Jon Mirsalis on Piano (Korol' Parizha). In 1992, with the series Romanov Twilight, we introduced the rediscovered cinema of the pre-revolutionary Russian director Evgenii Bauer, whose films, characterized by Symbolist and Decadent motifs, are stunningly original in their use of mise-en-scène and lighting to convey story. The Crimea serves well for both Paris and the Riviera in this opulently staged film about idle bourgeois life in the salons of Paris, with startling intimations of a homosexual theme. Film critic and screenwriter Valentin Turkin wrote in 1918, "Everyone remembers the characters in Bauer's films, figures quietly slipping by or sitting, lost in thought, the tardy, passionate, first embrace of lovers, life quietly passing by, suddenly interrupted by a cry, a fall, death, which leaves in its wake peace and loneliness in empty halls and at the silent cemetery." Bauer died following an accident during the making of The King of Paris and the film was completed by the actress Ol'ga Rakhmanova, making her the first Russian woman director. Note: Intertitles for this rare film are lost; a synopsis will be provided.