It may seem paradoxical to talk about “silent” cinema because there is no cinema less silent than silent cinema when accompanied by live music and melodies. One of the most wonderful aspects of Il Cinema Ritrovato is the opportunity to offer spectators eight days of cineconcerts, from nine in the morning until late at night, at Cinema Lumière, the Modernissimo, in Piazzetta Pasolini and Piazza Maggiore: over sixty silent-cinema séances with live performances by musicians who are experts in the precious art of allowing music to converse with cinema. Of the many unmissable offerings, we would like to highlight: Die Rose von Stambul (1917), an adaptation of the operetta of the same name, starring the legendary soprano Fritzi Massary; Sternberg’s debut film Salvation Hunters (1925), accompanied by the fascinating experimental trio of Matti Bye (piano), Laura Naukkarinen (foley) and Eduardo Raon (harp); Man With a Movie Camera, accompanied by the duo of Maud Nelissen (piano) and Silvia Mandolini (violin); a programme of films from 1905 by Méliès, commented on, as was commonplace at the time, by raconteur Julie Linquette; the Henri Fescourt series Les Miserables, accompanied by Neil Brand on piano, the new restoration of Quo vadis?, set to a new soundtrack by Frank Bockius and Daniele Furlati and the premiere of Stephen Horne and Frank Bockius’s new score for The Garden of Eden (1928).
And, in Piazza Maggiore, two masterpieces from 1925: Eisenstein’s Strike, accompanied by a musical group coordinated by Stefano Pilia and Laura Agnusdei, and The Gold Rush, which will be screened on 26 June – 100 years to the day after its debut – with a live performance from the Teatro Comunale di Bologna Orchestra conducted by Timothy Brock.