Il Cinema Ritrovato’s highlights: Sunday, June 26th
One hundred years ago: Krazy Serial 1916
Sala Mastroianni, 9 a.m.
On Sunday 26 the first appointment with the Krazy Serial conceived by Mariann Lewinsky as part of the section dedicated to the films of 1916 will be screened. It is not a serial in the real sense of the word, although its central focus is Jacques Feyder’s parody serial Le Pied qui étreint (The Strangling Foot), but six programs constructed with a Dadaist attitude using free assemblage. And not by chance, because it is inspired by George Herriman’s Krazy Kat (actually Ignatz the Mouse threw his first brick at Krazy Kat as early as 1910, but the first glorious full-page Sunday cartoon appeared on April 23rd, 1916) and Dadaism. The first program, entitled Parodia / Ready Made, passes from episode 1 to episode 1777 of Le Pied qui étreint (The Strangling Foot), in which Feyder is clearly poking fun at serials à la Perils of Pauline, and continues with Les Gaz mortels by Abel Gance.
Feng gui lai de ren by Hou Hsiao-hsien
Sala Scorsese, 11 a.m.
For the ninth consecutive year, Il Cinema Ritrovato showcases films from around the world with restorations by the World Cinema Project, Martin Scorsese’s special scheme, which originated within the Film Foundation. This year’s selection includes two restorations jointly launched and supported with the Cinémathèque Royale de Belgique, The Boys from Fengkuei (1983) by Hou Hsiao-hsien, and Taipei Story (1985) by Edward Yang, two seminal titles for the Taiwanese Nouvelle Vague. The Boys from Fengkuei is a film of fundamental importance for Chinese cinema because Hou Hsiao-hsien “was able to bring a veritable revolution in its manner of apprehending and regarding the world, and, overcoming the impasses of classicism and imported modernism, he defined the possibility of a new and original point of view on the contemporary world” (Olivier Assayas). It w ill be introduced in the cinema by Nicola Mazzanti (Cinémathèque Royale de Belgique).
Cinema Lesson: Bertrand Tavernier
Sala Auditorium, 12 noon
Bertrand Tavernier has opened the Festival with his Voyage à travers le cinéma français, and with his irresistible gift as a storyteller he has taken us on an entertaining personal journey to discover the French films and film-makers that have stood out in his life. He then meets the audience of Il Cinema Ritrovato for a Cinema Lesson that retraces his career, which began in the sixties as a film critic and continued behind the camera . Half a century of cinema and love of the cinema. He will be talking to Gian Luca Farinelli.
Technicolor & Co.: Marnie
Two or three things I know about Marnie – a Cinema Lesson with Jean Douchet
Cinema Arlecchino, 2.15 p.m. and Sala Auditorium, 5 p.m.
These are films we simply cannot imagine in black and white. Their drama, comedy, tension and rhythm are woven together by color, which in turn becomes a starring actor itself. Marnie is Tippi Hedren’s green coat, the pale blue petticoat that Sean Connery rips off her, the yellow handbag she clutches, and of course the blond ‘à la Hitchcock’ of her hair. We can appreciate all these colors with the authentic tonality of the vintage Technicolor 35mm dye transfer print from the Academy Film Archive courtesy of Universal. During his lesson, the renowned French critic Jean Douchet will offer us his analysis of Marnie.
Rediscovered and Restored – Who’s Crazy? The rediscovered film with music by Ornette Coleman
Sala Scorsese, 2.30 p.m.
Rediscovered and Restored: the perfect definition for Who’s Crazy? by Thomas White. Shot in Belgium in 1965, it is a fusion of two improvisations, one b y the members of the Living Theatre (without Judith Malina and Julian Beck), and one by Ornette Coleman, considered the father of free jazz, who recorded the soundtrack with his trio (which included David Izenzon on bass and Charles Moffett on drums as well as Coleman himself on sax). After being shown at Cannes in 1966, the film disappeared and was considered lost until 2015. When Coleman died, Vanessa McDonnell, director, funder of the Grand Motel Film and a fan of the musician, started searching for the film. She tracked White down and discovered that the film shown at Cannes was lying in his garage in Connecticut in a sorry state. The restoration was carried out with John Klacsmann of Anthology Film. One of the masterpieces of Kenji Mizoguchi, Ugetsu monogatari, restored b y the Film Foundation and Kadokawa Corporation and presented in the cinema by Margaret Bodde, is also on the program, as well as Les Abysses, the explosive and provocative debut of Nico Papatakis, restored by Gaumont.
