On October 1, the DGA played host as the Franco-American Cultural Fund (FACF) presented a screening of Director Max Ophüls’ much celebrated and newly restored film Lola Montès.

Originally released in 1955, Lola Montès was loosely based on the life of Lola Montez, a 19th Century cabaret dancer whose liaisons reportedly included notable figures such as King Ludwig I of Bavaria and the composer Franz Liszt. After negative critical reviews and poor public reception, the producers re-cut the film against the director’s wishes and Ophüls died shortly after the new edit was released. The FACF screening featured the original Ophul’s version of the film that has been digitally restored through funding by the FACF, along with the Thomson Foundation for Film & Television Heritage.

FACF is a unique collaborative effort of the DGA, the Motion Picture Association, France’s Société des Auteurs, Compositeurs et Editeurs de Musique (SACEM), and the Writers Guild of America, west, with the mission of strengthening the bonds between the two nations’ filmmakers. FACF funds scholarships for French and American film students, master classes with leading American writers and directors for French filmmakers within France, a yearly restoration of one French and one American film, through the Cinematheque Francaise and The Film Foundation respectively. Each April FACF also puts on the City of Lights, City of Angels Film Festival, which presents a week of French films and filmmakers in the DGA theatres in Los Angeles; COLCOA will again be held in April 2009.