The Unknown Man of Shandigor

Schedule

Fri Dec 03 2021 at 07:00 pm

Location

Lightbox Film Center | Philadelphia, PA

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Swiss director Jean-Louis Roy’s long-lost mid-1960s Cold War super-spy thriller is a marvelous and surreal hall of mirrors, part-Dr. Strangelove, part-Alphaville with sly nods to British TV shows like “The Avengers” and “Doctor Who.” The film stars a who’s who of great Sixties character actors starting with the unforgettable Daniel Emilfork (The City of Lost Children, The Devil’s Nightmare) as crazed scientist Herbert Von Krantz, who’s invented a device to sterilize all nuclear weapons. A mad herd of rival spies are desperate to get their hands on the device, including legendary French singer Serge Gainsbourg as the leader of a sect of bald, turtleneck-wearing assassins, and Jess Franco vet Howard Vernon (The Awful Dr. Orlof). Gainsbourg’s deranged jazz-lounge song, “Bye Bye Mr. Spy” – performed by him on funeral parlor organ, no less – is arguably the film’s high point. All Mod sunglasses and bizarre architecture (including Antoni Gaudi’s famed La Pedrera / Casa Mila), the long-unavailable Shandigor has been beautifully restored in 4K by the Cinematheque Suisse. “An accomplished spy is at the same time psychologist, artist, funambulist, conjurer,” to quote one of the characters – and the same could be said of Roy’s exotic camera obscura of B&W Cold War paranoia. With Marie-France Boyer (Agnes Varda’s Le Bonheur). (Jean-Louis Roy, Switzerland, 1967, 90 min., b&w) In French with English subtitles
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Where is it happening?

Lightbox Film Center, 401 S. Broad St., Philadelphia, PA 19147, United States

Event Location & Nearby Stays:

Lightbox Film Center

Host or Publisher Lightbox Film Center

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