale of innocence and betrayal in which a pervasive anti-Semitism emerges as deeply embedded in the fabric of French society. Malle’s alter-ego is Julien Quentin (Gaspard Manesse), a rich, bright, self-possessed boy of 12, who forms a friendship with one of the school’s three new midterm pupils, all Jewish, whom the priests are trying to hide from the Gestapo. Along with “Lacombe, Lucien” and “Atlantic City,” “Au Revoir les Enfants” is one of Malle’s finest films. Followed by “Place de la Republique” (1974). Screening Saturday: “The Thief of Paris (1967) and “Viva Maria!” (1965).

Life in Ginza

UCLA’s “Mikio Naruse Film Series” continues Sunday with one of the director’s finest films, “When a Woman Ascends the Stairs” (1960), which takes its title from what happens to his heroine, Keiko (Hideko Takamine), when she goes to work as the main bar hostess in one of the Ginza’s countless second-story bars. The line between chief bar hostess and madam and even prostitute is thin to the point of evaporation. The film deals with the refined Keiko, a young widow with scant job skills, struggling to hold on to her dignity and self-respect yet fulfill the dream of every hostess: either to come across a customer who wants to marry her or to be able to own a bar of her own.

Keiko perfectly expresses Naruse’s characteristic pessimistic view of life, and Takamine, one of Japanese cinema’s greatest star actresses, is superb as a woman trying to survive in a world that traditionally is designed to exploit women at every turn. Takamine is supported by a virtual all-star cast: Masayuki Mori, Tatsuya Nakadai, Daisuke Kato, Ganjiro Nakamura and Eitaro Ozawa plus glamorous Keiko Awaji and vivacious Reiko Dan. Followed by “Yearning” (1964).

Africa on record

REDCAT presents “First-Person Africa: An Evening with Film Director Jean-Marie Teno,” who will present two of his documentaries, “Le Mariage d’Alex,” (2003) a 45-minute account of the resurgence of polygamy among young educated Africans, and “Chef!” (1999), a 61-minute record of a festival in Teno’s home village that ends up dealing with violence, political repression and the rampant oppression of women.

Screenings

Lost and Found series

“Beyond the Rocks”: 7:30 p.m. Tuesday

Where: Samuel Goldwyn Theater, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, 8949 Wilshire Blvd., Beverly Hills

Info: (310) 247-3000

Louis Malle series

“Au Revoir les Enfants”: 7:30 p.m. Friday

Where: Bing Theater at LACMA, 5905 Wilshire Blvd., L.A.

Info: (323) 857-6177

Mikio Naruse Film Series

“When a Woman Ascends the Stairs”: 7 p.m. Sunday

Where: James Bridges Theater, Melnitz Hall, UCLA campus