Tell Me Lies

Just after Lola (1960), first feature by Jacques Demy, Technicolor Foundation and the Groupama Gan Foundation have led yet together another film restoration project – this time of a film by Peter Brook, Tell Me Lies which was presented at the Mostra on September 4, 2012.

The fifth full-length feature film by Peter Brook, Tell Me Lies was filmed in 1967 in London and released very briefly in 1968 in London and in New York against the tense backdrop of the Vietnam War. This is a ‘semi-fictional, semi-documentary’ work, rooted in the protest movement and which questioned its contemporaries about the War. 

In 2010, Peter Brook decided to track down his film – of which he had only a very damaged and incomplete 35mm copy. Through the intermediary of Jean-Claude Carrière, he made contact with the two foundations that had restored the complete film works of Pierre Etaix, co-written by Jean-Claude Carrière.     

After a lengthy search of international laboratories and archives, particularly in Great Britain and in the United States, the film elements were found at the BFI. A missing scene was also rediscovered. As with the color version of A Trip to the Moon by Méliès, the restoration of Tell Me Lies was carried out by the two foundations at the Technicolor laboratory in Los Angeles under the leadership of Tom Burton. Peter Brook supervised the entire project.

The film’s premiere, in its restored version, was held at the Venice Mostra on September 4^th, 2012 as part of the Venezia Classics section. The premiere precedes the film’s cinema release in France on October 10^th, 2012; and as all films restored by the two foundations, Tell Me Lies will be distributed internationally. US premiere of the film will take place in New York on October 14 at the MoMA in presence of Peter Brook, as well as Lola’s premiere, in presence of Anouk Aimée on October 12.

Find out more about the restoration of Tell Me Lies