2022 SCHEDULE
Note: All films are presented in their original language with English subtitles
Friday, March 25
The Music Hall Historic Theater
Cléo de 5 à 7 (Cleo from 5 to 7)
4PM - The Music Hall Historic Theater
Agnès Varda • 1962 • France • 89 min • language: French with English subtitles
Starring Corinne Marchand, Antoine Bourseiller, Dominique Davray, Dorothée Blanc, and Michel Legrand
**Introduction by Laure Barillas (UNH)
In the opening scene of Agnès Varda’s 1962 masterpiece, while awaiting the results of a biopsy to confirm her cancer diagnosis, young singer Cléo (Corrine Marchand) consults a tarot reader and is met with two cards: the Hanged Man, and Death. Cléo is doomed. For the next hour and a half, told in real time, Cléo de 5 à 7 follows the protagonist through Paris as she undergoes an existential transformation. Varda, through Cléo, expertly addresses questions of mortality, time, and what it means to be a woman.
The distance of Cléo’s privileged lifestyle from that of most viewers presents the greatest question for modern viewers. As film critic Adrian Martin, writing for Criterion, notes, “Cléo loves and suffers—and it is hard not to identify with her agonized wait for the medical word that will decide her future—but she’s also petulant, frivolous, vain, scatty. Varda deliberately gave her a ‘superficial’ vocation as a pop singer, with a good deal of privilege (her older, presumably well-off lover wafts in and out without making any demands), and what, on any normal day, would count as a fairly whimsical set of errands and tasks (shopping, rehearsal, visits to friends).” Yet it is the combination of Cléo’s distant lifestyle with the closeness of her situation that set the scene for her, and the audience’s, renewed self-understanding — the mirrors that allow her to see herself as others do and in which she ultimately liberates herself, for example.
Cléo de 5 à 7 cemented Agnès Varda as, in Martin Scorsese’s words, “one of the Gods of Cinema.” Varda is especially notable for being the first prominent woman director in the French New Wave movement, a role that she consciously understood. Speaking of her work’s feminism, she said “I did all that—my photos, my craft, my film, my life—on my terms, my own terms, and not to do it like a man.”
This film was restored in 2012 by Ciné Tamaris at the Archives Françaises du Film of the Centre National du Cinéma and Digimage, with support from CNC.
https://distribuzione.ilcinemaritrovato.it/per-conoscere-i-film/omaggio-ad-agnes-varda/cleo-dalla-5-alle-7
4PM - The Music Hall Historic Theater
Agnès Varda • 1962 • France • 89 min • language: French with English subtitles
Starring Corinne Marchand, Antoine Bourseiller, Dominique Davray, Dorothée Blanc, and Michel Legrand
**Introduction by Laure Barillas (UNH)
In the opening scene of Agnès Varda’s 1962 masterpiece, while awaiting the results of a biopsy to confirm her cancer diagnosis, young singer Cléo (Corrine Marchand) consults a tarot reader and is met with two cards: the Hanged Man, and Death. Cléo is doomed. For the next hour and a half, told in real time, Cléo de 5 à 7 follows the protagonist through Paris as she undergoes an existential transformation. Varda, through Cléo, expertly addresses questions of mortality, time, and what it means to be a woman.
The distance of Cléo’s privileged lifestyle from that of most viewers presents the greatest question for modern viewers. As film critic Adrian Martin, writing for Criterion, notes, “Cléo loves and suffers—and it is hard not to identify with her agonized wait for the medical word that will decide her future—but she’s also petulant, frivolous, vain, scatty. Varda deliberately gave her a ‘superficial’ vocation as a pop singer, with a good deal of privilege (her older, presumably well-off lover wafts in and out without making any demands), and what, on any normal day, would count as a fairly whimsical set of errands and tasks (shopping, rehearsal, visits to friends).” Yet it is the combination of Cléo’s distant lifestyle with the closeness of her situation that set the scene for her, and the audience’s, renewed self-understanding — the mirrors that allow her to see herself as others do and in which she ultimately liberates herself, for example.
Cléo de 5 à 7 cemented Agnès Varda as, in Martin Scorsese’s words, “one of the Gods of Cinema.” Varda is especially notable for being the first prominent woman director in the French New Wave movement, a role that she consciously understood. Speaking of her work’s feminism, she said “I did all that—my photos, my craft, my film, my life—on my terms, my own terms, and not to do it like a man.”
This film was restored in 2012 by Ciné Tamaris at the Archives Françaises du Film of the Centre National du Cinéma and Digimage, with support from CNC.
https://distribuzione.ilcinemaritrovato.it/per-conoscere-i-film/omaggio-ad-agnes-varda/cleo-dalla-5-alle-7
L'Inferno
7PM - The Music Hall Historic Theater
Francesco Bertolini, Adolfo Padovan, Giuseppe de Liguoro • 1911 • Italy • 65 min • Silent with English intertitles
Starring Salvatore Papa, Arturo Pirovano, Giuseppe de Liguoro, and Augusto Milla
Presented with live accompaniment by Jeff Rapsis
**Introduction by Anna Marra (UNH)
A landmark film in Italy, L’Inferno made quite an impression on the world of cinema both nationally and internationally, and elevated Italy’s reputation for high quality productions . The screen adaptation of Dante’s first canticle of The Divine Comedy, part of a concerted effort on the part of movie studios to legitimize the new medium of cinema by drawing on literary classics, was Italy’s first feature-length film, originally running 3 hours. Inspired by Gustave Doré’s nineteenth-century illustrations, this mega film chronicling the journey of Dante and Virgil through the Nine Circles of Hell was extremely expensive to produce, costing about 100,000 lire — likely due to the length and artistic vision brought to life in the silent film. Creative minds like Emilio Roncarolo, chief makeup artist, and Sandro Properzi, head of set creation, made the viewer experience of L’Inferno awe-inspiring and unlike anything seen on screen before. Just 10 years after celebrating its 100th anniversary, L’Inferno still wows generations of audiences.
