Il Cinema Ritrovato 2024 Roundup
Singing in the Rain (Dir: Stanley Donen, Gene Kelly, 1952)
On my flight to Bologna to attend Il Cinema Ritrovato, I noticed the Classic Film section on Emirates’ Inflight Entertainment was renamed to “Nostalgic Cinema” and next to it was a section titled “Disney Classics”. Why re-categorise “classic” to “nostalgic”?
It made me think of Pamela Hutchinson’s description of old movies as “young cinema” and this recent piece on her blog Silent London, New Media Nostalgia And The Revival Of Silent Cinema Style. It does an excellent job addressing nostalgia, and connecting the past and present.
I write about early films not because they are old, but because they are so young. I don’t talk about old movies, but young cinema, those films that were made when the medium was new and its possibilities had not been fully mapped out. Young films do not yet have histories, but are bursting with faith in the future of the medium. They have this in common with the best of contemporary cinema.
For the past few years, Ehsan Khoshbakht, one of the co-directors of Il Cinema Ritrovato, asks attendees to share a list of their favourite film/strand at the festival to post on his blog.
This year’s list can be found here, and the following was my contribution. Below it are more thoughts on this year’s edition.
Absolute favourite: Onna no saka / A Woman’s Uphill Slope (Kozaburo Yoshimura, 1960, 35mm)
Major discovery: Al Leil / The Night (Mohammad Malas, 1992, 35mm) + Nujum Al-Nahar / Stars in Broad Daylight (Ossama Mohammed, 1988, restored)Notes:
Favourite strand: Kozaburo Yoshimura, Undercurrents Of Modernity, tender films about a changing society post World War II, especially for women striving for better lives, financially and romantically. Beautiful prints, especially the ones in colour.Standouts from Cinemalibero:
Bona (Lino Brocka, 1980, restored) - That ending! 🪣🔥🥵
Maya Miriga (Nirad Mohapatra, 1984, restored), preceded by a moving intro by the filmmaker's son, Sandeep Mohapatra.Perfect pairing of films:
Date with Duke (George Pal, 1947, 35mm) + Tovarich (Anatole Litvak, 1937, 35mm)
Daybreak Express (D.A. Pennebaker, 1953) + City for Conquest (Anatole Litvak, 1940, 35mm)Best timed screening:
Singing in the Rain (Stanley Donen, Gene Kelly, 1952) on a vintage 35mm Technicolor print, on the last day of the festival, Sunday at 11am in Arlecchino. Perfection.
Growing pains and issues with the online ticketing system
The lead up to this year’s edition of the festival was met with frustration with the online booking system, which crashed as soon as it was made available for us to book. A case of too many people logging on at the same time, a poorly built backend system, who knows, but it wasn't fun, especially for those that want to book certain seats like me.
Considering the numbers attending the festival are not comparable to say a Beyonce or Taylor Swift concert, it took many days for the website to function properly.
Additionally, announcing the schedule and opening the online booking system just few hours later on the same day adds to the chaos. Not enough time is given to figure what film one wants to see.
Luckily the technical delay with the online booking system gave us more time to sort out our schedule. I also have to give a shout out to my friends who run RepCinema.com independently. Their festival scheduler makes it very easy to have an overview of the entire line-up, and to be able to decide on which films to watch and easily figure out if there any schedule overlaps. Would be great if Il Cinema Ritrovato can partner with RepCinema to incorporate the scheduler as an option on their website.
There were lots of angry comments (many in Italian) calling to cancel booking altogether. Despite that, booking online for me is essential. Who wants to stand in a queue longer than one should to watch a film? That time can be better used to enjoy a sit down meal, a walk, see other festival friends. I did, however, miss the days before 2020, when I could pick up the printed program a day before the festival, sit in a cafe, circle the films I want to see whilst sipping my coffee.
But the festival has grown since then, more venues, more films, more people, which means those days are long gone.
Cinemas
A new venue was added this year, the lovely Cinema Modernissimo which opened its doors on November 21, 2023.
I was very happy to watch films there, sitting in the front row. All the seats had names of directors and actors. Mine was Giorgio Diritti. I was jealous of people who sat in seats with the names Martin Scorsese and David Lynch.
Cinema Modernissimo is a historic movie theater in the center of Bologna, at the intersection of Via Rizzoli and Piazza Re Enzo, and has always been a popular landmark for Bologna's movie-going public.
In the early 20th century, Bologna changed its urban layout. Several medieval palaces were demolished and construction began on Palazzo Ronzani, a multipurpose building designed by architect Pontoni. Located in Via Rizzoli, the building housed an underground theater, later converted into a movie theater in 1915. The movie theater remained active until 2007 under the name Cinema Arcobaleno.
A new project was born to revive the historic movie theater, which was "baptized" by director Martin Scorsese during his visit to Bologna in June 2023. The new Cinema Modernissimo, which opened on November 21, 2023, represents a pearl in the heart of Bologna for the whole city and for all cinema lovers.
