In Search
Of Treasures by Moen Mohamed
IL
CINEMA RITROVATO 2012
BOLOGNA,
ITALY
Cinephiles, curators and programmers gather
annually in darkened theatres to relish in the abundance of delights offered by
one of the world’s most important and treasured film festivals. Il Cinema Ritrovato is impossible to
disappoint. This year, an unsung master
of French cinema was showcased. How Jean Grémillon could have
escaped my attention all these years is a mystery. And why I never
even came across his name in countless readings is an even bigger
mystery. Aside from the various programmes, there are the
restorations. Thus, herein lies the importance and significance of what
they do here at the Restoration Laboratory at the Cineteca Bologna.
The length and breadth of the programming
is remarkable. Almost every print is from the national film archive of a
country. In this day and age, when everything has gone digital, these
rare 35mm prints, some of which are quite pristine, make the trip amidst
the sweltering European summer worth one's while. But think not that
it's all roses and perfume: the heat in Bologna is akin to punishment
- relentless and unbearable. I drank 1.5 litres of water daily and
that was insufficient. There are projection issues some days; the
air-conditioning is not always working in the cinemas - but I tell you, it’s
all worth it. And then some. These complaints wither away with just one glance
at the programme.
The masterpieces, chronologically:
MALDONE
35mm, 1927, France, 90 min, Jean Grémillon
A revelation. A young man, disgusted by his
richness and life of comfort, abandons it and lives as a simple villager. Many
years later, he is forced by circumstance to return and become the master of
his estate, a position he still abhors. With brilliant acting and expert
editing, Maldone is one of the most inexplicably
unserenaded French films of all time.
GARDIENS
DE PHARE (LIGHTHOUSE KEEPERS)
35mm, 1929, France, 73 min, Jean Grémillon
Poetic realism at its shimmering best and a
complete knockout. I have never seen anything like this film. An elderly
man and his son are hired as keepers of the lighthouse on a remote post
surrounded by water, and with no other human contact. Their loved ones are on
the mainland. And then, there is a descent into madness. This is a unique
film that defies explanations. It must be experienced on the big screen to
appreciate its brilliance. Grémillon is a master of atmosphere, movement and
lighting.
RAILS
DCP, 1929, Italy, 75 min, Mario Camerini
If I were forced to select the best film I
saw at the festival, this would be it. One of the last silent films made
in Italy, and perhaps the best silent film of Italian cinema, Mario Camerini's Rails has been restored and
rediscovered for all to bask in its greatness. Like Sunrise and Sonnenstrahl, Rails was made in between those two. These three films were made by
different directors, but are so similar in theme and atmosphere, they feel like
a trilogy of sorts. These are the first 10 minutes of the film: On a
dark, rainy night, a young man and woman walk to a run-down hotel, holding each
other. They take a room, sit silently and regard each other as if in
agreement. The sadness in their eyes is devastating.
The hotel is next to the railway station. The whistle of the train
echoes loudly and the wind blows open the window. With stunning
close-ups, Camerini lingers on the expressions of his two leads
throughout the film, and allows those expressions to convey the state
of mind, and not rely on inter-titles. For me, this is one
of the newly rediscovered masterworks of cinema.
SONNENSTRAHL
35mm, 1933, Austria, 88 min, Pál Fejös
If Murnau's Sunrise was not made a few years earlier, Sonnenstrahl would probably have been the film in its place. With
Gustav Fröhlich (Metropolis) in the
lead, the film tells the tale of two lost souls on the streets of Vienna during
The Great Depression as they find themselves thrown together. Opening
with a memorable sequence on the contemplation of suicide, we go on a
journey of societal necessities, restrictions and conformity. Poetic and
tender, Sonnenstrahl reiterates the importance of living life to the
fullest. I am now anxiously looking forward to Lonesome, also directed by Pál Fejös.
