When You Wore a Tulip and I Wore a Big Red Rose (1983)

• 68%
• 1983
• Documentary
• Stephen Schaller

In the early 1980s, documentary filmmaker Stephen Schaller was instrumental in the rediscovery and restoration of THE LUMBERJACK, the oldest surviving film made in Wisconsin, and produced by a group of itinerant filmmakers who traveled from town to town making "local talent" pictures. Schaller's lovely and sometimes deeply emotional, sixty-three minute journal/essay film offers a look at the making of the Wausau, Wisconsin classic, including interviews with the one surviving cast member and the relatives of others who appeared in the movie. His investigation includes moving remembrances of the people and town of Wausau as it was, and even reveals the on-set accidental death of one of THE LUMBERJACK's top cameramen. More than just a piece of local history, WHEN YOU WORE A TULIP AND I WORE A BIG RED ROSE is also of interest to anyone who cares about film history and preservation. Discovering Schaller's gentle, artful movie is just as exciting as finding a lost family album.