This film has been restored by the Immagine Ritrovata lab at the Cineteca di Bologna.
https://distribuzione.ilcinemaritrovato.it/inferno
7PM - The Music Hall Historic Theater
Francesco Bertolini, Adolfo Padovan, Giuseppe de Liguoro • 1911 • Italy • 65 min • Silent with English intertitles
Starring Salvatore Papa, Arturo Pirovano, Giuseppe de Liguoro, and Augusto Milla
Presented with live accompaniment by Jeff Rapsis
**Introduction by Anna Marra (UNH)
A landmark film in Italy, L’Inferno made quite an impression on the world of cinema both nationally and internationally, and elevated Italy’s reputation for high quality productions . The screen adaptation of Dante’s first canticle of The Divine Comedy, part of a concerted effort on the part of movie studios to legitimize the new medium of cinema by drawing on literary classics, was Italy’s first feature-length film, originally running 3 hours. Inspired by Gustave Doré’s nineteenth-century illustrations, this mega film chronicling the journey of Dante and Virgil through the Nine Circles of Hell was extremely expensive to produce, costing about 100,000 lire — likely due to the length and artistic vision brought to life in the silent film. Creative minds like Emilio Roncarolo, chief makeup artist, and Sandro Properzi, head of set creation, made the viewer experience of L’Inferno awe-inspiring and unlike anything seen on screen before. Just 10 years after celebrating its 100th anniversary, L’Inferno still wows generations of audiences.
This film has been restored by the Immagine Ritrovata lab at the Cineteca di Bologna.
https://distribuzione.ilcinemaritrovato.it/inferno
Saturday, March 26th
The Music Hall Historic Theater
Solo Sunny
3PM - The Music Hall Historic Theater
Konrad Wolf, Wolfgang Kohlhaase • 1980 • East Germany • 105 min • language: German with English subtitles
Starring Renate Krößner and Alexander Lang
**Introduction by Alex Holznienkemper (UNH)
Solo Sunny (1980) tells the story of Ingrid “Sunny” Sommer (Renate Krößner), a young singer, as she tries to launch her career in East Berlin during the late years of the GDR. Along the way, Sunny begins a tumultuous relationship with saxophonist and self-styled philosopher, Ralph (Alexander Lang), which highlights the vulnerability behind her confident and blunt exterior.
Notable at the time of its release, and still surprising today, was the film’s strong individualist message. Although this was widely noted by contemporary audiences and critics in the collectivist GDR, the DEFA (the GDR’s state-owned film studio) did not censor or ban the film. At the film’s premiere, director Konrad Wolf stated that “socialism depends on characters such as Sunny.” East German audiences clearly agreed, as Solo Sunny showed to sold-out audiences in East Berlin during its 19-week premiere run.
Solo Sunny offers a portrait of an oft-forgotten generation. The irreverence and vivacity of Krößner’s performance as Sunny is paired with a close, documentary-style cinematography. The result is an incredibly emotional window into the life of a woman as she struggles for identity and self-actualization.
https://festival.ilcinemaritrovato.it/en/film/solo-sunny/
3PM - The Music Hall Historic Theater
Konrad Wolf, Wolfgang Kohlhaase • 1980 • East Germany • 105 min • language: German with English subtitles
Starring Renate Krößner and Alexander Lang
**Introduction by Alex Holznienkemper (UNH)
Solo Sunny (1980) tells the story of Ingrid “Sunny” Sommer (Renate Krößner), a young singer, as she tries to launch her career in East Berlin during the late years of the GDR. Along the way, Sunny begins a tumultuous relationship with saxophonist and self-styled philosopher, Ralph (Alexander Lang), which highlights the vulnerability behind her confident and blunt exterior.
Notable at the time of its release, and still surprising today, was the film’s strong individualist message. Although this was widely noted by contemporary audiences and critics in the collectivist GDR, the DEFA (the GDR’s state-owned film studio) did not censor or ban the film. At the film’s premiere, director Konrad Wolf stated that “socialism depends on characters such as Sunny.” East German audiences clearly agreed, as Solo Sunny showed to sold-out audiences in East Berlin during its 19-week premiere run.
Solo Sunny offers a portrait of an oft-forgotten generation. The irreverence and vivacity of Krößner’s performance as Sunny is paired with a close, documentary-style cinematography. The result is an incredibly emotional window into the life of a woman as she struggles for identity and self-actualization.
https://festival.ilcinemaritrovato.it/en/film/solo-sunny/
I vitelloni (The Layabouts) - first screening, second screening tomorrow
7PM - The Music Hall Historic Theater
Federico Fellini • 1953 • Italy • 108 min • language: Italian with English subtitles
Starring Alberto Sordi, Franco Fabrizi, Franco Interlenghi, Leopoldo Trieste
**Introduction by Anna Wainwright (UNH)
The first of famed director and screenwriter Federico Fellini’s films to receive an international release and widespread acclaim, I vitelloni (1953) had humble beginnings. After the lukewarm reception of his first two feature films (including 1950’s Luci del varietà, which he co-directed with Alberto Lattuada and which screened at last year’s Cinema Ritrovato NH), producers were skeptical of funding anything more risky than a comedy from Fellini. Together with fellow screenwriter Ennio Flaiano, and drawing upon his childhood in Rimini, Fellini conceived the plot of I vitelloni, a story of five unemployed young men — one that would illustrate the joys and sorrows of growing up in provincial Italy, as well as launch the career of one of Italy’s most celebrated directors.