Text and images from bolognawelcome.com
These are two photos I took in 2019 when the cinema was still under renovation. The opening event for Il Cinema Ritrovato that year was held there, and to give a glimpse to attendees of what to expect.
I spent most of my time between Jolly Cinema and Cinema Arlecchino, and watched a few films in Sala Scorsese and Piazza Maggiore. The one cinema I avoided is Europa, a friend described it as sticky and hot (there’s no air conditioning there). I also learned this year the sightline isn’t good because of the poor raked seating.
Speaking of air-conditioning, I felt it was improved compared to last year in Cinema Arlecchino. Jolly Cinema and Sala Scorsese were comfortable enough. I say this because many seem to think all the cinemas in Bologna are without air-conditioning.
If you are interested to know more about cinemas in Bologna, read this essay, The History of Cinema in Bologna by Gian Luca Farinelli.
Exhibition in Cinema Modernissimo
An exhibition titled Bar Luna was open during the film festival in Cinema Modernissimo. It’s an exhibition-installation created by Alice Rohrwacher and Muta Imago with Thierry Boutemy, and in collaboration with Giancarlo Basili.
Last year Alice Rohrwacher and Muta Imago (an artistic duo comprised of Claudia Sorace and Riccardo Fazi) created Bar Luna at the Centre Pompidou in Paris: an exhibition conceived as both a journey and as a bar from which to admire the Earth from a different perspective. Now they have reunited to re-imagine a brand new version of the exhibition designed specifically for the underground space of the Cinema Modernissimo. Having entered through a normal, old-fashioned kitchen, visitors will suddenly find themselves in the midst of a star-studded sky in the centre of which stands the memory of an old, suburban bar. It is the starting point for a journey inspired by the themes and images of Alice Rohrwacher’s cinema, and in particular her latest film La chimera, which is inspired by the myth of Orpheus and Euridices: what should we make of our past? What are our roots?
A charming exhibition that included a mini cinema showing Alice Rohrwacher’s new short 6 min film Il Filo Rosso, a corner to listen to old mixtapes and browse through a photo album, a phone to leave a voice message, and a sleeping area to dream.
Favourite film introductions
For the Festival Opening: A Visit to the Caffè Pathé, the four co-directors of the festival, Cecilia Cenciarelli, Gian Luca Farinelli, Ehsan Khoshbakht and Mariann Lewinsky made their opening remarks.
Cecilia translated some of Gian Luca’s remarks which was in Italian, and these points that I scribbled in my notebook stayed with me:
- The importance of cinema spaces and what happens inside them say a lot about what’s happening in a city.
- The importance of watching films in a theatre, to get out of bubble to watch something that may even be confrontational, oppositional and show multiple views of the world.
- The importance of physically watching films together, looking at each other and talking to each other.
More people need to hear this, because right now it feels like many people with power and money are happy for cinema spaces to close and keep championing watching films on streaming services, on small screens.
Additionally, whilst the act of collective viewing of a film is important and can be lovely, it isn’t lovely when some audience members decide to turn their phones on to film or photograph the cinema screen, mostly to post on social media. There seems to be more of this happening over the years at the festival, and the Cineteca di Bologna account on Instagram encourages this behaviour by sharing these clips and images.
Also at the opening, Ehsan Khoshbakht dedicated this year’s edition to David Bordwell who passed away on February 29, and to Donald Sutherland who passed away on June 20, two days before the festival opening.
A day earlier, Ehsan introduced Morocco (Josef von Sternberg, 1930), a film starring Marlene Dietrich and one of the featured stars in this year’s edition. His introduction included a quote by Jean Cocteau about Dietrich, “Your name starts with a caress and ends with a whip”. Ehsan ended his introduction by saying “The film starts with a whip and ends with a caress.”
On the last day of the festival, Ehsan introduced Singing in the Rain which was shown on an archive print. Apart from the historical knowledge and insights about the film and Hollywood at the time, I loved how he compared the film print and colours to hand dyed Persian carpets.
After not being able to attend last year to introduce Ahlam Al Madina / Dreams of a City, it was great to see Mohammad Malas this year to introduce his film Al Leil / The Night.
It was also nice to see Ossama Mohammed introducing his film Nujum Al Nahar / Stars in Broad Daylight, and Sandeep Mohapatra’s moving words about a film by his father, Nirad Mohapatra’s Māyā Miriga.
Least favourite introduction: Harry Kümel for his film Les Lèvres rouges / Daughters of Darkness which started with “good afternoon ladies and gentlemen and everything in between” in a slightly derogatory and turned into a very long ramble about how unhappy he is with the French film industry and the bad treatment of film restorations. I kept wondering if he’s even aware how many countries that don’t even care about their own old films or film heritage in general. I heard he did a similar thing at his introduction for Malpertuis later that night.
Cinema Libero
This is one of the most popular strands of the festival with a focus on films beyond the western cinema canon, many of which are restored or shown on print. It’s always full of discoveries, and many films from that section travel to other festivals or included in film retrospectives.
The standouts this year for me were Lino Brocka’s Bona, Mohammad Malas Al Leil / The Night, Ossama Mohammed’s Nujum Al Nahar / Stars in Broad Daylight and Nirad Mohapatra’s Māyā Miriga.