The rest of my Top 25, chronologically:
THE
GARDENER
35mm, 1912, Sweden, 33 min, Victor Sjöström
One of the best films of the festival is
one-hundred years old, made and released in 1912. It is the first film of the
great Victor Sjöström. The Gardener
is a revelation, even at only 33 minutes. A young couple is separated by the
boy's jealous father who has his eye on the young woman. Her
father is the gardener (played by Sjöström) who works for the
man and tends the roses in their greenhouse. After sending his
son away, the boy's father shows his true intentions. And this is just the
beginning of the film. Sjöström gives this film everything. After being an
outcast of society, to show that she is no longer a good girl, there is a scene
of her smoking a cigarette - very subtle for 1912, but revealing. I love that
each year Bologna celebrates films from 100 years ago. Next year it’s
1913. I hope I will be around and able to go from 2020 to 2029,
when the zenith and twilight years of silent cinema, 1920 to 1929, will be
showcased. There will be countless treasures revealed over those 10 years.
THE
FIRST-BORN
35mm, 1928, Great Britain, 93 min, Miles
Mander
A beautiful restoration and a superb 35mm
mint print of this drama of hypocrisy and devotion. Directed by and starring
Miles Mander in a most unflattering role of a hypocritical cad who flirts and
cheats on his wife, but cannot bear the thought that she is even friendly with
another man. When he decides to leave his wife for a while as she is not
getting pregnant, she takes matters into her own hands to provide him with the
offspring he so desperately needs.
MARY
35mm, 1930, Germany, 82 min, Alfred
Hitchcock
Decades and decades later, when it became
en vogue for popular foreign films to be remade in English, Alfred Hitchcock
was doing the opposite some 80 years ago. Shot entirely in German with a
complete German cast, Mary is, for
me, one of Hitchcock's great early achievements. There is so much of that
special Hitchcockian touch in this 80-year old film. Sadly, I was not able
to see Murder! (the English
version) to compare and contrast. Awash in German Expressionism in terms
of style and structure, one is reminded of the early sound films of Fritz Lang.
PRIX
DE BEAUTE
DCP, 1930, France, 114 min, Augusto Genina
Louise Brooks pays the price for being
beautiful and for wanting both worlds - glamour and fame; love and
family. Beautifully restored by the Bologna laboratory and screened in
the Piazza with a full orchestra, Prix
de beauté makes excellent use of Miss Brooks' talent.
THE
NEIGHBOUR'S WIFE AND MINE
35mm, 1931, Japan, 56 min, Heinosuke Gosho
Deftly balancing comedy with social
realism, The Neighbour’s Wife and Mine
gently observes a traditional Japanese marriage. Every time you get the
impression it is a comedy, you are quickly reminded it isn't by a quick
gesture. The plot is simple - a playwright struggling with writer's block goes
next door to investigate some very loud jazz music. He takes a very long time
to return and his wife begins to worry, and with reason. After seeing only three
of Heinosuke Gosho's films, I am certain a retrospective of his oeuvre will
yield many treasures.
FIRST
STEPS ASHORE
35mm, 1932, Japan, 88 min, Yasujiro Shimazu
Josef von Sternberg's great classic, The Docks of New York (1928) is
reworked, scripted and transplanted to Yokohama. It is amazing how completely
Japanized the film is. A sailor saves a suicidal woman from drowning
and this begins their strange and dangerous affair of dependency. I
am keen on learning more about Yasujiro Shimazu. He, like many of his
contemporaries, never loses focus on the main elements of the story. And
he knows how to direct his actors. It is important to note that The Docks of New York was named Best
Foreign Film released in Japan in 1929 by Kinema Junpo. Another important
note is that both Heinosuke Gosho and Keisuke Kinoshita worked as Yasujiro Shimazu's
assistants before embarking on their own very successful careers.
NAMIKO
35mm, 1932, Japan, 54 min, Eizo Tanaka
A young couple is married, they go on their
honeymoon. Soon after, she becomes ill and he goes off on a trip. While he
is away, his family, fearing the scandal of the young wife’s previous
relationship with a man, uses the pretext of infection and sends her away to
her accepting parents. A simple story but studied with such precision that
makes it stand out. This is yet another gem from the retrospective on
early Japanese sound films.
