This programme realises a long-cherished dream. Destiny had arranged for one of us to be in Tokyo in 1991-1992, when 62 newly restored titles from the Tomijiro Komiya Collection were screened at the National Film Center – National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo (now the National Film Archive of Japan or NFAJ). Prints from this marvellous collection, generously lent by our colleagues in Tokyo, have enriched past editions of Il Cinema Ritrovato, and in 2014 led to the restoration of Addio giovinezza! (Augusto Genina,
1918) from the only element known to exist, a duplicate of a now lost Komiya print. When Hiroshi Komatsu proposed a Komiya programme for the festival, we were overjoyed. We decided very early on to avoid the obvious: we would not present a selection of the 20 or so miraculously complete prints, the highlights, so to speak, but would revisit the whole collection (of about 160 items) and explore its unknown parts. As a result, 44 of the 56 elements presented here are screened for the first time ever in public. The cans that Hiroshi Komatsu opened in 1988 contained mostly remnants. Many films had totally decomposed (close to nothing of the Gaumont and Cines productions had survived), and as for the others, only fractions could be preserved. The loss is great, but in a paradoxical way, fragments do have a hidden strength. They offer maximal density in a minimum of time. Following their suggestions,
their physiognomy, we have edited eight programmes that give an overview of the first golden age of European silent cinema, present some important performers and production companies and outline distinctive topics, motives, genres and aesthetic and narrative strategies. Enter the maze and be astonished.Our thanks for a wonderful time of working together on this project go to Hiroshi Komatsu, to Mika Tomita, Masaki Daibo, Chizuru Usui and all the staff and curators of the National Film Archive of Japan. We are grateful to Akira Komiya, Iku Sekiya, Sawako Ogawa for their support, and to Ivo Blom, Gianna Chiapello, Claudia Gianetto and Giovanni Lasi for their help in identifying films.

Mariann Lewinsky and Karl Wratschko