I vitelloni’s production is marked by strong tension between the producers, whose shoestring budget pushed them to advocate for safe choices in the filmmaking process, and the vision of Fellini. Instead of Raf Vallone or Walter Chiari, veritable stars of Italian 1950s cinema, Fellini picked the unknown Franco Fabrizi for Fausto, the lead. Antonio Sordi, who played the lead in the critically panned Lo sceicco bianco (Fellini, 1952), joins the cast as Alberto, much to the producers’ chagrin. In the end, the producers’ anxieties were assuaged. When I vitelloni was released in the summer 1953 season, it was an immediate hit. The film would go on to win a Silver Lion at the 1953 Venice Film Festival and, after a successful international release, an Academy Award nomination for Best Writing in 1958. Its success is most evident in the films it inspired in subsequent years, including Mean Streets (Scorsese, 1973) and American Graffiti (Lucas, 1973). Fellini himself would return to the the vitelloni only a few years later, when he continued the story of Moraldo, now reimagined as Marcello, in the first drafts of La Dolce Vita (1960).
This film was restored by the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia of the Cineteca Nazionale, Rome, Italy.
https://distribuzione.ilcinemaritrovato.it/i-vitelloni
7PM - The Music Hall Historic Theater
Federico Fellini • 1953 • Italy • 108 min • language: Italian with English subtitles
Starring Alberto Sordi, Franco Fabrizi, Franco Interlenghi, Leopoldo Trieste
**Introduction by Anna Wainwright (UNH)
The first of famed director and screenwriter Federico Fellini’s films to receive an international release and widespread acclaim, I vitelloni (1953) had humble beginnings. After the lukewarm reception of his first two feature films (including 1950’s Luci del varietà, which he co-directed with Alberto Lattuada and which screened at last year’s Cinema Ritrovato NH), producers were skeptical of funding anything more risky than a comedy from Fellini. Together with fellow screenwriter Ennio Flaiano, and drawing upon his childhood in Rimini, Fellini conceived the plot of I vitelloni, a story of five unemployed young men — one that would illustrate the joys and sorrows of growing up in provincial Italy, as well as launch the career of one of Italy’s most celebrated directors.
I vitelloni’s production is marked by strong tension between the producers, whose shoestring budget pushed them to advocate for safe choices in the filmmaking process, and the vision of Fellini. Instead of Raf Vallone or Walter Chiari, veritable stars of Italian 1950s cinema, Fellini picked the unknown Franco Fabrizi for Fausto, the lead. Antonio Sordi, who played the lead in the critically panned Lo sceicco bianco (Fellini, 1952), joins the cast as Alberto, much to the producers’ chagrin. In the end, the producers’ anxieties were assuaged. When I vitelloni was released in the summer 1953 season, it was an immediate hit. The film would go on to win a Silver Lion at the 1953 Venice Film Festival and, after a successful international release, an Academy Award nomination for Best Writing in 1958. Its success is most evident in the films it inspired in subsequent years, including Mean Streets (Scorsese, 1973) and American Graffiti (Lucas, 1973). Fellini himself would return to the the vitelloni only a few years later, when he continued the story of Moraldo, now reimagined as Marcello, in the first drafts of La Dolce Vita (1960).
This film was restored by the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia of the Cineteca Nazionale, Rome, Italy.
https://distribuzione.ilcinemaritrovato.it/i-vitelloni
Senso
SCREENING CANCELLED
Luchino Visconti • 1954 • Italy • 123 min • language: Italian with English subtitles
Starring Alida Valli, Farley Granger, and Massimo Girotti
**Introduction by Piero Garofalo (UNH)
Based on Camillo Boito’s 1883 short story of the same name, this epic melodrama directed by Luchino Visconti provoked strong reactions worldwide. Set in Venice during the Italian Risorgimento (the period leading up to the unification of Italy), love emerges where it isn’t supposed to. An Italian countess and an Austrian lieutenant fall into a “torrid affair” after a fateful encounter, as described by the Criterion Collection. Visconti engages viewers in the lovers’ story with an impressive soundtrack, sweeping cinematography, vivid costumes, and an aesthetic drawn from opera and painting, as well as enlisting English actor Farley Granger and European star Alida Valli to star in the film. Visconti, notorious for spending lavishly on his films and often bankrupting production companies, made no exception on the budget for this film.
The film was only intended for Italian audiences, which may explain its limited 9-day run in the United States in a single location, the Elgin Theater in New York City. Upon its US release, the New York Times tore it to shreds, greatly contributing to its debut being cut short. Despite the cool reception it received internationally, it remains a classic.
The restoration of this film was funded by Studiocanal, Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia-Cineteca Nazionale, Cineteca di Bologna-L’Immagine Ritrovata, in collaboration with GUCCI, The Film Foundation and Comitato Italia 150 and realized thanks to the joined work of Cineteca Nazionale, Cineteca del Comune di Bologna and the advice of Giuseppe Rotunno and Piero Tosi. Starting from the work already done by Giuseppe Rotunno, who began the restoration of the film in 1994, the Technicolor printing negatives, held by Cristaldi Film, here recovered: digital reconstruction of colour due to shrinkage and color decay.
https://festival.ilcinemaritrovato.it/en/film/senso/
SCREENING CANCELLED
Luchino Visconti • 1954 • Italy • 123 min • language: Italian with English subtitles
Starring Alida Valli, Farley Granger, and Massimo Girotti
**Introduction by Piero Garofalo (UNH)
Based on Camillo Boito’s 1883 short story of the same name, this epic melodrama directed by Luchino Visconti provoked strong reactions worldwide. Set in Venice during the Italian Risorgimento (the period leading up to the unification of Italy), love emerges where it isn’t supposed to. An Italian countess and an Austrian lieutenant fall into a “torrid affair” after a fateful encounter, as described by the Criterion Collection. Visconti engages viewers in the lovers’ story with an impressive soundtrack, sweeping cinematography, vivid costumes, and an aesthetic drawn from opera and painting, as well as enlisting English actor Farley Granger and European star Alida Valli to star in the film. Visconti, notorious for spending lavishly on his films and often bankrupting production companies, made no exception on the budget for this film.
