Milestone

[drdoros]

Awwww! I was in a car on my way to the opening night of the São Paolo festival and the driver says he just has to pick up two more people. When Charlie Kaufman and Eva H.D. enter your car and you spend the evening with them and Euzhan Palcy, it's like you've entered one of his movies. I now owe Charlie and Eva one archive tour and a PWHL game.

Just to let you all know, that's not my usual life. Today is making breakfast, shoveling snow, and doing laundry, which is FAR more typical.

Dennis D.
Milestone

[yoloswegmaster]

Looks like drdoros will be in Toronto next month to do a intro and Q&A for Queen Kelly, as well as a Q&A for Shirley Clarke's The Connection, which is screening on 35mm.

[drdoros]

For those who were worried about the loss of Charles Burnett's MY BROTHER'S WEDDING from the Killer of Sheep disc release, please know that by separating the two films, we were able to raise the money to create a new 4K restoration of this wonderful film. It has just been announced today that MY BROTHER'S WEDDING will be premiering at the Berlinale Forum next month. After that, it will be premiering in the States later this year. Restored by UCLA Film & Television Archive, Milestone Films, Kino Lorber, and Berkeley Art Museum & Pacific Film Archive!

https://www.berlinale.de/en/2026/news-p ... 71387.html

[The Elegant Dandy Fop]

What wonderful news! I also realized that this year is probably the year of the UCLA Festival of Restoration, so I'm sure it'll play there in the Spring.

[beamish14]

For those who were worried about the loss of Charles Burnett's MY BROTHER'S WEDDING from the Killer of Sheep disc release, please know that by separating the two films, we were able to raise the money to create a new 4K restoration of this wonderful film. It has just been announced today that MY BROTHER'S WEDDING will be premiering at the Berlinale Forum next month. After that, it will be premiering in the States later this year. Restored by UCLA Film & Television Archive, Milestone Films, Kino Lorber, and Berkeley Art Museum & Pacific Film Archive!

https://www.berlinale.de/en/2026/news-p ... 71387.html

Are both cuts getting 4K restos?

[drdoros]

Yes, they both got restored. However, Charles prefers his 2007 re-cut.

[hearthesilence]

FWIW, for anyone new to the film, I would recommend watching the 2007 recut before diving into the longer cut. IIRC the longer cut was a rough cut that was sent to a festival in order to meet a submission deadline, something Burnett really didn't want to do but I don't think he was given much of a choice.

[drdoros]

THE NEW YORK TIMES
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/15/movi ... eview.html

Gloria Swanson in “Queen Kelly.” Credit… Milestone Films, via Kino Lorber
By Nicolas Rapold
Jan. 15, 2026, 5:02 a.m. ET

Erich von Stroheim was both man and myth — a visionary, Vienna-born filmmaker with the self-fashioned persona of a Prussian officer in Hollywood — and so too is “Queen Kelly” part genius, part pipe dream. Von Stroheim’s fervid 1929 story of a convent girl who is seduced by a spoken-for prince became a fiasco when his exacting methods and excesses led to its star, Gloria Swanson, bolting and her producing partner, Joseph P. Kennedy, halting the production. A bastardized version was released abroad, leading to decades of wondering what might have been.
“Queen Kelly” now returns in what Milestone Films calls “an improved reimagining” that draws on nitrate prints, outtakes, stills and more (after a previous reconstruction in 1985 (https://www.nytimes.com/1985/09/22/arts ... -late.html)). The shimmering, sensitively scored restoration brings out the production’s opulence and hence the regal stage von Stroheim sets for his characters’ attractions and abjection. The palace of the film’s “mad queen” (Seena Owen, introduced imperiously wearing a cat) dazzles with its chandeliers, checkerboard floors and arrayed guardsmen. Swanson glows in close-ups as Patricia Kelly, the innocent who catches the eye of Prince Wolfram and the ire of said queen, his fiancée.

The story is a trademark von Stroheim clash of classes and desires. Out on horseback Wolfram (Walter Byron) met Kelly in a nun-led procession of orphans. At night, he sets fire to their convent and kidnaps Kelly to his palace apartment. Candles and cross-fades underline Kelly’s apparent rapture, until the queen discovers them and, in a jaw-dropping sequence, propels Kelly to the door with lashings from a riding crop.

A wild stew of the sacred and profane follows (aided by a game supporting cast). Kelly visits her dying aunt in East Africa, where in gauzy, haunting scenes she must marry a leering old suitor. The film’s second half then stops short, like a bubble burst: In a flurry of intertitles and scene fragments, Kelly becomes a bordello madam, then ends up with Wolfram.

The abruptness doesn’t negate the film’s hold, though von Stroheim’s directing career did dwindle away. As an actor, he followed with a twist worthy of his perverse plotting: In “Sunset Boulevard,” he plays the chauffeur and former director of a silent-screen star — played by Swanson.

[therewillbeblus]

The new restoration of Queen Kelly is fantastic, and the score (which I usually mute or replace when watching silents at home) complements the film well. If you're able to see this in a theatre, I can't recommend it highly enough. Milestone has included some extra bits (obnoxiously stamped with their logo at the bottom of the title cards) that are minor treats for those who've seen the film in previous states. As for the film itself, well, it's a perfect concoction of perversity and magical intimacy, evoking a tone that's both irreverent and solemn. The film threatens to disconnect principals while the tenderness binds them together. Of course I would have loved to get the planned five-hour version, but I suspect that the first act that we get to see in full would still be the triumphant section. It's got everything you'd want in a movie - humor, adventure, romance, drama, malevolence, violence, catharsis. Perfection. There's hardly a need for more. The rushed piecing-together of the rest of the story only complements and fulfills the promise of what we've already received.