I found the much hyped The Sealed Soil by Marva Nabili disappointing. A film that chronicles the daily household chores of Roo-Bekheir, a young woman from a poor household in a village in southwest Iran, and her resistance to a forced marriage. I found the director’s gaze very distant from its subject which made me feel more and more frustrated as the film progressed.
But there was one moment in the film that made me gasp, when the young woman seeks solace amongst the trees and a river, away from everyone else. Sitting in the rain, she takes off her scarf and clothes and just sits still. It made me want to see more of this act of rebellion and reclamation of space and body in the film.
Another reason I felt disappointment is because I realised we keep seeing more and more non-Western films at this festival that don’t show joy, and it was something that was discussed with a few friends at the festival that week. Films about colonial struggle, oppression, violence and patriarchy become the obvious and regular themes that represent non-Western cinema, and I’m wondering where are the films that show joy, why aren’t they discovered and restored? I know it’s a long and complicated subject, especially when it comes to which films are available alongside copyright issues, but I think it’s a topic that needs to be addressed, and hope I can find a way to discuss with more people.
I skipped a few other films from this strand, because they were screening first thing in the morning, and I found myself not wanting to start my days watching emotionally and mentally difficult films. It made me miss the days when the festival scheduled pre-code Hollywood films, they were perfect to watch first thing in the morning and set the tone for the rest of the day.
Kozaburo Yoshimura, Undercurrents Of Modernity
This was my favourite strand. The stand outs were:
Onna No Saka / A Woman’s Uphill Slope (1960)
and
Yoru No Kawa / Undercurrent aka Night River (1956)
Apart from the gorgeous colours in the film, it was also great to see films from that period that were about modern women in post World War II Japan who are striving for better lives, financially and romantically, and also trying to save and protect family heritage and traditions. I hope I can see these films again on the big screen, and I hope they will be shown more often. Sadly there aren’t any film stills online to give you a glimpse of how beautiful these films look.
Read this Guide to Kozaburo Yoshimura at Il Cinema Ritrovato 2024 by Alexander Jacoby, one of the film curators of this strand.
Sublime Moments
Watching Singing in the Rain on a beautiful Techniclour 35mm print on a Sunday morning on the last day of the festival was a perfectly scheduled slot. The dance scene with Cyd Charisse, Gene Kelly and the blowing wind made me tear up with a huge smile on my face.
My heart skipped a beat every time Gary Cooper appeared in Morocco.
Same thing happened last year when I watched him in City Lights. May there be a Gary Cooper film every year at the festival.
Also, the break up scene in Morocco, “I changed my mind. Good luck." made me think of “I’m Sorry I Can’t Don’t Hate Me” from Sex and the City and wondered if it was inspired by it.
Other film highlights
The Dogs in Lucien Nonguet’s Les Chiens Policiers (1907)
The perfect paring of Duke Ellington films with the Anatole Litvak films, especially:
Date With Duke (George Pal, 1947) + Tovarich (Anatole Litvak, 1937)
Daybreak Express (D.A. Pennebaker, 1953) + City For Conquest (Anatole Litvak, 1940)
Watching North By Northwest (1959) on a new 70mm print.
The visuals and colours in Sergei Parajanov’s Ukranian Rhapsody (1961).
Realising François Truffaut’s Stolen Kisses (1968) is a continuation of the character Antoine Doinel from The 400 Blows (1959).
Gasping when Donald Sutherland appeared in Dalton Trumbo’s Johnny Got His Gun (1971) as Jesus Christ.
The melancholy and longing in Robert Bresson’s Four Nights a Dreamer (1972).
Watching Martin Scorsese’s Mean Streets (1973) for the first time, and in a cinema. Been waiting to watch it for many years.
A wonderfully strange film by Saul Bass, Phase IV (1974), that I didn’t know about before, on 35mm.
Watching Steven Spielberg’s first feature film The Sugarland Express (1974) in a new restoration, and Jaws (1975) on a vintage Technicolor 35mm print. The family that sat next to me for Jaws had to cover their very young daughter’s face during the shark attack scenes, but I hope one day she will appreciate that she watched this version of the film.
I can never miss a chance to watch a Brian De Palma film in a cinema, and was happy to revisit Body Double (1984), mostly to watch Frankie Goes to Hollywood’s Relax on a big screen and as loud as possible.
The sharp feminist musical comedy in Chantal Akerman’s Golden Eighties (1986).
Films I wished I was able to watch
Victor Sjöström’s The Wind (1928)
Gustaf Molander’s Ordet (1943)
I missed George Roy Hill’s The Sting (1973) because I ended up having a nice slow dinner with friends and wasn’t in the mood to rush.
On the last day I missed Sergei Parajanov’s Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors (1966) because I ended up hanging out on the streets for Tour de France, I wrote about it here. Once in a while it is nice to be reminded how it feels to be engaged and connected with people and life outside the cinema.
You can see a list of all the films I watched on my Letterboxd account.