Now I’m going to finish a film on Italian cinema, on Lollobrigida. A documentary in a very particular style, with drawings by Steinberg, a lot of still photographs, conversations, little stories… In fact, it’s not all a documentary. It’s an essay, a personal essay. It’s not trying to be factual, it’s simply not telling lies. It’s in the tradition of a diary, my reflection on a given subject, Lollobrigida, and not what she is in reality.

(Orson Welles, 1958)

The only surviving copy of this film Welles left behind in his hotel room at the Ritz in Paris. From the late 50s the unmarked cans were stored in lost and found departments before they were rediscovered shortly after Welles’ death in the mid 80s. The film itself turns out to be one of the best TV movies made by Welles, foreshadowing the style of his masterpiece F for Fake.

Stefan Droessler, Münchner Filmmuseum