The film was only intended for Italian audiences, which may explain its limited 9-day run in the United States in a single location, the Elgin Theater in New York City. Upon its US release, the New York Times tore it to shreds, greatly contributing to its debut being cut short. Despite the cool reception it received internationally, it remains a classic.
The restoration of this film was funded by Studiocanal, Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia-Cineteca Nazionale, Cineteca di Bologna-L’Immagine Ritrovata, in collaboration with GUCCI, The Film Foundation and Comitato Italia 150 and realized thanks to the joined work of Cineteca Nazionale, Cineteca del Comune di Bologna and the advice of Giuseppe Rotunno and Piero Tosi. Starting from the work already done by Giuseppe Rotunno, who began the restoration of the film in 1994, the Technicolor printing negatives, held by Cristaldi Film, here recovered: digital reconstruction of colour due to shrinkage and color decay.
https://festival.ilcinemaritrovato.it/en/film/senso/
Sunday, March 27th
The Music Hall Historic Theater
I vitelloni (The Layabouts) - second screening
1PM - The Music Hall Historic Theater
Federico Fellini • 1953 • Italy • 108 min • language: Italian with English subtitles
Starring Alberto Sordi, Franco Fabrizi, Franco Interlenghi, Leopoldo Trieste
**Introduction by Anna Wainwright (UNH)
The first of famed director and screenwriter Federico Fellini’s films to receive an international release and widespread acclaim, I vitelloni (1953) had humble beginnings. After the lukewarm reception of his first two feature films (including 1950’s Luci del varietà, which he co-directed with Alberto Lattuada and which screened at last year’s Cinema Ritrovato NH), producers were skeptical of funding anything more risky than a comedy from Fellini. Together with fellow screenwriter Ennio Flaiano, and drawing upon his childhood in Rimini, Fellini conceived the plot of I vitelloni, a story of five unemployed young men — one that would illustrate the joys and sorrows of growing up in provincial Italy, as well as launch the career of one of Italy’s most celebrated directors.
I vitelloni’s production is marked by strong tension between the producers, whose shoestring budget pushed them to advocate for safe choices in the filmmaking process, and the vision of Fellini. Instead of Raf Vallone or Walter Chiari, veritable stars of Italian 1950s cinema, Fellini picked the unknown Franco Fabrizi for Fausto, the lead. Antonio Sordi, who played the lead in the critically panned Lo sceicco bianco (Fellini, 1952), joins the cast as Alberto, much to the producers’ chagrin. In the end, the producers’ anxieties were assuaged. When I vitelloni was released in the summer 1953 season, it was an immediate hit. The film would go on to win a Silver Lion at the 1953 Venice Film Festival and, after a successful international release, an Academy Award nomination for Best Writing in 1958. Its success is most evident in the films it inspired in subsequent years, including Mean Streets (Scorsese, 1973) and American Graffiti (Lucas, 1973). Fellini himself would return to the the vitelloni only a few years later, when he continued the story of Moraldo, now reimagined as Marcello, in the first drafts of La Dolce Vita (1960).
This film was restored by the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia of the Cineteca Nazionale, Rome, Italy.
https://distribuzione.ilcinemaritrovato.it/i-vitelloni
1PM - The Music Hall Historic Theater
Federico Fellini • 1953 • Italy • 108 min • language: Italian with English subtitles
Starring Alberto Sordi, Franco Fabrizi, Franco Interlenghi, Leopoldo Trieste
**Introduction by Anna Wainwright (UNH)
The first of famed director and screenwriter Federico Fellini’s films to receive an international release and widespread acclaim, I vitelloni (1953) had humble beginnings. After the lukewarm reception of his first two feature films (including 1950’s Luci del varietà, which he co-directed with Alberto Lattuada and which screened at last year’s Cinema Ritrovato NH), producers were skeptical of funding anything more risky than a comedy from Fellini. Together with fellow screenwriter Ennio Flaiano, and drawing upon his childhood in Rimini, Fellini conceived the plot of I vitelloni, a story of five unemployed young men — one that would illustrate the joys and sorrows of growing up in provincial Italy, as well as launch the career of one of Italy’s most celebrated directors.
I vitelloni’s production is marked by strong tension between the producers, whose shoestring budget pushed them to advocate for safe choices in the filmmaking process, and the vision of Fellini. Instead of Raf Vallone or Walter Chiari, veritable stars of Italian 1950s cinema, Fellini picked the unknown Franco Fabrizi for Fausto, the lead. Antonio Sordi, who played the lead in the critically panned Lo sceicco bianco (Fellini, 1952), joins the cast as Alberto, much to the producers’ chagrin. In the end, the producers’ anxieties were assuaged. When I vitelloni was released in the summer 1953 season, it was an immediate hit. The film would go on to win a Silver Lion at the 1953 Venice Film Festival and, after a successful international release, an Academy Award nomination for Best Writing in 1958. Its success is most evident in the films it inspired in subsequent years, including Mean Streets (Scorsese, 1973) and American Graffiti (Lucas, 1973). Fellini himself would return to the the vitelloni only a few years later, when he continued the story of Moraldo, now reimagined as Marcello, in the first drafts of La Dolce Vita (1960).
