News

61st New York Film Festival Revivals Announced

Press Release

8/21/2023 8:00:00 AM

Film at Lincoln Center announces Revivals for the 61st New York Film Festival (September 29–October 15). The Revivals section showcases significant works from renowned filmmakers that have been digitally remastered, restored, and preserved with the assistance of generous partners.

See everything in the Revivals section with a $125 Revivals Pass, limited quantities on sale now. Revivals selections are also included in Festival Passes.

“This year’s edition of Revivals is a thrilling showcase of cinema history, packed with groundbreaking discoveries and long unseen classics alike, all in outstanding restorations,” said Florence Almozini, Senior Director of Programming at Film at Lincoln Center and NYFF Revivals Programmer. “We never cease to be amazed at the lasting influence of these cinematic gems on our collective sense of cinema, with the way they have tackled cultural, societal, or political issues with such modernity and artistry. The section is a constant inspiration to all cinephiles!”

The Revivals section connects cinema’s historical significance and present-day cultural influence through a selection of world premieres of restorations, rarities, and more. Highlights from this year’s slate include restorations of Nancy Savoca’s Household Saints, a comic chronicle of a spirited Italian-American New York family featuring Vincent D’Onofrio, Tracey Ullman, Lili Taylor, Michael Imperioli, and others, preceded by Savoca’s first student film, Renata; Horace Ové’s Pressure, one of the most important British films of the 1970s and an enduringly potent document on the social conditions known by first-generation West Indian immigrants; a selection of Man Ray’s short films, featuring Return to Reason restored on the occasion of its 100th anniversary, along with three other newly restored early films by Ray set to haunting and hypnotic new music by SQÜRL (Jim Jarmusch, who is also the NYFF61 poster artist, and Carter Logan); The Woman on the Beach, Jean Renoir’s beguiling, almost ghostly last film in Hollywood, showing on a brand-new 35mm print; and Tewfik Saleh’s The Dupes, an excruciatingly suspenseful and eminently modern work of political cinema.

Additional highlights include Manoel de Oliveira’s Abraham’s Valley; Bahram Beyzaie’s The Stranger and the Fog; Abel Gance’s La Roue; Paul Vecchiali’s The Strangler; Lee Grant’s Tell Me a Riddle, preceded by her debut short The Stronger; and Niki de Saint Phalle’s Un rêve plus long que la nuit. 

Explore NYFF61’s Main Slate and Spotlight lineups. Currents and Talks sections will be announced soon––sign up for NYFF updates for the latest news.

The New York Film Festival will offer festival screenings in all five boroughs of New York City in partnership with Alamo Drafthouse Cinema (Staten Island), BAM (Brooklyn Academy of Music) (Brooklyn), the Bronx Museum of the Arts (Bronx), Maysles Documentary Center in Harlem (Manhattan), and the Museum of the Moving Image (Queens). Each venue will present a selection of films throughout the festival; a complete list of films and showtimes will be announced later this month.

NYFF61 single tickets will go on sale to the general public on Tuesday, September 19 at noon ET, with pre-sale access for FLC Members and Pass holders prior to this date. NYFF61 press and industry accreditation is now open through August 28.

FILMS & DESCRIPTIONS

Abraham’s Valley
Manoel de Oliveira, 1993, Portugal, 203m
Portuguese with English subtitles
North American Premiere of Restoration

Among the most essential films in Manoel de Oliveira’s vast, epoch-spanning oeuvre is this adaptation of Agustina Bessa-Luis’s 1991 transposition of Flaubert’s Madame Bovary to 20th-century Portugal. Leonor Silveira stars as Ema, who, ensnared within a loveless marriage as a young woman, takes on a succession of lovers to satiate the desires that animate her inner life—namely, her desire to be desired. Ema’s passions yield increasingly stifling consequences through her life, and as we behold her struggle to square conflicting realities, Oliveira draws us ever deeper into her labyrinthine complexity through typically captivating images that seem to hover on the precipice between the sensual and the metaphysical. An NYFF31 Main Slate selection. Digitized and restored by Cinemateca Portuguesa – Museu do Cinema. Grading by Cinemateca and image restored by Irma Lucia Efeitos Especiais in 2016. Grading revised in 2023. Sound restored by Billy Boom in 2023.

The Dupes
Tewfik Saleh, 1972, Syria, 107m
Arabic with English subtitles
North American Premiere of Restoration

Set in the 1950s and adapted from assassinated artist, writer, and Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) leader Ghassan Kanafani’s 1962 novella Men in the Sun, Tewfik Saleh’s 1972 masterpiece follows three Palestinian refugees—each man representing a different generation—as they seek safe passage from Iraq to Kuwait, where they hope to secure work and money to send to their families back home. Short on options to achieve this goal, they agree to a questionable plan to get smuggled in, and the possibility of building better lives for themselves grows ever more improbable. An excruciatingly suspenseful and eminently modern work of political cinema that evokes The Wages of Fear and Kafka in equal measure, The Dupes is one of Arab cinema’s most astonishing achievements. A Janus Films release. Restored by The Film Foundation’s World Cinema Project and Cineteca di Bologna in collaboration with the National Film Organization and the family of Tewfik Saleh. Funding provided by the Hobson/Lucas Family Foundation.

Household Saints
Nancy Savoca, 1993, U.S., 125m
World Premiere of Restoration

Based on Francine Prose’s fifth novel, Nancy Savoca’s comic chronicle of a spirited Italian-American New York family perfectly balances humor, tragedy, and pathos. Vincent D’Onofrio’s Joseph Santangelo is a butcher with a wicked sense of humor who “wins” his wife Catherine (an uncharacteristically reserved Tracey Ullman) in a pinochle game. Together they experience the ups, downs, and wacky in-betweens of city life until teenage daughter Teresa slowly overtakes the film with her yearning to join a convent. Perfectly embodying a modern-day Bernadette, Lili Taylor imbues Teresa with a mix of dedicated innocence and naïveté. Executive produced by Jonathan Demme, with notable appearances from Michael Imperioli, Illeana Douglas, and Judith Malina among others, Household Saints announced a unique voice in 1990s New York City independent filmmaking. A Milestone Films release. Household Saints has been digitally restored and remastered by Lightbox Film Center at University of the Arts (Philadelphia) in collaboration with Milestone Films with support from Ron and Suzanne Naples. Restoration Supervisor: Ross Lipman, Corpus Fluxus. Picture Restoration: Illuminate Hollywood. Sound Restoration: Audio Mechanics.

Preceded by:
Renata
Nancy Savoca, 1982, U.S., 16m
U.S. Premiere of Restoration
Nancy Savoca’s first student film, made alongside husband Rich Guay at NYU in the early ’80s, deftly explores the struggles of a young mother living in New York City. Their classmate Marianne Leone gives life to their character of Renata and her plight—weighing her own well-being against her commitment to her family. Crisp black-and-white photography adds to Leone’s dynamic performance, stripping away everything but her struggle. A Milestone Films release. Renata has been digitally remastered from the original 16mm negative by Milestone Film & Video in collaboration with Ross Lipman, Corpus Fluxus. Thank you to Nancy Savoca and Rich Guay, the UCLA Film & Television Archive, Todd Wiener, and Paul Foster. 2K Scan: CineSolutions.

Pressure
Horace Ové, 1975, U.K., 125m
Joint World Premiere of New Restoration

One of the most important British films of the 1970s and an enduringly potent document on the social conditions known by first-generation West Indian immigrants, Horace Ové’s fiction feature debut chronicles the experience of Tony, a young man caught between his parents’ submissiveness and his brother’s militancy. As Tony’s professional prospects grow ever dimmer, he finds community with other young Black Brits whose sense of social alienation has driven them into the streets in search of purpose and enrichment. Mesmerizingly performed by a cast of professional and non-professional actors, Pressure remains a richly forceful work of political cinema that examines the formation of identity by Black immigrants within a miserably racist society. A Janus Films release. Restored by the BFI National Archive and The Film Foundation. Funding provided by the Hobson/Lucas Family Foundation. Pressure will have a joint restoration World Premiere at the BFI London Film Festival in partnership with American Express at BFI Southbank and as a Revivals selection at the 61st New York Film Festival on October 11.

