A speculative restoration of Robert Altman's The Long Goodbye, El Adios Largos is at once an uncanny aesthetic experience and a playful exploration of the philosophical conundrums involved for those working to preserve film history for generations to come.
In El Adios Largos, artist-archivist
Andrew Lampert undertakes a speculative,
restoration of Robert Altman's The
Long Goodbye based on the premise that
the film's negative has been lost and the
sole surviving print is incorrect in every way: 16mm rather than 35mm, black and
white instead of Technicolor, and dubbed
into Spanish. (N.B. proper prints and a
negative do exist, just not in Lampert's possession!)
With dubious methods used to
achieve authenticity, El Adios Largos is at
once an uncanny aesthetic experience and
a playful exploration of the philosophical
conundrums involved for those working to
preserve film history for generations to come.
ANDRÉA PICARD