This film was restored by the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia of the Cineteca Nazionale, Rome, Italy.
https://distribuzione.ilcinemaritrovato.it/i-vitelloni
Oscar Micheaux: The Superhero of Black Filmmaking
4PM - The Music Hall Historic Theater
Francesco Zippel • 2021 • 79 min • language: English
**Introduction by Amy Boylan (UNH)
This documentary explores the life and work of Oscar Micheaux, a trailblazer of twentieth-century cinema. Micheaux wrote, produced and directed over 40 films in his lifetime, which spanned the silent era and the transition to sound films. He was the first African-American to produce a feature film, The Homesteader (1919), now lost, based on a novel that he wrote in 1917. Quoted as saying that his cinema was “by black people, for black people,” Micheaux’s career lasted some 30 years, but he didn’t gain mainstream industry recognition until about 30 years after he died in 1951.
This documentary was directed by Francesco Zippel, who was inspired to visually tell the story of the Illinois native after reading the book Oscar Micheaux: The Great and Only published in 2007. Zippel found that only 4 photos and 10 of Micheaux’s 44+ films remained preserved, but they all appear in this moving story about the impact of Micheaux’s career on America and the world.
Zippel notes that this “project is made even more incredible by the way the documentary was made: realised entirely by remote connection via Zoom with an itinerant crew in the US. An adventure within an adventure. A method that would, perhaps, have pleased Micheaux, who undertook even greater endeavours throughout his whole life.”
4PM - The Music Hall Historic Theater
Francesco Zippel • 2021 • 79 min • language: English
**Introduction by Amy Boylan (UNH)
This documentary explores the life and work of Oscar Micheaux, a trailblazer of twentieth-century cinema. Micheaux wrote, produced and directed over 40 films in his lifetime, which spanned the silent era and the transition to sound films. He was the first African-American to produce a feature film, The Homesteader (1919), now lost, based on a novel that he wrote in 1917. Quoted as saying that his cinema was “by black people, for black people,” Micheaux’s career lasted some 30 years, but he didn’t gain mainstream industry recognition until about 30 years after he died in 1951.
This documentary was directed by Francesco Zippel, who was inspired to visually tell the story of the Illinois native after reading the book Oscar Micheaux: The Great and Only published in 2007. Zippel found that only 4 photos and 10 of Micheaux’s 44+ films remained preserved, but they all appear in this moving story about the impact of Micheaux’s career on America and the world.
Zippel notes that this “project is made even more incredible by the way the documentary was made: realised entirely by remote connection via Zoom with an itinerant crew in the US. An adventure within an adventure. A method that would, perhaps, have pleased Micheaux, who undertook even greater endeavours throughout his whole life.”
Monday, March 28th
UNH Durham
Taipei Story
4PM - Memorial Union Building, Theater 2
Edward Yang • 1985 • Taiwan • 110 min • languages: Min Nan, Mandarin, and Hokkien with English subtitles
**Introduction by Wenjin Cui (UNH)
In this film, director Edward Yang confronts a modernizing Taiwan. Chin, a white collar worker has high hopes for the future while her boyfriend, Lung, a former baseball player, is stuck in his traditional ways. Yang, commenting on the personal and symbolic nature of his second feature film says: “My starting point was essentially conceptual. I wanted to tell a story about Taipei. There’s a personal element to that: a lot of people have tried to brand me as a mainlander, a foreign who’s somehow against Taiwan. But I consider myself a Taipei guy – I’m not against Taiwan. I’m for Taipei. I wanted to include every element of the city, so I really gave myself a hard time, to build a story from the ground up. The two main characters represent the past and the future of Taipei and the story is about the transition from one to the other. I tried to bring enough controversial questions onto the screen, so the viewers would ask themselves about their own lives when they’d seen the film.”
Taipei Story is considered an early example of New Taiwanese Cinema. Yang, who died in 2007, went on to win Best Director at Cannes in 2000 for his film Yi Yi.
This film was restored by The Film Foundation’s World Cinema Project at Cineteca di Bologna/L’immagine Ritrovata laboratory in association with the Cinémathèque Royale de Belgique and Hou Hsiao-hsien. Special thanks to the Chinese Taipei Film Archive
https://festival.ilcinemaritrovato.it/en/film/taipei-story/
4PM - Memorial Union Building, Theater 2
Edward Yang • 1985 • Taiwan • 110 min • languages: Min Nan, Mandarin, and Hokkien with English subtitles
**Introduction by Wenjin Cui (UNH)
In this film, director Edward Yang confronts a modernizing Taiwan. Chin, a white collar worker has high hopes for the future while her boyfriend, Lung, a former baseball player, is stuck in his traditional ways. Yang, commenting on the personal and symbolic nature of his second feature film says: “My starting point was essentially conceptual. I wanted to tell a story about Taipei. There’s a personal element to that: a lot of people have tried to brand me as a mainlander, a foreign who’s somehow against Taiwan. But I consider myself a Taipei guy – I’m not against Taiwan. I’m for Taipei. I wanted to include every element of the city, so I really gave myself a hard time, to build a story from the ground up. The two main characters represent the past and the future of Taipei and the story is about the transition from one to the other. I tried to bring enough controversial questions onto the screen, so the viewers would ask themselves about their own lives when they’d seen the film.”
Taipei Story is considered an early example of New Taiwanese Cinema. Yang, who died in 2007, went on to win Best Director at Cannes in 2000 for his film Yi Yi.