Return to Reason: Short Films by Man Ray
Man Ray, 1923–1928, France, 76m
North American Premiere of Restoration

Restored on the occasion of its 100th anniversary, Man Ray’s first foray into filmmaking, the wildly improvisational and unapologetically fragmentary Return to Reason, finds the artist exploding and reconstructing the cinematic medium as a vehicle for accessing the abstract essence of things by way of the rhythmic accumulation of visual details glimpsed in part, never in their wholeness. What emerges from this program—which combines Return to Reason with several other kindred and newly restored early films by Ray, set to haunting and hypnotic new music by SQÜRL (Jim Jarmusch and Carter Logan)—is the sense of Ray as perhaps the modern artist par excellence, an intrepid experimentalist absolutely committed to delving ever deeper into the space between consciousness and unconsciousness, sense and nonsense, wakefulness and dreaming. A Janus Films release. The restoration process was led by L’Immagine Ritrovata, sourcing original prints from various parts of the world, in partnership with the Cineteca di Bologna, La Cinémathèque française, the Centre Pompidou, the Library of Congress, and the French CNC.

Return to Reason
Man Ray, 1923, France, 3m

Emak-Bakia
Man Ray, 1926, France, 19m

L’Étoile de mer
Man Ray, 1928, France, 27m

Les Mystères du château de Dé
Man Ray, 1927, France, 27m

Preceded by: 
Pier Paolo Pasolini – Agnès Varda – New York – 1967
Agnès Varda, 2022, France, 3m
North American Premiere
French with English subtitles
In 1966, two legendary filmmakers, in town for the 4th New York Film Festival, took a walk through Times Square. Armed with 16mm color film, Agnès Varda captured Pier Paolo Pasolini. A year later, she edited the footage and recorded his brief commentary track, discussing the uses of documentary filmmaking, Christianity, and the nature of reality. The elements were only discovered in 2021 and restored by Cine-Tamaris, in collaboration with L’Immagine Ritrovata, to their lustrous expressivity. Pier Paolo Pasolini – Agnès Varda – New York – 1967 is an NYFF61 Main Slate selection. For more information about the Main Slate, visit here.

La Roue
Abel Gance, 1923, France, 424m

One of silent cinema’s undeniable high-water marks, Abel Gance’s monumental work of psychological realism, La Roue, is a narratively and emotionally expansive epic whose technical innovations changed the course of film history. The film recounts the doomed love of a railroad engineer, Sisif (Séverin-Mars), for the orphan he takes in and raises as his own daughter, Norma (Ivy Close); upon realizing that his affection for Norma is as romantic as it is paternal, he inadvertently sets in motion a tragic chain of events. Shot almost entirely on location and marked by a dazzling array of techniques that would influence countless filmmakers in the decades to come—superimpositions, extreme close-ups, and rhythmic montage, to name a few—La Roue is at once a towering classic of early narrative cinema and a genuine formal experiment whose gambits shaped our understanding of film style. A Janus Films Release. New 4K Restoration. The Fondation Jérôme Seydoux-Pathé restored the film in collaboration with the Cinémathèque Française, the Cinémathèque Suisse, and Pathé and with the support of the Centre National du Cinéma et de l’image animée. The reconstitution of the music was supervised in Germany under the responsibility of ZDF/ARTE and the composer Bernd Thewes. It relied on the musical list of the conductor Paul Fosse played during the first screening and which had been kept at the Cinémathèque Française. The reconstitution and interpretation of the music is the result of a collaboration between the Fondation Jérôme Seydoux-Pathé, ZDF/ARTE, the radio station Deutschlandfunk Kultur, and the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra.

The Stranger and the Fog
Bahram Beyzaie, 1974, Iran, 140m
Farsi with English subtitles
North American Premiere of Restoration

One of the most mysterious and magisterial films of the Iranian New Wave, Bahram Beyzaie’s visionary 1974 drama was banned for decades following the Iranian Revolution. A relentlessly oneiric parable, The Stranger and the Fog begins with the titular stranger, named Ayat, arriving at a coastal village on the Persian Gulf aboard a drifting boat, unconscious and with no memory of how he arrived there. The villagers revive him and, some time later, he falls in love with a local widow, causing tensions with her deceased husband’s family. After years of peace, still more strangers descend upon the village from the sea in search of Ayat. This visually ravishing masterwork invents its own mythology to critique the sociopolitical conditions of 1970s Iran. A Janus Films release. Restored by The Film Foundation’s World Cinema Project and Cineteca di Bologna in collaboration with Bahram Beyzaie. Funding provided by the Hobson/Lucas Family Foundation.

The Strangler
Paul Vecchiali, 1970, France, 95m
French with English subtitles

The psychological thriller receives one of its most distinctive treatments in Paul Vecchiali’s third feature, a stylish and sophisticated investigation into the nature of compulsion. Several unhappy-looking women are murdered by a psychotic young man (Jacques Perrin), who believes these killings to be acts of mercy rather than malice. The detective assigned to the case (Julien Guiomar) becomes utterly fixated on catching his man, and will go to dubiously ethical lengths to bring the killer to justice. A complex, melancholic meditation on isolation as well as a portrait of collective hysteria, The Strangler endures as a key work within Vecchiali’s deeply underrated oeuvre. An Altered Innocence release. Restored with the help of Centre national du cinéma et de l’image animée (CNC). Laboratory: Cosmodigital.

Tell Me a Riddle
Lee Grant, 1980, U.S., 93m

In her theatrical directorial debut, Lee Grant and screenwriters Joyce Eliason and Alev Lytle adapt Tillie Olsen’s O. Henry Award-winning novella as a moving meditation on aging and coming to terms with the past. Melvyn Douglas and Lila Kedrova star as elderly Midwestern Jewish couple David and Eva; when David learns that Eva has terminal cancer, the two set out on a pilgrimage to visit their children and grandchildren, occasioning a reflection on the unexamined corners of their souls they’ve too long neglected in order to raise their family. Also featuring performances by Brooke Adams, Peter Coyote, and Zalman King, Grant’s touching and richly traced directorial debut is notable for having been directed, written, and produced exclusively by women. Restored in 2022 by the Academy Film Archive and The Film Foundation. Restoration funding provided by the Hobson/Lucas Family Foundation. Special thanks to Mindy Affrime, Rachel Lyon, and Susan O’Connell.

Preceded by: 
The Stronger 
Lee Grant, 1976, U.S., 30m
The result of Grant’s participation in the American Film Institute’s first directing workshop for women, her debut short adapts August Strindberg’s play of the same title, in which Susan Strasberg and Dolores Dorn play a wife and her husband’s mistress, respectively. Restored in 2022 by the Academy Film Archive and The Film Foundation. 

The NYFF61 Revivals presentations of Tell Me a Riddle and The Stronger are sponsored by Turner Classic Movies.

Un rêve plus long que la nuit
Niki de Saint Phalle, 1976, France, 82m
French and Swiss German with English subtitles
North American Premiere of Restoration

In her second feature (and her first solo feature), the multidisciplinary artist Niki de Saint Phalle pursues her own take on the fairy tale, and the result is a visionary exploration of female desire that unfurls according to the logic of dreams and poetry. The film follows a princess (played by Saint Phalle’s daughter, Laura Duke Condominas) who, following a series of encounters with fantastical beings, is magically transformed into an adult, and finds herself navigating a frightening and surreal new world. A work suffused with ideas and strong ties to Saint Phalle’s work in other media (sculpture, painting, assemblage, etc.), Un rêve plus long que la nuit is both an exemplary artist’s film and an underseen gem of 1970s French avant-garde cinema. The 4K restoration of Un rêve plus long que la nuit was completed using the original 16mm camera and sound negatives. The restored version corresponds to the edit in 1976 when the film was first released. The restoration was supervised by Arielle de Saint Phalle and realized at L’Immagine Ritrovata (Bologna-Paris) in 2023. Restoration funding provided by Dior.

