Festival Opening: Bertrand Tavernier presents Voyage à travers le cinéma français
Sala Auditorium – Laboratori delle Arti UniBo, at 4pm
Bertrand Tavernier is the guest of honour at this edition, which opens on the Lumière brothers and therefore the essence of cinema, its beginnings, its many reasons for being. This year Tavernier, director of some of the most beautiful French films of the last forty years, presents in Bologna (after the Cannes premiere) his own personal voyage through the cinema of his country, as a sort of best wishes for the opening of the festival (accompanying him will be producers Jérôme and Nicolas Seydoux). It represents a personal recherche du cinéma perdu that interweaves autobiographical evocations with fabulous discoveries concerning a variety of film-makers who were loved, interviewed, known and supported by Tavernier. “It is like a dear friend telling us about the loves of his life, recounting his innermost secrets. Tavernier does this in a lucid, cultured, simple and moving way. We discover another Gabin, another Renoir, and many of the films that are in the Cinema Ritrovato Programme” (Gian Luca Farinelli). Que la fête commence!

Restored and Recovered. Karpo Godina presents his short films, Bruno Zanin introduces Amarcord
Sala Scorsese, at 2:30pm and Cinema Arlecchino, at 9:45pm
Il Cinema Ritrovato’s hallmark section continues to offer an unparalleled view of the best in 35mm and digital restorations from around the world. Recovered & Restored is a mosaic of classic and contemporary works, from both inside and outside the ‘canon’ of film history, acclaimed masterpieces and discoveries. The offering includes Amarcord by Federico Fellini, in the copy restored by Cineteca di Bologna, supervised by Giuseppe Rotunno – introduced by Bruno Zanin, who played Titta in the film. Preceded by a montage of out-takes, edited together by Giuseppe Tornatore – as well as the amazing Karpo Godina, who will be at the festival to present his short films about the former Yugoslavia with an ironic, subversive and poetic point of view. This first evening also sees the screening of restorations of Signore & signori, Gado Gado and Westfront 1918.

All the Colours of Il Cinema Ritrovato The Patsy by Jerry Lewis and Bílý ráj by Karel Lamač
Cinema Arlecchino, at 2:15pm and Sala Mastroianni, at 3:30pm
Colour is the hidden heart of this year’s festival, re-emerging in every section through the rainbow of tonality that characterises the entire history of cinema, along all its latitudes, in vintage copies and new restorations. On the first day of the festival you can watch Bílý ráj (1924) by Karel Lamač, in the 2016 newly restored version by Jan Ledecký and Národní Filmový Archiv. “There is no other way to know what a tinted and toned silent film really looks like but to watch one”, explains Mariann Lewinsky. “Do not miss this unique opportunity to experience a black and white positive print, coloured by tinting and toning; an authentic copy, not a facsimile, a transfer, an approximation or a simulation. It is a blissful experience”. We take a leap forward in time by forty years to inaugurate the Technicolor & Co. section, with the first of its extremely rare vintage prints, the original 35mm Technicolor dye transfer print of the irresistible The Patsy (1964) by Jerry Lewis, a film that is “visually sumptuous: the study of colour, the work of gifted director of photography Wallace Kelley is a delight for its subtly aggressive modernity” (Benayoun). Preceded by Tiger Rag, one of Albert Pierru’s “films without a camera”, produced in the 1950s by drawing, hand painting and scratching the emulsion.

Jacques Becker – The Very Idea of Freedom: Goupi Mains rouge and Le Trou
Cinema Jolly, at 6:15pm and 9:30pm
He was one of the most highly regarded and respected directors amongst his peers. A lover of jazz and of American Cinema. A ‘vieille France’ like Max (Jean Gabin) in Grisbi, switching genres and milieus with the supreme elegance of his Arsène Lupin character. Our retrospective dedicated to the great Jacques Becker (1906-1960) gets underway with two cornerstones of his work. First, the Pathé restored version of Goupi Mains rouges, French cinema’s most beautiful film about the world of peasant farmers (a companion piece to Italian cinema’s most beautiful film about world of peasant farmers, Ermanno Olmi’s L’albero degli zoccoli, in programme 30th June). The screening will be introduced by the curator of this section, Bernard Eisenschitz, and the restoration supervisor Noël Véry. Followed later on in the evening by his final masterpiece, Le Trou, in which Becker, to quote the words of Serge Daney that lent themselves to the title of the section, managed to “film the very idea of freedom”.

Cineconcert: Modern Times by Chaplin. Accompanied by live music performed by the Teatro Comunale di Bologna Orchestra, directed by Timothy Brock
Piazza Maggiore, at 9:45pm
The opening evening of the 30th anniversary and the first Cineconcert of Il Cinema Ritrovato 2016. Charlie Chaplin returns to the big screen in Piazza Maggiore, the artist par excellence of the 20th century who has been at the centre of the Cineteca di Bologna’s restoration and research activities for 15 years. The Teatro Co munale di Bologna Orchestra, directed by Timothy Brock, will perform music composed by Chaplin for Modern Times, which Brock also restored. The exceptional visual and acoustic breadth will bring a new enchantment to an (almost) silent film released during the era of sound, marked by a masterly use of effects and music; one of the highpoints of Chaplin’s art and his final appearance as the Little Tramp. Carved into universal memory are the images of the Tramp convulsively tightening bolts, astride gigantic gears, alienated, unemployed, in love. The wonderfully comic Modern Times is the greatest film about the damnation of modernity and the social exploitation that forms the base of Capitalism; and the Little Tramp and the Gamin on the road is “the most complete image of human happiness ever created on screen” (Peter von Bagh).

Saturday 25th – full programme