This film was restored by The Film Foundation’s World Cinema Project at Cineteca di Bologna/L’immagine Ritrovata laboratory in association with the Cinémathèque Royale de Belgique and Hou Hsiao-hsien. Special thanks to the Chinese Taipei Film Archive
https://festival.ilcinemaritrovato.it/en/film/taipei-story/
I basilichi (The Basilisks)
7PM - Memorial Union Building, Theater 2
Lina Wertmüller • 1963 • Italy • 84 min • language: Italian with English subtitles
**Introduction by Jim Parsons (UNH)
The past and the present haven’t quite come to an agreement in I basilichi (1963), the directorial debut of cinema legend Lina Wertmüller. “Youngsters either emigrate or daydream” in the small southern Italian town where the film is set. Here, the 20th century only reveals itself superficially — comic books, a communist meeting hall in the center of town, hair styles pulled from magazines.
In this setting, Wertmüller introduces us to Antonio (Antonio Petruzzi), Francesco (Stefano Satto Flores), and Sergio (Sergio Ferranino). These three unemployed youths spend their days lounging around town and chasing after women. Comparisons to Fellini’s I vitelloni (1953, also in this year’s program) are unavoidable, but I basilichi captures the simple inescapability of a provincial youth. When Antonio is given a chance to leave for Rome, he returns shortly thereafter, content to remain in his lounging lifestyle.
Lina Wertmüller would go on to become one of the most celebrated directors in Italian history. I basilichi is the earliest entry in her work, and showcases her skill within the already established language of Neorealist cinema. She would later be the first woman ever to be nominated for Best Director at the Academy Awards (in 1977 for 1975’s Seven Beauties) and the second woman ever to receive the Academy Honorary Award for her career (in 2019). She passed away in December 2021 at the age of 93.
This film was restored by the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia of the Cineteca Nazionale, Rome, Italy.
7PM - Memorial Union Building, Theater 2
Lina Wertmüller • 1963 • Italy • 84 min • language: Italian with English subtitles
**Introduction by Jim Parsons (UNH)
The past and the present haven’t quite come to an agreement in I basilichi (1963), the directorial debut of cinema legend Lina Wertmüller. “Youngsters either emigrate or daydream” in the small southern Italian town where the film is set. Here, the 20th century only reveals itself superficially — comic books, a communist meeting hall in the center of town, hair styles pulled from magazines.
In this setting, Wertmüller introduces us to Antonio (Antonio Petruzzi), Francesco (Stefano Satto Flores), and Sergio (Sergio Ferranino). These three unemployed youths spend their days lounging around town and chasing after women. Comparisons to Fellini’s I vitelloni (1953, also in this year’s program) are unavoidable, but I basilichi captures the simple inescapability of a provincial youth. When Antonio is given a chance to leave for Rome, he returns shortly thereafter, content to remain in his lounging lifestyle.
Lina Wertmüller would go on to become one of the most celebrated directors in Italian history. I basilichi is the earliest entry in her work, and showcases her skill within the already established language of Neorealist cinema. She would later be the first woman ever to be nominated for Best Director at the Academy Awards (in 1977 for 1975’s Seven Beauties) and the second woman ever to receive the Academy Honorary Award for her career (in 2019). She passed away in December 2021 at the age of 93.
This film was restored by the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia of the Cineteca Nazionale, Rome, Italy.
Tuesday, March 29th
UNH Durham
C'eravamo tanto amati (We All Loved Each Other So Much)
4PM - Memorial Union Building, Theater 2
Ettore Scola • 1974 • Italy • 124 min • language: Italian with English subtitles
**Introduction by Paula Salvio (UNH)
Beginning with World War II and following its protagonists to the present day of 1974, Ettore Scola’s C’eravamo tanto amati is a love letter to the history of modern Italy and modern Italian cinema. Antonio (Nino Manfredi), Gianni (Vittorio Gassman), and Nicola (Stefano Satta Flores) are brothers-in-arms in the partisan war effort. When the war ends, however, their paths diverge. Antonio is a working-class nurse, now married to Luciana (Stefania Sandrelli). Gianni takes a job at a law firm, supporting shady political dealings to support a lavish lifestyle. Nicola, cinephile, flees to Rome after losing his job due to his progressive political leanings.
The dynamic and not always amicable brotherhood between the three protagonists act as a stage for Scola to examine the development of Italy and Italian film from the war to his own time. Chance meetings between the men lead to wives being stolen, political arguments, and many references to the classics of cinema. Federico Fellini, Vittorio de Sica (to whom the film is dedicated), and Marcello Mastroianni all cameo as themselves.
Film scholar Emiliano Morreale observes that “Ettore Scola’s more mature phase began with this tableau of the generation that had been part of the Resistance and either saw their hopes dashed or integrated into society.”
This film has been restored by Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia of the Cineteca Nazionale, Rome, Italy, with funding provided by StudioCanal, from the original negatives provided by Pio Angeletti and Adriano De Micheli’s Dean Film. Color grading carried out at L’Immagine Ritrovata laboratory, supervised by Luciano Tovoli in collaboration with the film’s DoP Claudio Cirillo.
https://festival.ilcinemaritrovato.it/en/film/ceravamo-tanto-amati/
4PM - Memorial Union Building, Theater 2
Ettore Scola • 1974 • Italy • 124 min • language: Italian with English subtitles
**Introduction by Paula Salvio (UNH)
Beginning with World War II and following its protagonists to the present day of 1974, Ettore Scola’s C’eravamo tanto amati is a love letter to the history of modern Italy and modern Italian cinema. Antonio (Nino Manfredi), Gianni (Vittorio Gassman), and Nicola (Stefano Satta Flores) are brothers-in-arms in the partisan war effort. When the war ends, however, their paths diverge. Antonio is a working-class nurse, now married to Luciana (Stefania Sandrelli). Gianni takes a job at a law firm, supporting shady political dealings to support a lavish lifestyle. Nicola, cinephile, flees to Rome after losing his job due to his progressive political leanings.