The Woman on the Beach
Jean Renoir, 1947, U.S., 35mm, 71m
North American Premiere of Restoration

Jean Renoir’s beguiling final Hollywood film was conceived as something that would defy conventional narrative storytelling while also exploring the nature of sexual attraction. Robert Ryan’s PTSD-riddled Scott meets Joan Bennett’s steely-eyed Peggy on a deserted beach one day and they’re immediately drawn to each other, despite their respective romantic relationships, particularly Peggy’s with her blind painter husband (an outstandingly gruff Charles Bickford). The mood slowly darkens as Scott and Peggy’s mutual lust overwhelms each nightmarish interaction. The final film, re-edited and re-shot after an ill-fated test screening, may not be as Renoir initially intended, but a special strangeness—an almost ghost-like quality—remains, as does the defiant energy that he brought to this fascinating curio. Restored by the Library of Congress and The Film Foundation. Funding provided by the Hobson/Lucas Family Foundation.

See everything in the Revivals section with a $125 Revivals Pass, limited quantities on sale now. Revivals selections are also included in Festival Passes.

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Il Cinema Ritrovato 2023: Favourites & Discoveries

Ehsan Khoshbakht

7/12/2023 6:00:00 AM

 

The 37th edition of Il Cinema Ritrovato concluded last week but its memories live on. 

In Silk Stockings (Rouben Mamoulian, 1957), a quintet of melancholic expats freshly returned from a seductive Paris to a drab shared apartment in Moscow start reminiscing about the joys of the high life in the French capital. Soon it turns into a competition in remembering. Getting too intense where disillusioned Marxist-Leninists accuse each other of stealing one another's memories, Ninotchka (Cyd Charisse), fervently dedicated to the equal distribution of all kinds of wealth, steps in and declares: "Comrades, there are enough memories for all of us." Judging from the range and diversity of this year's picks by festival attendees, it seems that we should not be too worried about running out of memories until next June.

Statistics tell me "120,000 spectators" have viewed "470 films [in] seven cinemas," a 12% increase in attendance compared to previous year. Feelings tell me billions of memories have been made.

Now more than 110 participants from 38 countries have picked their "favourite film" at the festival, as well as their "major discovery" this year. Some have accompanied their choices with additional notes. It's a delight to read.

See their picks below.

 

THIS BLOG POST IS BEING UPDATED. THE NEW ENTRIES WILL BE MARKED BY [new]

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Flute of Krishna (1926) playing at the Jolly

 

Antti Alanen (Finland)

Absolute favourite: Gharibeh va Meh [The Stranger and the Fog] (Bahram Beyzaie, 1974)

Major discovery: Amok (Fedor Ozep, 1934)

 

Annouchka de Andrade (France)

Absolute favourite: Cherike-ye Tara [The Ballad of Tara] (Bahram Beyzaie, 1979)

Major discovery: Cherike-ye Tara [The Ballad of Tara] (Bahram Beyzaie, 1979)

 

Kaveh Askari (US)

Absolute favourite: Al-Makhdu'un [The Dupes] (Tewfik Saleh, 1972) + Early Rouben Mamoulian

Major discovery: Bushman (David Schickele, 1971)

 

Matthew Anthony Barrington (UK)

Absolute favourite: Bellissima (Luchino Visconti, 1951)

Major discovery: Applause (Rouben Mamoulian, 1929)

 

Miriam Bale (US)

Absolute favourite: Macario (Roberto Gavaldón, 1960)

Major discovery: Un rêve plus long que la nuit (Niki De Saint Phalle, 1976)

 

James Bell (UK)

Absolute favourite: Black Narcissus (Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger, 1947)

Major discovery: Gharibeh va Meh [The Stranger and the Fog] (Bahram Beyzaie, 1974) + Prosopo me prosopo [Face to Face] (Roviros Manthoulis, 1967)

 

Janet Bergstrom (US)

Absolute favourite: Il Grido (Michelangelo Antonioni, 1957)

Major discovery: Renoir, Vigo, Grémillon les éclaireurs de l'ombre (Alain Agat, 2023)

 

Daniel Bird (UK/France)

Absolute favourite: Gharibeh va Meh [The Stranger and the Fog] (Bahram Beyzaie, 1974) 

Major discovery: Gharibeh va Meh [The Stranger and the Fog] (Bahram Beyzaie, 1974) 

 

Camille Blot-Wellens (France/Sweden)

Absolute favorite: Kawanakajima kassen [Battle of Kawanakajima] (Teinosuke Kinugasa, 1941)

Major discovery: Gharibeh va Meh [The Stranger and the Fog] (Bahram Beyzaie, 1974)

Notes: I would add another category, the best screening experience(s): and then I would probably add the Scopitone session (vintage prints, joy and fun - even if we had to shorten the session because of problems with the projector).

 

Jan Bollen (Belgium)

Absolute favourite: L’Auberge rouge (Jean Epstein, 1923)

Major discovery: The Plot Against Harry (Michael Roemer, 1969-89)

Major rediscovery: Applause (Rouben Mamoulian, 1929)

Notes: Best archival print: Blood and Sand (Rouben Mamoulian, 1941)

 

Guillaume Boure (France)

Absolute favourite: The Celluloid Closet (Rob Epstein, Jeffrey Friedman, 1996)

Major Discovery: Smog (Franco Rossi, 1962)

 

Lou Burkart (Germany/France) [new]

Absolute favourite: Queen Christina (Rouben Mamoulian, 1933)

Major discovery: Miss Dorothy (Giulio Antamoro, 1920)

 

Benoît Carpentier (France)

Absolute favourite: La Voix du Rossignol (Ladislas Starewitch, 1923) + Silk Stockings (Rouben Mamoulian, 1957)

Major discovery: Chromo Sud (Etienne O'Leary, 1968) + Rat Life and Diet in North America (Joyce Wieland, 1969)

Notes: aesthetic shock / fun shock

 

Mohamed Challouf (Tunisia)

Absolute favourite: Gharibeh va Meh [The Stranger and the Fog] (Bahram Beyzaie, 1974)

Major discovery: Bushman (David Schickele, 1971) + Man's Castle (Frank Borzage, 1931)

 

Peter Christian Rude (Denmark)

Absolute favourite: Ladri di biciclette (Vittorio De Sica, 1948)

Major discovery: Daibutsu kaigen [Dedication of the Great Buddha] (Teinosuke Kinugasa, 1953)

Notes: At this year’s Il Cinema Ritrovato, I had the great pleasure to revisit a classic I had not seen in the past plus ten years or so, when I first began digging my way through film history as a young cinephile hungry for new impressions: ‘Bicycle Thieves’. Watching it in a newly restored version, in Italy, on the very first day of the festival, together with a large audience, made me feel very lucky. The screening of ‘Dedication of the Great Buddha’ was my introduction to Teinosuke Kinugasa – what a film! Art, labour, spirituality… At times, it reminded me of ‘Andrei Rublev’. 

 

Phil Clark (UK)

Absolute favourite: Suspect (Robert Siodmak, 1944)

Major Discovery: The Mark of Zorro (Rouben Mamoulian, 1940) + Rings on Her Fingers (Rouben Mamoulian, 1942) 

 

Jo Comino (UK)

Absolute favourite: La Captive (Chantal Akerman, 2000)

Major Discovery: Bushman (David Schickele, 1971) + Down and Out in America (Lee Grant, 1986)

 

Philip Concannon (UK)

Absolute favourite: Ahlam el-madina (Mohammad Malas, 1984)

Major discovery: We Live Again (Rouben Mamoulian, 1934)

 

Mark Cosgrove (UK)

Absolute favourite: Classe Tous Risques (Claude Sautet, 1960)

Major Discovery: Al-Makhdu'un [The Dupes] (Tewfik Saleh, 1972)

 

Emilie Cauquy (France)

Absolute favourite: Nella città l'inferno (Renato Castellani, 1959)

Major discovery: Cherike-ye Tara [The Ballad of Tara] (Bahram Beyzaie, 1979)

 

Ian Christie (UK)

Absolute favourite: Bellissima (Luchino Visconti, 1951)

Major discovery: La maison du mystère (Alexandre Volkoff, 1923)

Notes: [Also] reactions to the early Powells and teh astonishing 3D of I, the Jury.

