Synopsis
A con artist masquerades as Russian nobility and attempts to seduce the wife of an American diplomat.
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Foolish Wives
Cast
Director
Producer
Writer
Editor
Cinematography
Assistant Directors
Lighting
Composer
Studio
Country
Language
Alternative Titles
Närrische Frauen, Tolle Weiber, 어리석은 아낙네들, 어리석은 아내들, Femmine folli, Esposas frívolas, Folies de femmes, 情场现形记, Törichte Frauen, Esposas Levianas, Esposas Ingênuas, Dåraktiga kvinnor, Глупые жены, Esposes frívoles
Genres
Themes
Releases by Date
Theatrical
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USA
26 Dec 1922
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Sweden15
01 Jan 1923
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Austria12
28 Jul 1925
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Portugal
Releases by Country
Austria
01 Jan 1923
- Theatrical12
Portugal
28 Jul 1925
- Theatrical
Sweden
26 Dec 1922
- Theatrical15
USA
11 Jan 1922
- Theatrical
Popular reviews
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"And this is why Stroheim is the most important, more important than Griffith or Ford...that everything you show is both magnificent and the opposite must be felt. Or again Rosa Luxemberg's idea: the death of an insect is no less important than the death of the revolution." - Jean-Marie Straub
One of the few truly visionary works ever produced within the Hollywood studio system - even in it's truncated form you can see what Stroheim was aiming for: a cinema that was novelistic without being literary, multiple interconnecting character trajectories to give us not a story, but a universe. Stroheim's original cut was 6.5 hours (the OG Lav Diaz) and the reconstruction (the most widely available version of this film)…
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shout out to the guy who brought his three kids to a 2.5 hour Erich von Stroheim silent film at the Music Box Theatre in Chicago
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For a film with such a condescending title, this film certainly spends most of its time excoriating its callous male protagonist. Though the female characters don't fare so well, either, they are shown to be victims of an uncaring conman who uses fake tears, blatant lies, and cons-within-cons to make himself rich. His undoing lies in the disregard he shows for his victims, his hubristic belief that just because he can fool them the pain he causes won't come back on him.
I have a feeling that if this were remade today, Count Karamzin would be a debonair, lovable rogue, and that in the end, he would fall for his primary victim and live happily ever after. Thankfully, this was made when films had a certain morality to them rather than an overarching need to give the audience a happy ending.
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Innovation and exploitation, creation and destruction: building the biggest, most beautiful set in the world, and burning it down. Totally unbelievable - dismantling European classicalism, and dismantling codified modes of cinematic representation before it had even settled in.
Adult cinema, possibly the first truly mature work the medium had to offer.
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Cinematic Time Capsule
1922 Marathon - Film #2Dirty Rotten Silent Scoundrels!
Erich von Stroheim writes, directs and stars as the scheming “Count” Karamzin! A con artist who’s so low, he’ll use water-bowl droplets to create the illusion he’s weeping! A man so scandoulous he’ll use an over-the-shoulder pocket mirror in the hopes of catching a decadent nudie glimpse.
Hide your wives and protect your cash, because Count Karamzin along with his vixenous ‘cousins’ are roaming Monte Carlo in search of love & loot!
“A new system to break the bank, Count?”
“No, I’m writing a love letter to your wife.”
This was Erich von Stroheim’s third picture and to say he went for broke would be quite the understatement. When…
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65/100
Always amazing to watch a century-old movie and see innovations that still look downright avant-garde. Venetian-blind shadows would become de rigueur in the noir era, but nobody has ever replicated (or even approached) what Von Stroheim achieves here, with shafts of light slicing the dark frame in a way that almost creates a 3-D effect (even on a TV screen). And then there's Monte Carlo, a.k.a. HOLY FUCKING SHIT THAT'S A HOLLYWOOD SET?!? Unlike Greed, this film doesn't bear the obvious scars of having been whittled down to a manageable length, but late developments suggest that it was intended to be more than just drily amusing, which is the predominant tone; somewhere among the 4-8 hours that got cut,…
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Erich von Stroheim's third film as director is an impressive and enormous production which saw him shoot hundreds of negative reels of film and run up production costs surpassing one million dollars, which was virtually unprecedented at the time.
The studio instantly cut down the film from the filmmakers aspired length of six hours to a duration that they perceived was a more manageable size. Fortunately, film historians have reconstructed it over the years, and the version which is presently available is, in all likelihood, the most favourable one we're going to get, and holds a run time of approximately two and a half hours.
It's clear to discern the existence of Von Stroheim's almost mythical fixation with detail within…
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Foolish Wives is an impressive filmmaking exercise. Monte Carlo is recreated in Hollywood and looks marvellous, capturing the wealth, luxury, and excess of the characters. The intertitles are poetically written and the entire piece feels very high art. The story follows a con man seeking to be seen as great and respectable, but ending up with an ironic, unceremonious fate. Foolish Wives is full of seductive moments and sexual undertones, giving it an edge over some more conservative silent films. This is a very well made picture and a fascinating piece overall.
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An extravagant exploration of the hideousness found in the overlap of sex, money, and romance. Erich von Stroheim and his team masterfully recreate Monte Carlo — some of the film’s best moments come in the form of wide shots and establishing details that highlight the setting. This was cut down from a supposedly much-longer film, and it shows: the pacing zips along without much rumination on any particular event, and it definitely feels like something is missing.
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Film #2 of Project 20
”I have always had a weakness for American women."
First of all Erich von Stroheim’s Foolish Wives is too long, although it is trimmed to only one third of its original length but the current 143 minute version requires a herculean effort from the viewer to be understood and watched completely and film’s sluggish pace makes things even harder, after the first 30 minutes the story is not progressing as fast as you may expect – it’s not progressing at all actually - and character development is almost forgotten by von Stroheim, it repeats the same story line over and over and altough it seems that the finale is going to be shocking and intense…
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'Your husband will never forgive us for having introduced this notorious heartbreaker— his reputation is international.'
It's a really gross day out here on the Eastern seaboard, so I decided to hunker down and watch my first Erich von Stroheim project. Having seen him as an actor in La Grande Illusion and Sunset Boulevard, two of my personal favorites, I was rather anticipatory to see how he'd fare as writer, director, and lead actor (a true early auteur!). I watched the 142 minute restoration... although I find myself wanting that 384 minute cut after watching!
This is quite an elaborate, extravagant, and intricately detailed film, and I feel it's not even a reach to call it monumental. Von Stroheim plays…
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