Shot 1970, completed posthumously 1978, 35mm

Baadeh Sabah / The Lovers' Wind / Vent Des Amoureux [English language] [Farsi Version]

Things not commonly known about Lamorisse:
a) He invented the popular board game Risk
b) In 1970 he was living amongst a community of French ex-pats in Tehran with mystical inclinations

Lamorisse is said to have had constant premonitions about dying over water in the Caspian Sea. Instead, he died in a helicopter crash over the Karaj Dam. The Shah had insisted he shoot additional footage for Baadeh Sabah depicting his ultra-Modernized version Iran: The neon lights of Tehran avenues, the newly constructed Hilton Hotel, his own palaces, various marvels of engineering...the Karaj Dam. Lamorisse had expressed concern about the high-tension wires over the water, but was reassured by the Shah's military pilot that had been assigned to him in place of his original crew member who was no longer available. The helicopter caught in the wires and crashed into the bed of the dam. The film was edited and completed 8 years later by Albert's wife, Claude Lamorisse, and was even nominated for an Oscar for best documentary. This haunting seven minute addendum created from Baadeh Sabah footage is a tribute to her husband's death. Using only the industrial/urban shots that came of the Shah's request, Claude refashioned her husband's film into a hauntingly ominous and unsettling portrait of the his coveted modernizations, ending affectingly with repeated strokes over the Karaj Dam, the site of Lamorisse's death. The film was completed just months before the revolution of 1979.

-- Bidoun

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