 

Lorenzo Codelli (Italy)

Absolute favourite: Stornellata Romana (Pietro Francisci, 1947)

Major discovery: Hermann Kosterlitz

 

Francesco Crispino (Italy)

Absolute favourite: Classe Tous Risques (Claude Sautet, 1960)

Major discovery: Kurutta ippêji [A Page of Madness] (Teinosuke Kinugasa, 1926)

 

Paola Cristalli (Italy)

Absolute favourite: One Way Passage (Tay Garnett, 1932) + Love Me Tonight (Rouben Mamoulian, 1932)

Major discovery: Applause (Rouben Mamoulian, 1929)

Major rediscovery: The Woman on the Beach (Jean Renoir, 1947)

Notes: Major better-than-I-remembered: The Golden Boy | Major decadent satisfaction: Wearing Narcisse noir (Ernest Daltroff pour Caron, 1911) at the screening of Black Narcissus.

 

Paolo D’Andrea (Italy)

Absolute favourite: Bellissima (Luchino Visconti, 1951)

Major discovery: Al-Makhdu'un [The Dupes] (Tewfik Saleh, 1972)

 

Senem Erdine (Turkey)

Absolute favourite: Il Grido (Michelangelo Antonioni, 1957)

Major discovery: Yam Daabo (Idrissa Ouedraogo, 1987)

 

Lukas Foerster (Germany)

Absolute favourite: Love Me Tonight (Rouben Mamoulian, 1932)

Major discovery: Infanzia, vocazione e prime esperienze di Giacomo Casanova veneziano (Luigi Comencini, 1969)

Notes: [Of Love Me Tonight] only the censored version survives ... I probably will forever fantasize about what the 15 minutes longer original release version might have looked like. Favorite film print: Photochemical restoration of The Woman on the Beach (Jean Renoir), Library of Congress 35mm print. To think that all restorations could look as beautiful and rich and above all alive as this one. Pains the heart.

 

Geoff Gardner (Australia)

Absolute favourite: Tire au flanc (Jean Renoir, 1928) + The Golden Coach (Jean Renoir, 1952) 

Major discovery: Aloise (Liliane de Kermadec, 1975)

 

Sara Gazini (Brazil/UK)

Absolute favourite: Love Me Tonight (Rouben Mamoulian, 1932)

Major discovery: Ahlam el-madina (Mohammad Malas, 1984)

 

Valerio Greco (Italy)

Absolute favourite: Stella Dallas (Henry King, 1925)

Major discovery: Gharibeh va Meh [The Stranger and the Fog] (Bahram Beyzaie, 1974)

Major rediscovery: Macario (Roberto Gavaldón, 1960)

Notes: I was very moved by the rediscovery of the origins of Tunisian cinema by Albert Samama-Chikli, Wim Wenders' introduction to Yasujirō Ozu's incredibly well-made gangster film Dragnet Girl / Hijosen no onna (1933), the unpredictable avalanche of revelations in 16mm format (notably the home movie versions of Universal horror classics) organised by Cinémathèque16, the brand new restorations of the Dada-Surrealist films by the artist Man Ray and the must-see serial La maison du mystère (1923). Also, I would like to mark the Film Heritage Foundation's brilliant restoration of the tragic Ishanou (1990) by Ribam Syam Sharma, the programme of Russian Divas in Italy, the fun experience with the broken glasses of One Way Passage (1932) and the final dance on the tune of Scopitones' compilation of French songs from the 1960s.

 

Mania Gregorian (Italy)

Absolute favourite: Gharibeh va Meh [The Stranger and the Fog] (Bahram Beyzaie, 1974) + Lady Windermere’s Fan (Ernst Lubitsch, 1928)

Major discovery: Surprise (Dave Fleischer, 1923)

 

Matthieu Grimault (France)

Absolute favourite: Kurutta ippêji [A Page of Madness] (Teinosuke Kinugasa, 1926)

Major discoveries: Al-Makhdu'un [The Dupes] (Tewfik Saleh, 1972) + Yukinojô henge: Daiippen dainihen [An Actor's Revenge] (Teinosuke Kinugasa, 1935)

 

André Habib (Montreal) [new]

Absolute favorite: Gharibeh va Meh [The Stranger and the Fog] (Bahram Beyzaie, 1974) + Quién sabe? (Damiano Damiani, 1966)

Major discovery: Al-Makhdu'un [The Dupes] (Tewfik Saleh, 1972)

 

Oliver Hanley (Germany)

Absolute favourite: Ball im Savoy (Steve Sekely, 1935)

Major discovery: Kurutta ippêji [A Page of Madness] (Teinosuke Kinugasa, 1926)

 

Suvi Heino (Finland)

Absolute favourite: Nothing But a Man (Michael Roemer, 1964)

Major discovery: Layla wa zi'ab (Heiny Srour, 1984)

 

Liz Helfgott (US)

Absolute favourite: Al-Makhdu'un [The Dupes] (Tewfik Saleh, 1972)

Major discovery: Peter (Hermann Kosterlitz, 1934) and magnificent star Franziska Gaal

Notes: Most blissful screening experience: Love Me Tonight (Rouben Mamoulian). 2nd most blissful screening experience: Stella Dallas (Henry King) in the piazza. More major discoveries (sorry, I can't help myself!): two by Bahram Beyzaie, Gharibeh va meh [The Stranger and the Fog] and Cherike-ye Tara [The Ballad of Tara] and Aloïse (Liliane de Kermadec)

 

Maggie Hennefeld (US)

Absolute favourite: Applause (Rouben Mamoulian, 1929)

Major discovery: Bushman (David Schickele, 1971)

Notes: Page of Madness, Leila and the Wolves, Nella Citta L'Inferno, Dulac's illustrated songs, and Patouillard a une femme jalouse were also major highlights! Plus there were the many must-see screenings I missed, which sadly included Cherike-ye Tara and Peter.

 

Alexander Horwath (Austria)

Absolute favourite: Hijōsen no Onna [Dragnet Girl] (Yasujirō Ozu, 1933)

Major discovery: Bushman (David Schickele, 1971)

Notes: Absolute favourite plus: IL GRIDO / CEDDO / ONE WAY PASSAGE / CHERIKE-YE TARA / LE CARROSSE D’OR / ROMEO UND JULIA AUF DEM DORFE / APPLAUSE / GREMLINS. Major discovery plus: PANORAMA OF TIVOLI, SHOWING SEVEN FALLS (USA 1903, Edison Co.) / QUIÉN SABE / AL-MAKHDU’UN / ALOÏSE / KING OF COINS (UK 1903, Alf Collins) / IL DONO.

 

Pamela Hutchinson (UK)

Absolute favourite: Illustrated Records (Germaine Dulac, 1930)

Major discovery: Bushman (David Schickele, 1971)

 

Alexander Jacoby (UK)

Absolute favourite: Il Ferroviere (Pietro Germi, 1956) + Die letzte Chance (Leopold Lindtberg, 1945)

Major discovery: Al-Makhdu'un [The Dupes] (Tewfik Saleh, 1972) 

 

Nick James (UK)

Absolute favourite: Love Me Tonight (Rouben Mamoulian, 1932)

Major discovery: Shirasagi (Teinosuke Kinugasa, 1958)

 

Maria João Madeira (Portugal)

Absolute favourite: Kurutta ippêji [A Page of Madness] (Teinosuke Kinugasa, 1926)

Major discovery: Gharibeh va Meh [The Stranger and the Fog] (Bahram Beyzaie, 1974)

 

Alo Jõekalda (Estonia/Japan)

Absolute favourite: Il Ferroviere (Pietro Germi, 1956)

Major discovery: Zündhölzer (Uwe Krauss, Peter Gehric, 1960)

 

Paul Joyce (UK)

Absolute favourite: Lady Windermere’s Fan (Ernst Lubitsch, 1928) 

Major discovery: Miss Dorothy (Giulio Antamoro, 1920)

Notes: Ernst Lubitsch’s take on Oscar Wilde’s play as presented in the Teatro Auditorium Manzoni an auditorium with splendid acoustics, all the better to experience the power of Timothy Brock’s new score as conducted by him and played by the mighty Orchestra del Teatro Comunale di Bologna. [Major discovery] one of four films, including three new discoveries, covering the Russian/Polish actress' early career, three from Italy in diva style!

