Her Venetian Name in Deserted Calcutta

This 1976 French film by Marguerite Duras lifts the complete soundtrack of her previous year's India Song and lays it over entirely new images: a camera drifting through the empty rooms of the ruined Rothschild Palace. Dialogue and music remain unchanged while the visual world shifts, and an extra ending is appended, so the result functions less as a remake than as a companion piece in dialogue with the earlier work.

At its center stands Anne-Marie Stretter, the wife of the French ambassador to India around 1930, a figure who is also a principal character of India Song. The picture belongs to the chain of Duras works commonly called her Indian Cycle. Delphine Seyrig and Michael Lonsdale head the cast, joined by Nicole Hiss, Marie-Pierre Thiebaut and Sylvie Nuytten. It was shown in the Directors' Fortnight section of the 1976 Cannes Film Festival.