[drdoros]

Thank you so much for the kind words! As for our logo at the bottom of some of the intertitles, they are to denote that we wrote them, and not von Stroheim. It's a FIAF/AMIA concept of ethical behavior. Not my favorite thing to do, but working with the archives, we play by their rules.

[therewillbeblus]

Understandable! And only a little distracting, that’s all Thanks for all your efforts and including the extra material!

[kekid]

The new restoration of Queen Kelly is fantastic, and the score (which I usually mute or replace when watching silents at home) complements the film well. If you're able to see this in a theatre, I can't recommend it highly enough. Milestone has included some extra bits (obnoxiously stamped with their logo at the bottom of the title cards) that are minor treats for those who've seen the film in previous states. As for the film itself, well, it's a perfect concoction of perversity and magical intimacy, evoking a tone that's both irreverent and solemn. The film threatens to disconnect principals while the tenderness binds them together. Of course I would have loved to get the planned five-hour version, but I suspect that the first act that we get to see in full would still be the triumphant section. It's got everything you'd want in a movie - humor, adventure, romance, drama, malevolence, violence, catharsis. Perfection. There's hardly a need for more. The rushed piecing-together of the rest of the story only complements and fulfills the promise of what we've already received.

Is this available for individual purchase?

[therewillbeblus]

It’s touring theatrically at the moment, but I’d expect a physical release in the near future

[drdoros]

We're working with Richard Koszarski on the last bonus feature tomorrow!

[FrauBlucher]

I did see this at the Film Forum recently and I have to say it was quite entertaining. I wasn’t as familiar with this as other Von Stroheims. This has to rank right up there.

Btw… the queen in this reminds me of how Swanson plays her character in Sunset Boulevard

Job well done Dennis

[domino harvey]

Specs for Queen Kelly, Blu in June

It should have been a dream collaboration: a glamorous world-famous movie star (Gloria Swanson) and her financier lover (Joseph P. Kennedy) hire a celebrated director (Erich von Stroheim) to make a groundbreaking masterpiece. Instead, Queen Kelly was canceled mid-production and became the most infamous unfinished film in cinema history. Von Stroheim’s baroque and obsessive drama opens in a European country ruled by a mad Queen (Seena Owen) obsessed with her feckless fiancé, “Wild” Prince Wolfram (Walter Byron). The dissolute prince falls for an innocent but flirtatious convent girl, Patricia Kelly (Swanson), kidnaps her, and brings her to his rooms. When the Queen discovers the lovers, she horsewhips the girl. Returning to the convent, Kelly receives a telegram, summoning her to German East Africa, where her dying aunt begs the girl to wed the syphilitic owner, Jan (Tully Marshall) of the seedy brothel. Basing his reconstruction on von Stroheim’s original scripts, Dennis Doros has employed multiple techniques to recreate the film’s lurid dénouement. Featuring a new orchestral score by Eli Denson.

Reconstruction: Dennis Doros and Amy Heller, Milestone Film. Milestone is grateful to the George Eastman Museum (primary source), Library of Congress National Audio-Visual Conservation Center, Harry Ransom Center, and John F. Kennedy Presidential Library for providing original 35mm nitrate materials, photographs, and papers used to create this new version. 4K digital stabilization, timing, and cleanup by Metropolis Post, NYC. Colorist: Jason Crump. Digital restoration artist: Ian Bostick.

Extras:
1932 version of Queen Kelly (76 min.)
Audio Commentary by film historian Richard Koszarski
Audio Clips from Paul Ivano, William Margulies, Allan Dwan, and Billy Wilder
Outtakes with optional commentary by film historian Richard Koszarski
WNET Introduction by Gloria Swanson (1966)

[domino harvey]

And here’s a 135 page press release!

[drdoros]

And here’s a 135 page press release![/url]

Just to clarify, that is the Queen Kelly press kit, not a press release. We are not that vain. (Well, probably, I am.) Richard Koszarski and I just finished the last bonus feature on Friday, so I'm very excited that the Queen will make her Blu-ray debut.

I also should mention that Pamela Hutchinson's wonderful book THE CURSE OF QUEEN KELLY came out two weeks ago, and it's a spectacular history of the making of Queen Kelly. It's far better than anything we have written.

[Peacock]

I’m so excited for this! (And Pamela’s book).

And thank you for including the older version of the film as well.

Please don’t retire Dennis! There are more silents needing your attention.

[drdoros]

As Daffy Duck said so eloquently, "Still lurking about!" We will restore a film every now and then in the future. That's too much fun to miss out on!

And Maya will carry on the work of Milestone. We look forward to the next Iteration.

[Stefan Andersson]

The Humming Bird (1924) w/ Gloria Swanson showing May 9 at the San Francisco Silent Film Festival:
https://silentfilm.org/event/the-humming-bird/
DCP credited to Kino Lorber, introduction by Dennis Doros and Amy Heller.
See also:
https://www.nitrateville.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=36773

[drdoros]

Yup, that's one of the films we're working on...

[Stefan Andersson]

The Humming Bird (1924) w/ Gloria Swanson showing May 9 at the San Francisco Silent Film Festival:
https://silentfilm.org/event/the-humming-bird/
DCP credited to Kino Lorber, introduction by Dennis Doros and Amy Heller.
See also:
https://www.nitrateville.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=36773

Update:
The Hummingbird (Sidney Olcott, 1924) w/ Gloria Swanson, press kit:
https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0150/ ... 1777582974

[Lowry_Sam]

Just received a notice from Orbit that the Queen Kelly blu has been cancelled & my preorder was refunded.

[domino harvey]

Release date on Kino’s site now reads “June 16, 2027”