 

Austė Jucytė (Lithuania)

Absolute favourite: Queen Christina (Rouben Mamoulian, 1933)

Major discoveries: Four Pathé films: En Irlande: Excursion à Killarney (Camille Legrand, 1908) + L’Enfant des mariniers (1907) + L’Enlisé du Mont-Saint-Michel (1908) + Puericultura (1910)

 

Nakanishi Kanako (Japan) [new]

Absolute favourite: Ich denke oft an Hawaii (Elfi Mikesch, 1978)

Major discovery: Gharibeh va Meh [The Stranger and the Fog] (Bahram Beyzaie, 1974) + Bushman (David Schickele, 1971)

 

Daniel Kasman (US)

Absolute favourite: Bushman (David Schickele, 1971)

Major discoveries: La souriante Madame Beudet (Germaine Dulac, 1923) + Time of the Heathen (Peter Kass, 1961) + Gharibeh va Meh [The Stranger and the Fog] (Bahram Beyzaie, 1974)

 

Triinu Keedus (Estonia)

Absolute favourite: Classe Tous Risques (Claude Sautet, 1960)

Major discovery: Al-Makhdu'un [The Dupes] (Tewfik Saleh, 1972) 

 

Nerina T. Kocjancic (Slovenia)

Absolute favourite: Il Grido (Michelangelo Antonioni, 1957)

Major discovery: Cross of Iron (Sam Peckinpah, 1977)

 

Martin Koerber (Germany)

Absolute favourite: Was soll'n wir denn machen ohne den Tod (Elfi Mikesch, 1980)

Major discovery: The Edge of the World (Michael Powell, 1937)

 

Otto Kylmälä (Finland)

Absolute favourite: Al-Makhdu'un [The Dupes] (Tewfik Saleh, 1972)

Major discovery:  Il Dono (Michelangelo Frammartino, 2003) + The Plot Against Harry (Michael Roemer, 1969-89)

 

Massoumeh Lahidji (France/Iran)

Absolute favourite: Bellissima (Luchino Visconti, 1951)

Major discovery: Blood and Sand (Rouben Mamoulian, 1941)

 

Manuela Lazic (UK)

Absolute favourite: Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (Rouben Mamoulian, 1931)

Major discovery: Man's Castle (Frank Borzage, 1931)

Notes: The Mamoulian strand was just a delight – to see someone work across so many genres and still manage to have a clear and distinctive voice shine through was so exciting! Mamoulian's playfulness in Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde is particularly striking; the darkest moments are peppered with visual wit and the emotional depth and complexity of what Stevenson was exploring is made very clear. As for Man's Castle, rarely have I seen such a devastating depiction of a man too hardened by life to really live it. Spencer Tracy is at once terrifying and so compelling, much more interesting than either a likeable or an unlikeable character – a broken man.

 

Albert Lee (Hong Kong)

Absolute favourite: Blood and Sand (Rouben Mamoulian, 1941)

Major discovery: Al-Makhdu'un [The Dupes] (Tewfik Saleh, 1972)

 

Samantha Leroy (France)

Absolute favourite: Schatten (Arthur Robison, 1923)

Major discovery: Bushman (David Schickele, 1971)

 

Ross Lipman (US)

Absolute favourite: Al-Makhdu'un [The Dupes] (Tewfik Saleh, 1972) 

Major discovery: Al-Makhdu'un [The Dupes] (Tewfik Saleh, 1972) 

Notes: Al-Makhdu'un [is] simply an overpowering work that could have been ripped from today's headlines - save that it was made fifty years ago. But if I can extend the "favorite" category to include presentations, I'd like to single out the "City of Smog: Los Angeles in 1962" panel.  I love good illustrated lectures, and Luca Celada masterfully prised out the history informing Rosi's gem in a talk that could well be viewed as a coda to Los Angeles Plays Itself, which May HaDuong then brilliantly countered with altering views of the city unsuggested in Smog's tantalizingly subjective view of the city.  Together (along with Alberto Gemmi, who contributed a brief restoration overview) they created a panel that was almost a film in itself, and as compelling as the film that inspired them.

 

Johannes Lõhmus (Estonia)

Absolute favourite: Prosopo me prosopo [Face to Face] (Roviros Manthoulis, 1967)

Major discovery: Layla wa zi'ab (Heiny Srour, 1984)

 

Jonathan Mackris (US)

Absolute Favorite: Nothing But a Man (Michael Roemer, 1964)

Major discovery: Katherina, die Letzte (Hermann Kosterlitz, 1936)

 

Neil McGlone (UK)

Absolute favourite: Il Grido (Michelangelo Antonioni, 1957)

Major discovery: Prosopo me prosopo [Face to Face] (Roviros Manthoulis, 1967)

 

Brian Meacham (US)

Absolute favorite: Silk Stockings (Rouben Mamoulian, 1957)

Major discovery: La maison du mystère (Alexandre Volkoff, 1923)

Notes: [On SILK STOCKINGS] Along with the rest of the Mamoulian strand, this witty, knowing, and underrated musical was a delight to see, especially in such a gorgeous print. Watching Astaire so at ease as the decadent American, and knowing that under that Soviet cloak, Cyd Charisse was just waiting to strut her stuff, made the whole thing an utter pleasure. [On LA MAISON DU MYSTERE] The daily ritual of a 30-40 minute episode of this serial was an unexpected treat. Beyond providing a setting for upstanding Ivan Mosjoukine and villainous young Charles Vanel go head to head, the films are filled with unbelievable stunts, stunning cinematography, and for me, the most potent emotional moments of any film in the festival.

 

Lidia Merás (Spain)

Absolute favourite: Macario (Roberto Gavaldón, 1960)

Major discovery: Bushman (David Schickele, 1971)

 

Paolo Mereghetti (Italy)

Absolute favourite: Al-Makhdu'un [The Dupes] (Tewfik Saleh, 1972)

Major discovery: Nothing But a Man (Michael Roemer, 1964)

 

Hind Mezaina (UAE)

Absolute favourite: Black Narcissus (Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger, 1947)

Major discovery: Queen Christina (Rouben Mamoulian, 1933)

 

Daniela Michel (Mexico)

Absolute favourite: Love Me Tonight (Rouben Mamoulian, 1932)

Major discovery: Gharibeh va Meh [The Stranger and the Fog] (Bahram Beyzaie, 1974)

 

Saskia Mollen (Netherlands)

Absolute favourite: Stella Dallas (Henry King, 1925)

Major discovery: Bushman (David Schickele, 1971)

 

Olaf Möller (Germany/Finland)

Absolute favourite: Yōsō (Kinugasa Teinosuke, 1963) + Die letzte Chance (Leopold Lindtberg, 1945)

Major discovery: Tant que s'illuminera l'animal stratifié (Jean Lafleur & Robert Desrosiers, 1965)

 

Ian Mantgani (Ireland/UK)

Absolute favourite: Stella Dallas (Henry King, 1925)

Major discovery: The Plot Against Harry (Michael Roemer, 1969-89) + We Live Again (Rouben Mamoulian, 1934)

Notes: Cinema Ritrovato is such a dazzling embarrassment of riches that it almost feels insulting to the programme to single anything out. Henry King’s emotionally eviscerating version of Stella Dallas, seen in the majestic Piazza Maggiore with a responsive, sensitive new score by Stephen Horne was the screening that led me and those I spoke with to the greatest floods of tears.

The Plot Against Harry was a film I’d never heard of, and a terrific post-noir, pre-Scorsese chronicle of ethnic gangland New York with a pioneering combination of largesse, documentary detail, pathos and wry wit. There were many delightful Mamoulian pictures in the strand devoted to that director, but We Live Again took me the most by surprise - a classic Hollywood adaptation of Tolstoy that threatened to be corny in its opening moments and unfolded as a profoundly moving parable of values and consequence.

