Back in those years when the 20th century was only a dim light on the horizon, the wealthy Amberson family reigned over the midland everytown they called home, the embodiment of opulence in an era when "all the women who wore silk or velvet knew all the other women who wore silk or velvet." Such a dynasty, built on genteel custom and practical business sense, could never withstand the modern era's hairpin shifts in culture and technology. As their friends and neighbors get used to calling the horseless carriage an "automobile," the Ambersons face middle-class destitution. The tumultuous post-production of The Magnificent Ambersons has all but secured its own wing in the museum of Hollywood history: Orson Welles's epochal follow-up to Citizen Kane, placed in the meddling hands of craven studio executives to mangle irreparably, its maker a continent away in Brazil, partying and directing yet another film he couldn't see through to completion. There's no doubt the original Ambersons cut was something to behold. The irretrievable Holy Grail of film culture, its totemic reputation alone is still enough to inspire sham investigative documentaries, costly A.I. reconstructions, and other episodes of desperate cinephilic madness. But even in its present, molested state, few films match it for technical bravura, caustic pathos, and sheer all-around magnificence. (Text Courtesy of Chicago Film Society)

35mm from Park Circus

Preceded by: "Wheeeels No. 2" (Stan VanDerBeek, 1958) – 5 min – 16mm from Canyon Cinema