Documents and Documentaries: El hombre que quiso ser Segundo and Natural Resistance
Sala Auditorium, 6 p.m., and Sala Scorsese, 9.45 p.m.
Cinema that tells th e story of cinema, investigates its past and the figures that have made its history, like Segundo de Chomón, pioneer of the trick films depicted in El hombre que quiso ser Segundo by Ramón Alós, a game of mirrors constructed around the imaginary figure of Chomón’s twin brother, mixing documentary and fiction. The film will be introduced by Ramón Alós, the producer Livia Cortese and the actor Enrico Vecchi. Jonathan Nossiter will present his documentary Natural resistance, which tells the story of a movement of ‘natural’ wine dressers and farmers against an economic and political system that levels off agricultural production. Before the screening there will be a tasting of four wines from Cascina degli Ulivi described by Stefano Bellotti and Jonathan Nossiter. The appointment with Nossiter is also at the Libreria Coop Ambasciatori at 7 p.m. for the presentation of his new essay. It is entitled Cultural Insurrection. For a new ecology of culture (DeriveApprodi, 2016).
Ceremony for the awarding of the FIAF Prize to the Dardenne brothers
Teatro Comunale, 7.15 p.m.
The final event of the two-day FIAF Symposium is the awarding of the FIAF Prize to the two filmmaking brothers Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, whose social cinema combines ethics and cinematographic mastery. They have made their uncompromising vision of contemporary reality a key characteristic of their style. Afterwards, La Promesse will be shown, the feature film which made the two Belgian brothers famous at an international level in the mid nineties. It already included some of the themes that charac terize their cinema: a teenage protagonist who is a victim of the choices of adults, and a representation of the world of the most insecure and marginalized work, that of the immigrants illegally exploited in European countries.
Homage to Marlon Brando – One-Eyed Jacks in the Piazza
Piazza Maggiore, 8.45 p.m.
The only film directed by Marlon Brando, a great western that is as rebellious and fascinating as its maker and interpreter. One-Eyed Jacks was based on an idea of Sam Peckinpah and passed through the hands of Kubrick, but it was Brando who made it completely his own, even in its excess. The film that he shot lasted almost five hours, and the final cut reduced it to its current 141 minutes. The latest restoration recovers its burnt primary colors and forcefully reestablishes its modernity. Although the story is a standard one (the revenge of a young armed robber against his older ex-partner who has abandoned him), Brando’s construction is a very personal web of oedipal tensions, masochistic instincts and figurat ive reflections on violence. A unique work that plumbs classic cinema only to emerge, overbearing and ahead of its time, into the atmosphere of the new American cinema.
The magic of carbon lamp projection: Stella Dallas
Piazzetta Pier Paolo Pasolini, 10.15 p.m.
The first evening on which the magic lights of carbon arc projector are turned on again – an experience reserved for the lucky few (but watch out because the seats run out in the blink of an eye). Stella Dallas is an unmissable film for the many people who love the (perverse) purity of melodrama, the tears shed for ‘sublime love’, and great female interpretations. Stella is a provincial woman of limited means who marries a rich man, has a daughter, separates, and accepts the most excruciating sacrifice in order not to hinder the social ascent of her offspring. The story has had a variety of film versions. The most famous Stella of the screen was Barbara Stanwyck in the 1937 film by King Vidor, but this Belle Bennett, directed in 1925 by a great master of emotions like Henry King, was a real find – thanks in part to the screenplay by Frances Marion. She was one of the best writers of American silent movies, and introduced ideas about the role of mothers and social dynamics into the perfect melodramatic equilibrium.