The dynamic and not always amicable brotherhood between the three protagonists act as a stage for Scola to examine the development of Italy and Italian film from the war to his own time. Chance meetings between the men lead to wives being stolen, political arguments, and many references to the classics of cinema. Federico Fellini, Vittorio de Sica (to whom the film is dedicated), and Marcello Mastroianni all cameo as themselves.
Film scholar Emiliano Morreale observes that “Ettore Scola’s more mature phase began with this tableau of the generation that had been part of the Resistance and either saw their hopes dashed or integrated into society.”
This film has been restored by Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia of the Cineteca Nazionale, Rome, Italy, with funding provided by StudioCanal, from the original negatives provided by Pio Angeletti and Adriano De Micheli’s Dean Film. Color grading carried out at L’Immagine Ritrovata laboratory, supervised by Luciano Tovoli in collaboration with the film’s DoP Claudio Cirillo.
https://festival.ilcinemaritrovato.it/en/film/ceravamo-tanto-amati/
Memorias del Subdesarrollo (Memories of Underdevelopment)
7PM - Memorial Union Building, Theater 2
Tomás Gutiérrez Alea • 1968 • Cuba • 98 min • language: Spanish and English with English subtitles
**Introduction by Nicole Gercke (UNH)
A pillar of Cuban cinema, this film follows Sergio who, after his family flees Havana in the aftermath of the Bay of Pigs invasion, wanders the town, becoming increasingly alienated and disengaged. The film’s groundbreaking and experimental style matches its political critique, incorporating fragments of documentaries, archival material and on-location filming as Sergio thinks in voiceover.
Brazillian director Walter Salles describes his reaction the first time he saw this film whose director, Tomás Guitiérrez Alea, represents the New Latin American Cinema movement: “The film navigated between different states – fiction and documentary, past and present, Africa and Europe. The dialectic narrative took the form of a collage, crafted with an uncommon conceptual and cinematographic rigour. Scenes from newsreels, historical fragments and magazine headlines mixed and collided. In Memories of Underdevelopment, Alea proved that filmic precision and radical experimentation could go hand in hand. Nothing was random. Each image echoing in the following image, the whole greater than the sum of its parts.”
Or, as Joshua Jelly-Schapiro puts it, “Memories of Underdevelopment is an empathetic portrait of an unsympathetic man.”
Memories of Underdevelopment was restored by the Cineteca di Bologna at L’Immagine Ritrovata laboratory in association with Instituto Cubano del Arte e Industria Cinematográficos (ICAIC). Restoration funded by the George Lucas Family Foundation and The Film Foundation’s World Cinema Project.
https://festival.ilcinemaritrovato.it/en/film/memorias-del-subdesarrollo/
7PM - Memorial Union Building, Theater 2
Tomás Gutiérrez Alea • 1968 • Cuba • 98 min • language: Spanish and English with English subtitles
**Introduction by Nicole Gercke (UNH)
A pillar of Cuban cinema, this film follows Sergio who, after his family flees Havana in the aftermath of the Bay of Pigs invasion, wanders the town, becoming increasingly alienated and disengaged. The film’s groundbreaking and experimental style matches its political critique, incorporating fragments of documentaries, archival material and on-location filming as Sergio thinks in voiceover.
Brazillian director Walter Salles describes his reaction the first time he saw this film whose director, Tomás Guitiérrez Alea, represents the New Latin American Cinema movement: “The film navigated between different states – fiction and documentary, past and present, Africa and Europe. The dialectic narrative took the form of a collage, crafted with an uncommon conceptual and cinematographic rigour. Scenes from newsreels, historical fragments and magazine headlines mixed and collided. In Memories of Underdevelopment, Alea proved that filmic precision and radical experimentation could go hand in hand. Nothing was random. Each image echoing in the following image, the whole greater than the sum of its parts.”
Or, as Joshua Jelly-Schapiro puts it, “Memories of Underdevelopment is an empathetic portrait of an unsympathetic man.”
Memories of Underdevelopment was restored by the Cineteca di Bologna at L’Immagine Ritrovata laboratory in association with Instituto Cubano del Arte e Industria Cinematográficos (ICAIC). Restoration funded by the George Lucas Family Foundation and The Film Foundation’s World Cinema Project.
https://festival.ilcinemaritrovato.it/en/film/memorias-del-subdesarrollo/
Wednesday, March 30th
UNH Durham
Sambizanga
7PM - Memorial Union Building, Theater 2
Sarah Maldoror • 1972 • Angola-France • 92 min • languages: Lingala and Portuguese with English subtitles
**Introduction by Amy Boylan (UNH)
Set in Angola in 1961, just before the beginning of the War of Independence from Portugal, the film explores the plight of the anti-colonialist liberation movement told through the story of one couple. Maria embarks on a search for her husband Domingos after he is jailed for his political activism. During her journey she confronts an obstructionist police and government system and gains a sharper sense of political consciousness. Director Sarah Maldoror, a French-Caribbean filmmaker who was trained in the Soviet Union, is internationally recognized for her groundbreaking poetic cinematography as well as her anti-colonialist cinema. She died in 2020 at the age of 90 from Covid-19.
Maldoror’s daughter, Annouchka de Andrade, offered the following reflection on the film: “In a way, it could be said that the character of Maria becomes intertwined with Sarah’s personal life. Their political awareness; their solitary struggle with their children (Maria journeys with her child on her back, just as my sister Henda and I went everywhere with our mother, Sarah, while the children of the other leaders, Cabral and Boal, were in boarding schools in Moscow or Bucharest); the death of their partner for political reasons; and above all else, their perseverance, despite the obstacles, always forging ahead… The surge of hope in the film’s final scene will remain with us: ‘Be strong, comrade, he was our friend, our brother, he disappeared in the night, and we will never forget him.’”