On a personal note, let me just say that Bologna is a place where cinema miracles of all shapes and sizes happen, and my greatest one this time around was as follows: I happened to be testing the DCP of my new short film at an off-festival venue, the Theatro Cinema Medica, and none other than master director Joe Dante, in town for his Ritrovato duties, was gracious enough to stop by. Truly special.

 

Chiara Marañón (Spain)

Absolute favourite: Stella Dallas (Henry King, 1925)

Major discovery: Bushman (David Schickele, 1971)

 

Jack Miller (US)

Absolute favorite: The Woman on the Beach (Jean Renoir, 1947)

Major discovery: Infanzia, vocazione e prime esperienze di Giacomo Casanova veneziano (Luigi Comencini, 1969)

 

Anabela Moutinho (Portugal)

Absolute favourite: We Live Again (Rouben Mamoulian, 1934)

Major discovery: Capelli Biondi (1919)

 

Mosa Mpetha (UK) [new]

Absolute favourite: Black Narcissus (Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger, 1947)

Major discovery: African Archives: What Next? 

 

Dominique Nasta (Belgium)

Absolute favourite: Amok (Fedor Ozep, 1934)

Major discovery: Prosopo me prosopo [Face to Face] (Roviros Manthoulis, 1967)

 

Elliot Newton (UK)

Absolute favourite: Macario (Roberto Gavaldón, 1960)

Major discovery: Al-Makhdu'un [The Dupes] (Tewfik Saleh, 1972)

 

Carlos Nogueira (Portugal)

Absolute favourite: Infanzia, vocazione e prime esperienze di Giacomo Casanova veneziano (Luigi Comencini, 1969)

Major discovery: Gharibeh va Meh [The Stranger and the Fog] (Bahram Beyzaie, 1974)

 

Vincent Paul-Boncour (France)

Absolute favourite: Hijōsen no Onna [Dragnet Girl] (Yasujirō Ozu, 1933)

Major discovery: Time of the Heathen (Peter Kass, 1961)

 

Michał Pieńkowski (Poland)

Absolute favourite: La Sorelle Bartels (1910)

Major discovery: Hotel Splendide (Michael Powell, 1932)

 

Sabina Pujol (Spain)

Absolute favourite: Cherike-ye Tara [The Ballad of Tara] (Bahram Beyzaie, 1979)

Major discovery: The Movie Orgy (Joe Dante, 1968)

 

Rym Ouartsi (France)

Absolute favourite: Silk Stockings (Rouben Mamoulian, 1957)

Major discovery: Al-Makhdu'un [The Dupes] (Tewfik Saleh, 1972)

Notes: Other favourites are Nella città l'inferno (Renato Castellani, 1959) and La fuga di Socrate (Guido Brignone, 1923)

 

Esteve Riambau (Spain)

Absolute favourite: Rings on Her Fingers (Rouben Mamoulian, 1942)

Major discovery: La contessa azzurra (Claudio Gora,1960)

 

Paul Ridd (UK)

Absolute favourite: Silk Stockings (Rouben Mamoulian, 1957)

Major discovery: Time of the Heathen (Peter Kass, 1961)

Notes: Hugo Fregonese last year, Rouben Mamoulian this year. What a thrill it was to fully immerse myself in the work of a forgotten genius of Old Hollywood at Cinema Ritrovato. Astonishing to see his sheer genre versatility and love of cinematic colour, sensuality and formal swagger expressed over decades of diverse work. All these films were just a joy to behold. And in between, seeing films from the last hundred years plus of world cinema, including the mind-blowing psychedelic thriller TIME OF THE HEATHEN, a tonne of silent films and everything in between. It's such a special place to be. Long may it continue.

 

Elif Rongen-Kaynakçi (Netherlands/Turkey)

Absolute favourite: Katherina, die Letzte (Hermann Kosterlitz, 1936) + Peter (Hermann Kosterlitz, 1934)

Major discovery: L'ombra (Mario Almirante, 1923)

Notes: Franziska Gaal in Peter & Katharina, die Letzte [both by Herman Kosterlitz]. I’d also like to mention Yam Daabo (Idrissa Ouédraogo) and La Valse Excentrique (1903).

 

Jonathan Rosenbaum (US)

Absolute favourite: Man's Castle (Frank Borzage, 1931) + Queen Christina (Rouben Mamoulian, 1933)

Major discovery: Gharibeh va Meh [The Stranger and the Fog] (Bahram Beyzaie, 1974)

 

Giulia Saccogna (UK/Italy)

Absolute favourite: Bushman (David Schickele, 1971) + Stella Dallas (Henry King, 1925)

Major discovery: Al-Makhdu'un [The Dupes] (Tewfik Saleh, 1972) + Prosopo me prosopo [Face to Face] (Roviros Manthoulis, 1967)

 

Eva Sangiorgi (Italy/Austria)

Absolute favorite: City Streets (Rouben Mamoulian, 1931)

Major discovery: Bushman (David Schickele, 1971)

 

Aboubakar Sanogo (Burkina Faso/Canada)

Absolute favorite: Al-Makhdu'un [The Dupes] (Tewfik Saleh, 1972)

Major discovery: Gharibeh va Meh [The Stranger and the Fog] (Bahram Beyzaie, 1974)

Notes: [Other major discovery] Germaine Dulac's proto music videos.

 

Regina Schlagnitweit (Austria)

Absolute favourite: Classe Tous Risques (Claude Sautet, 1960)

Major discovery: Bushman (David Schickele, 1971)

Major rediscovery: Hijōsen no Onna [Dragnet Girl] (Yasujirō Ozu, 1933)

 

Beat Schneider (Switzerland)

Absolute favourite: Love Me Tonight (Rouben Mamoulian, 1932)

Major discovery: Al-Makhdu'un [The Dupes] (Tewfik Saleh, 1972) + Kurutta ippêji [A Page of Madness] (Teinosuke Kinugasa, 1926)

 

Nuno Sena (Portugal)

Absolute favourite: City Streets (Rouben Mamoulian, 1931)

Major discovery: Gharibeh va Meh [The Stranger and the Fog] (Bahram Beyzaie, 1974)

 

Anupma Shanker (UK)

Absolute favourite: Ceddo (Ousmane Sembène, 1977)

Major discovery: Gharibeh va Meh [The Stranger and the Fog] (Bahram Beyzaie, 1974)

 

Tamara Shvediuk (Russia)

Absolute favourite: The Marriage Circle (Ernst Lubitsch, 1924)

Major discovery: Les Contes des Milles et une nuits (Viatcheslav Tourjansky, 1921)

 

Josh Siegel (US)

Absolute favourite: Gharibeh va Meh [The Stranger and the Fog] (Bahram Beyzaie, 1974) + Cherike-ye Tara [The Ballad of Tara) (Bahram Beyzaie, 1979)

Major discovery: Bushman (David Schickele, 1971) + Al-Makhdu'un [The Dupes] (Tewfik Saleh, 1972)

 

Francesco Simeoni (UK)

Absolute favourite: Al-Makhdu'un [The Dupes] (Tewfik Saleh, 1972)

Major discovery: Al-Makhdu'un [The Dupes] (Tewfik Saleh, 1972)

Notes: My top film and discovery were one and the same this year: The Dupes. A remarkable film, like The Battle of Algiers by way of The Wages of Fear. Timely, urgent and heartbreaking cinema.

