La Paloma

Fiction Written and Directed by Daniel Schmid Switzerland / France, 1974, 110 min. German, French with Japanese subtitles

　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　Collection Cinémathèque suisse

Special screening on 35mm film

Nightclub singer La Paloma succumbs to the persistent courting of a chubby rich admirer and marries him. Before the marriage, she was thought to be dying, but soon she is well. She believes her husband’s love has cured her, but her efforts to love him begin to fade as she discovers true love with her husband’s old school friend.

This heady exercise in excess mixes the operatic passion of La Traviata, stylish decadence of Stroheim and Sternberg, and the macabre glee of Grand Guignol.

Daniel Schmid

Director, Screenwriter

1941-2006. Spent his childhood and youth in Flims, Switzerland. 1962-68 Studied History and Comparative Literature at the Freien Universität Berlin. 1966-69 Studied at the DFFB (Deutschen Film- und FernsehAkademie Berlin).