Restored by Cineteca di Bologna and The Film Foundation’s World Cinema Project at L’Image Retrouvée (Paris) from the 35mm original negatives, in association with Éditions René Chateau and the family of Sarah Maldoror. Funding provided by Hobson/Lucas Family Foundation. This restoration is part of the African Film Heritage Project, an initiative created by The Film Foundation’s World Cinema Project, the FEPACI and UNESCO – in collaboration with Cineteca di Bologna – to help locate, restore and disseminate African cinema.
https://festival.ilcinemaritrovato.it/en/film/sambizanga/
7PM - Memorial Union Building, Theater 2
Sarah Maldoror • 1972 • Angola-France • 92 min • languages: Lingala and Portuguese with English subtitles
**Introduction by Amy Boylan (UNH)
Set in Angola in 1961, just before the beginning of the War of Independence from Portugal, the film explores the plight of the anti-colonialist liberation movement told through the story of one couple. Maria embarks on a search for her husband Domingos after he is jailed for his political activism. During her journey she confronts an obstructionist police and government system and gains a sharper sense of political consciousness. Director Sarah Maldoror, a French-Caribbean filmmaker who was trained in the Soviet Union, is internationally recognized for her groundbreaking poetic cinematography as well as her anti-colonialist cinema. She died in 2020 at the age of 90 from Covid-19.
Maldoror’s daughter, Annouchka de Andrade, offered the following reflection on the film: “In a way, it could be said that the character of Maria becomes intertwined with Sarah’s personal life. Their political awareness; their solitary struggle with their children (Maria journeys with her child on her back, just as my sister Henda and I went everywhere with our mother, Sarah, while the children of the other leaders, Cabral and Boal, were in boarding schools in Moscow or Bucharest); the death of their partner for political reasons; and above all else, their perseverance, despite the obstacles, always forging ahead… The surge of hope in the film’s final scene will remain with us: ‘Be strong, comrade, he was our friend, our brother, he disappeared in the night, and we will never forget him.’”
Restored by Cineteca di Bologna and The Film Foundation’s World Cinema Project at L’Image Retrouvée (Paris) from the 35mm original negatives, in association with Éditions René Chateau and the family of Sarah Maldoror. Funding provided by Hobson/Lucas Family Foundation. This restoration is part of the African Film Heritage Project, an initiative created by The Film Foundation’s World Cinema Project, the FEPACI and UNESCO – in collaboration with Cineteca di Bologna – to help locate, restore and disseminate African cinema.
https://festival.ilcinemaritrovato.it/en/film/sambizanga/
Thursday, March 31st
UNH Durham
Comizi d'amore (Love Meetings)
3PM - Memorial Union Building, Theater 2
Pier Paolo Pasolini • 1964 • Italy • 89 min • language: Italian with English subtitles
**Introduction by Nicole Gercke
In Comizi d’amore (1964) controversial Italian filmmaker, poet, and novelist Piero Paolo Pasolini travels through 1960s Italy to discuss one thing: sex. Meeting on beaches, outside factories, and in fields, Pasolini chronicles the attitudes of a changing Italy. He discusses divorce (which would not be legal in Italy for another six years), prostitution, homosexuality, sexual education, and more with straightforward candor.
At the center of Comizi is the tension between Pasolini’s own identity (openly gay from 1949 onwards) and politics (an avowed leftist and critic of petty bourgeois values) and that of a conservative Italian public. In watching Comizi, one quickly becomes aware of the regressive attitudes of the majority of Pasolini’s interviewees. Yet this general attitude serves as the backdrop for the truly interesting conversations, those that reveal the cracks in Italy’s conservatism and act as a prelude for a more accepting Italy.
Comizi d’amore offers an interesting counterpoint to the rest of Pasolini’s filmic catalogue. The social attitudes showcased within it showcase why his feature films, such as Teorema (1968, included in 2020’s Cinema Ritrovato NH program) and Salò o le 120 giornate di Sodoma (1975), were met with controversy by the Italian public.
This film has been restored by the Cineteca di Bologna, in collaboration with Compass Film with funding provided by MiBACT at L’Immagine Ritrovata laboratory.
https://festival.ilcinemaritrovato.it/en/film/comizi-damore/
3PM - Memorial Union Building, Theater 2
Pier Paolo Pasolini • 1964 • Italy • 89 min • language: Italian with English subtitles
**Introduction by Nicole Gercke
In Comizi d’amore (1964) controversial Italian filmmaker, poet, and novelist Piero Paolo Pasolini travels through 1960s Italy to discuss one thing: sex. Meeting on beaches, outside factories, and in fields, Pasolini chronicles the attitudes of a changing Italy. He discusses divorce (which would not be legal in Italy for another six years), prostitution, homosexuality, sexual education, and more with straightforward candor.
At the center of Comizi is the tension between Pasolini’s own identity (openly gay from 1949 onwards) and politics (an avowed leftist and critic of petty bourgeois values) and that of a conservative Italian public. In watching Comizi, one quickly becomes aware of the regressive attitudes of the majority of Pasolini’s interviewees. Yet this general attitude serves as the backdrop for the truly interesting conversations, those that reveal the cracks in Italy’s conservatism and act as a prelude for a more accepting Italy.
Comizi d’amore offers an interesting counterpoint to the rest of Pasolini’s filmic catalogue. The social attitudes showcased within it showcase why his feature films, such as Teorema (1968, included in 2020’s Cinema Ritrovato NH program) and Salò o le 120 giornate di Sodoma (1975), were met with controversy by the Italian public.
This film has been restored by the Cineteca di Bologna, in collaboration with Compass Film with funding provided by MiBACT at L’Immagine Ritrovata laboratory.
https://festival.ilcinemaritrovato.it/en/film/comizi-damore/