 

Farran Smith Nehme (US)

Absolute favourite: Stella Dallas (Henry King, 1925)

Major discovery: Cry, the Beloved Country (Zoltan Korda, 1951)

 

Gerdien Smit (Netherlands)

Absolute favourite: Nothing But a Man (Michael Roemer, 1964)

Major discovery: Macario (Roberto Gavaldón, 1960)

 

Imogen Sara Smith (US)

Absolute favourite: Al-Makhdu'un [The Dupes] (Tewfik Saleh, 1972) 

Major discovery: Cherike-ye Tara [The Ballad of Tara) (Bahram Beyzaie, 1979)

Notes: Even more than in past editions, nearly all the films I saw this year were completely new to me. I was stunned by The Dupes, with its ruthless shift from lyrical impressionism to stripped-down nerve-shredding suspense, and by the otherworldly, impassioned visions of the Beyzaie films. Among my other favorite were a wealth of feminist and women-centered films: the brilliant, harrowing Aloise; the warm humanist comedy Speriamo che sia femmina; and the great women’s-prison drama Nella citta l’inferno, with Magnani at her Magnaniest. The “woman’s film” was exalted in Stella Dallas, and I relished weeping in the piazza with my friends. I saw almost all of the German exile comedies—Peter was the highlight, with the magnificent Franziska Gaal—and they reminded me of John Lahr’s remark about the importance of frivolity as a defiance of suffering. I allowed myself just one old favorite, One Way Passage, which revealed its visual elegance, wit, and gallant spirit anew in a beautiful restoration. It was my last screening, and a perfect one: as Kay Francis says of a Paradise cocktail, “Always the most precious, the last few drops.” 

 

Pauline Soh (Singapore)

Absolute favourite: Biruma no Tategoto [The Burmese Harp] (Kon Ichikawa, 1956)

Major discovery: Layla wa zi'ab (Heiny Srour, 1984) + Les Femmes Palestiniennes (Jocelyn Saab, 1973)

 

Esa Salovaara (Finland)

Absolute favourite: Macario (Roberto Gavaldón, 1960)

Major discovery: Banditi a Orgosolo (Vittorio De Seta, 1961) + Ahlam el-madina (Mohammad Malas, 1984)

Notes: All  Teinosuke Kinugasa’s films were great.

 

Juan Soto (Colombia)

Absolute favourite: Stella Dallas (Henry King, 1925)

Major discovery: Kurutta ippêji [A Page of Madness] (Teinosuke Kinugasa, 1926)

 

Federico Striuli (Italy)

Absolute favourite: L'ombra (Mario Almirante, 1923)

Major discovery: Fiamma simbolica (Eugenio Perego, 1918)

 

Simon Taaffe (Australia)

Absolute favourite: Rio Bravo (Howard Hawks, 1959)

Major discovery: Il Dono (Michelangelo Frammartino, 2003)

 

David Thompson (UK)

Absolute favourite: Nella città l'inferno (Renato Castellani, 1959)

Major discovery: Kurutta ippêji [A Page of Madness] (Teinosuke Kinugasa, 1926)

Notes: Most missed - The Stranger and the Fog.

 

Matthew Turner (UK)

Absolute favourite: Nella città l'inferno (Renato Castellani, 1959)

Major discovery: Nella città l'inferno (Renato Castellani, 1959)

 

Boyd van Hoeij (Netherlands/Luxembourg)

Absolute favourite: Macario (Roberto Gavaldón, 1960)

Major discovery: Ahlam el-madina (Mohammad Malas, 1984)

 

Leo van Hee (Netherlands)

Absolute favourite: Smog (Franco Rossi, 1962)

Major discovery: Nothing But a Man (Michael Roemer, 1964)

 

Louise von Plessen (Germany)

Absolute favourite: Love Me Tonight (Rouben Mamoulian, 1932)

Major discovery: Gharibeh va Meh [The Stranger and the Fog] (Bahram Beyzaie, 1974)

 

Marjan Vujović (Serbia)

Absolute favourite: The Dreamers (Bernardo Bertolucci, 2003)

Major discovery: Amok (Fedor Ozep, 1934)

 

Jay Weissberg (US/Italy)

Absolute favourite: Al-Makhdu'un [The Dupes] (Tewfik Saleh, 1972)

Major discovery: Le Cake-Walk infernal (Georges Méliès, 1903)

 

Jon Wengström (Sweden)

Absolute favourite: Hijōsen no Onna [Dragnet Girl] (Yasujirō Ozu, 1933) + A Chess Dispute (Robert W. Paul, 1903)

Major discovery: Gharibeh va Meh [The Stranger and the Fog] (Bahram Beyzaie, 1974) + Kawanakajima kassen [Battle of Kawanakajima] (Teinosuke Kinugasa, 1941)

 

Claire West (UK)

Absolute favourite: Love Me Tonight (Rouben Mamoulian, 1932)

Major discovery: Al-Makhdu'un [The Dupes] (Tewfik Saleh, 1972)

 

Karl Wratschko (Austria)

Absolute favourite: Homeo (Etienne O‘Leary, 1967)  

Major discovery: Desperate Poaching Affray (William Haggar, 1903)

 

Marina Zigneli (Greece)

Absolute favourite: Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (Rouben Mamoulian, 1931)

Major discovery: Hijōsen no Onna [Dragnet Girl] (Yasujirō Ozu, 1933)

---------------------------------------------------------------------

All the titles:

22 votes

Al-Makhdu'un [The Dupes] (Tewfik Saleh, 1972)

21 votes

Gharibeh va Meh [The Stranger and the Fog] (Bahram Beyzaie, 1974)

17 votes

Bushman (David Schickele, 1971)

8 votes

Love Me Tonight (Rouben Mamoulian, 1932)

7 votes

Kurutta ippêji [A Page of Madness] (Teinosuke Kinugasa, 1926)

Macario (Roberto Gavaldón, 1960)

Stella Dallas (Henry King, 1925)

6 votes

Cherike-ye Tara [The Ballad of Tara] (Bahram Beyzaie, 1979)

5 votes

Hijōsen no Onna [Dragnet Girl] (Yasujirō Ozu, 1933)

Nothing But a Man (Michael Roemer, 1964)

Prosopo me prosopo [Face to Face] (Roviros Manthoulis, 1967)

4 votes

Ahlam el-madina (Mohammad Malas, 1984)

Applause (Rouben Mamoulian, 1929)

Bellissima (Luchino Visconti, 1951)

Classe Tous Risques (Claude Sautet, 1960)

Il Grido (Michelangelo Antonioni, 1957)

Nella città l'inferno (Renato Castellani, 1959)

Queen Christina (Rouben Mamoulian, 1933)

Silk Stockings (Rouben Mamoulian, 1957)

3 votes

Amok (Fedor Ozep, 1934)

Black Narcissus (Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger, 1947)

Infanzia, vocazione e prime esperienze di Giacomo Casanova veneziano (Luigi Comencini, 1969)

Layla wa zi'ab (Heiny Srour, 1984)

Man's Castle (Frank Borzage, 1931)

The Plot Against Harry (Michael Roemer, 1969-89)

Time of the Heathen (Peter Kass, 1961)

We Live Again (Rouben Mamoulian, 1934)

2 votes

Blood and Sand (Rouben Mamoulian, 1941)

City Streets (Rouben Mamoulian, 1931)

Die letzte Chance (Leopold Lindtberg, 1945)

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (Rouben Mamoulian, 1931)

L'ombra (Mario Almirante, 1923)

Il Dono (Michelangelo Frammartino, 2003)

Il Ferroviere (Pietro Germi, 1956)

Katherina, die Letzte (Hermann Kosterlitz, 1936)

Kawanakajima kassen [Battle of Kawanakajima] (Teinosuke Kinugasa, 1941)

Lady Windermere’s Fan (Ernst Lubitsch, 1928)

La maison du mystère (Alexandre Volkoff, 1923)

Miss Dorothy (Giulio Antamoro, 1920)

Peter (Hermann Kosterlitz, 1934)

Smog (Franco Rossi, 1962)

The Woman on the Beach (Jean Renoir, 1947)

1 vote

Aloise (Liliane de Kermadec, 1975)

Ball im Savoy (Steve Sekely, 1935)

Banditi a Orgosolo (Vittorio De Seta, 1961)

Biruma no Tategoto [The Burmese Harp] (Kon Ichikawa, 1956)

Capelli Biondi (1919)

Ceddo (Ousmane Sembène, 1977)

Chromo Sud (Etienne O'Leary, 1968)

La contessa azzurra (Claudio Gora,1960)

Cross of Iron (Sam Peckinpah, 1977)

Cry, the Beloved Country (Zoltan Korda, 1951)

Daibutsu kaigen [Dedication of the Great Buddha] (Teinosuke Kinugasa, 1953)

Desperate Poaching Affray (William Haggar, 1903)

Down and Out in America (Lee Grant, 1986)

En Irlande: Excursion à Killarney (Camille Legrand, 1908) 

L’Enfant des mariniers (1907)

L’Enlisé du Mont-Saint-Michel (1908)

Fiamma simbolica (Eugenio Perego, 1918)

Homeo (Etienne O‘Leary, 1967) 

Hotel Splendide (Michael Powell, 1932)

Ich denke oft an Hawaii (Elfi Mikesch, 1978)

L’Auberge rouge (Jean Epstein, 1923)

La Captive (Chantal Akerman, 2000)

La Sorelle Bartels (1910)

La souriante Madame Beudet (Germaine Dulac, 1923)

La Voix du Rossignol (Ladislas Starewitch, 1923)

Ladri di biciclette (Vittorio De Sica, 1948)

Le Cake-Walk infernal (Georges Méliès, 1903)

Les Contes des Milles et une nuits (Viatcheslav Tourjansky, 1921)

Les Femmes Palestiniennes (Jocelyn Saab, 1973)

One Way Passage (Tay Garnett, 1932)

Puericultura (1910)

Rat Life and Diet in North America (Joyce Wieland, 1969)

Renoir, Vigo, Grémillon les éclaireurs de l'ombre (Alain Agat, 2023)

Rings on Her Fingers (Rouben Mamoulian, 1942)

Rio Bravo (Howard Hawks, 1959)

Schatten (Arthur Robison, 1923)

Shirasagi (Teinosuke Kinugasa, 1958)

Stornellata Romana (Pietro Francisci, 1947)

Surprise (Dave Fleischer, 1923)

Suspect (Robert Siodmak, 1944)

Tant que s'illuminera l'animal stratifié (Jean Lafleur & Robert Desrosiers, 1965)

The Celluloid Closet (Rob Epstein, Jeffrey Friedman, 1996)

The Dreamers (Bernardo Bertolucci, 2003)

The Edge of the World (Michael Powell, 1937)

The Golden Coach (Jean Renoir, 1952)

The Mark of Zorro (Rouben Mamoulian, 1940)

The Marriage Circle (Ernst Lubitsch, 1924)

The Movie Orgy (Joe Dante, 1968)

Quién sabe? (Damiano Damiani, 1966)

Tire au flanc (Jean Renoir, 1928)

Un rêve plus long que la nuit (Niki De Saint Phalle, 1976)

Was soll'n wir denn machen ohne den Tod (Elfi Mikesch, 1980)

Yam Daabo (Idrissa Ouedraogo, 1987)

Yōsō (Kinugasa Teinosuke, 1963)

Yukinojô henge: Daiippen dainihen [An Actor's Revenge] (Teinosuke Kinugasa, 1935)

Zündhölzer (Uwe Krauss, Peter Gehric, 1960)

 

 

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Martin Scorsese’s Film Foundation to Partner with Mk2 Films on Restored Classics (EXCLUSIVE)

Elsa Keslassy

5/22/2023 9:00:00 AM

France’s mk2 films is set to distribute internationally a collection of Martin Scorsese’s prestigious restored films from the World Cinema Project, which is part of his banner The Film Foundation.

The World Cinema Project has so far restored 51 films from 29 different countries, representing the breadth and diversity of global cinema.

Scorsese, one of the greatest living film legends whose latest movie “Killers of the Flower Moon” world premiered at the Cannes Film Festival on May 20, created The Film Foundation to raise awareness and funds for the preservation of our cinematic history. Since its formation, The Film Foundation has helped to preserve and restore over 1,000 films from every era and genre, ranging from features to documentaries, newsreels, shorts, home movies, experimental and silent films.

“The Film Foundation’s partnership with mk2 creates greater international visibility for the films restored through the World Cinema Project,” said Scorsese. “These incredible films are an essential part of our collective film heritage; making them available to a wider international audience is a goal we share with mk2. We’re excited to work together on this exciting program,” Scorsese continued.

Nathanaël Karmitz, Mk2 Films’ CEO, said “Film heritage and preservation has always been core to Mk2’s activity. We are honored to partner with Martin Scorsese’s Film Foundation and their vital work in restoring and preserving under-exposed classics of international cinema.”

“It is a real privilege to distribute these titles, introducing them to new audiences and confirming and maintaining their cultural importance,” Karmitz continued.

The World Cinema Project’s restored titles will join mk2 films’ catalogue of over 1,000 titles from cult filmmakers such as Charles Chaplin, Abbas Kiarostami, and Agnès Varda. The company has also launched events to promote classics from its library, for instance Krzysztof Kieślowski’s “Three Colours” trilogy which was recently re-released.

Created in 2007, the World Cinema Project expanded the foundation’s mission globally, to regions where preservation resources and infrastructure are scarce. To date, 51 films from Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe, Central America, South America, and the Middle East have been restored, preserved and exhibited for a global audience, sometimes for the first time outside of their country of origin.

The World Cinema Project partnered with the Pan African Federation of Filmmakers (FEPACI), UNESCO, and the Cineteca di Bologna in 2017 to launch the African Film Heritage Project, an initiative to locate, preserve, and distribute African cinema, as identified by FEPACI’s advisory board of archivists, scholars, and filmmakers. The WCP also supports educational programs, including Restoration Film Schools; intensive, results-oriented workshops allowing students and professionals worldwide to learn the art and science of film restoration and preservation.

Along with this new partnership with The Film Foundation, mk2 films has also recently added to its library “The Times of Harvey Milk” by Rob Epstein and “The Celluloid Closet” by Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman, among others.

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Steven Spielberg, Paul Thomas Anderson Discuss Their Film Preservation Efforts: “The Protection of Memories”

Ryan Gajewski

4/15/2023 2:50:00 PM

Steven Spielberg, Paul Thomas Anderson and Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav took part in a panel at the 2023 TCM Classic Film Festival to discuss the importance of rescuing films that are at risk of deteriorating.

During an event Thursday on the festival’s opening night at Los Angeles’ TCL Chinese Theatre, TCM host Ben Mankiewicz moderated a conversation between the three guests surrounding their efforts to restore decades-old titles. Spielberg explained that Martin Scorsese launched The Film Foundation in 1990 to preserve motion picture history and had enlisted the help of the Hollywood studios and other prominent filmmakers. The panel on Thursday focused on the work being done in a partnership between TCM, Warner Bros. Discovery and Film Foundation, and it accompanied the premiere screening of the 4K restoration of Howard Hawks’ Rio Bravo (1959).

“We all joined [Scorsese] to go around to all the studios to get them to try to finance this rescue operation to save our cultural heritage,” Spielberg said. The Fabelmans director recalled that among his fellow filmmakers who joined Scorsese back in 1990 were Stanley Kubrick, Francis Ford Coppola and Sydney Pollack.

As for how the group decides which movies to prioritize, Spielberg — who noted that their efforts have rescued more than 990 films — explained that they initially aimed to collect the body of work of a particular director. The quality of a film negative can also be a deciding factor, while a filmmaker’s own personal preference can help steer decisions as well.

“We try to find the films, not the films that are our favorite movies, but films that tell a very unique story of this country and the people of this country,” the Oscar winner continued. “And not only this country, but we’re rescuing experimental films, documentaries. We’re rescuing international films now. We’ve already rescued 97 international films. So this is something that’s not going to stop. We were all very busy making our movies in 1990, and Marty put everything aside and said, ‘No, we’re prioritizing this. This is what needs to be done.'”

According to Anderson, the importance of the work goes beyond just preserving cinematic history. “I don’t want to get philosophical, but it starts to end up being the protection of memories — very, very important memories — that we each individually have,” the Licorice Pizza helmer said. “Where was I when I saw E.T.? I remember it very well, and I remember the friends I was with. I remember who I took to see that film as much as I remember the film.”

The TCM Classic Film Festival, which this year spotlights Warner Bros.’ legacy in honor of the studio’s 100th anniversary, ends Sunday. Videos from the festival’s events can be seen here. 

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