WILD
GIRL
35mm, 1932, USA, 80 min, Raoul Walsh
A young Joan Bennett stars as the wild and
outspoken woman who lives in the woods (untamed California) and is relentlessly
pursued by not one or two, but by four different men. One of whom is a
young and dashing Ralph Bellamy. Three of them covet her body and one, her
heart. Alas, the one who covets her heart must hang! Wild Girl deserves to be heralded as one of Raoul Walsh’s best
films.
NEW EARTH
35mm, 1933, Holland, 30 min, Joris Ivens
A superb 35mm print of one of the all-time
great short films. Programmed as part of the films on The Great Depression, what
Joris Ivens achieved in just 30 minutes is outstanding. In the face of
abject poverty and total economic collapse, the Zuider Zee project (farming
new land for Holland), is akin to restarting life on earth. What
is special about this film is how Ivens intelligently blends
the footage of the construction with the politics of economics and
the plight of human suffering during The Great Depression. Ivens shows the
tragedy of class realities, starvation of millions while vulgar waste of
priceless grain continues.
MAN'S CASTLE
35mm, 1933, USA, 71 min, Frank Borzage
Set in the ghetto of the homeless,
Hooverville, the narrative is almost fairytale-like. Loretta Young (very,
very young indeed) and Spencer Tracy play a couple thrown together by
circumstances, when even getting food thrown to pigeons was one's way of
surviving. A woman who is willing to give everything to stay with the man
she loves. A man who refuses to compromise when it comes to any kind of
affection. Man’s Castle is a standout
from the retrospective of films on The Great Depression. It also makes me want to discover more films
of Frank Borzage.
LA
TETE D'UN HOMME
35mm, 1933, France, 99 min, Julien Duvivier
Julien Duvivier's highly stylized policier
is way ahead of its time. It took me by surprise. Based on the novel by
Georges Simenon (La nuit du carrefour),
we know whodunit from the start. There are no twists and turns, but the
direction and the way the screenplay undulates is a twist in its own
execution. At the beginning, the film is told from the police's
perspective. Then, it becomes the wrongfully accused man's story. Then, it
is owned by the actual sickly criminal, played with ferocity by the magnetic
Valéry Inkijinoff, who has more dimensions to his character than everyone else. His
arrogance, anger at his illness and verbal jousting with the police are
something to behold. Poignant is his obsesssion with a neighbour who sings (not
unlike Edith Piaf) a song of remorse, lost love and grief.
A
WOMAN OF TOKYO
35mm, 1933, Japan, 51 min, Yasujiro Ozu
I believe this may be one of Ozu's most
overlooked films, if such a thing was possible. This gorgeous 35mm print from
the archives was a treat on the last day of the festival. Scandal, truth
and social realism are at the centre of this 51 minute film. A younger
brother and older sister live together, with the sister taking care of the
brother as he studies. He finds out that she may not be as good as she
seems. The three scenes of confrontation are among the best Ozu has
mounted. A Woman of Tokyo is expertly
edited and superbly acted, with the sublime Kinuyo Tanaka in one of the lead
roles.
GUEULE
D'AMOUR
35mm, 1937, France, 93 min, Jean Grémillon
Jean Gabin stars as the titular Ladykiller
and one expects him to make women swoon and pant throughout the film. Not
under the auspices of Grémillon. In fact, the opposite happens. Jean Gabin is
reduced to a vulnerable fool so hopelessly and uncompromisingly in love, one
wonders where this film is headed. It is a performance and character from Gabin
I have never seen. He is reduced to almost nothing. What is different here is
that he is not clueless. He knows he is being played with, but he cannot curb the
avalanche of emotions, nor his obvious obedience.
PURSUED
35mm, 1947, USA, 102 min, Raoul Walsh
Judith Anderson and Teresa Wright steal the
show in this gem from Raoul Walsh. Robert Mitchum is a man haunted by
childhood nightmares and cannot understand why he was adopted in a family that
is beset with a legacy of hate and death. The key to the mystery is held
firmly by Judith Anderson in a completely different performance that rivals her
own Mrs. Danvers (Rebecca). Tragedy,
remorse, revenge and a child's destiny all intertwined to create this wonderful
concoction of classic Hollywood. Pursued
is my personal favourite of the Walsh films I have seen so far.
PATTES
BLANCHES (WHITE LEGGINGS)
35mm, 1948, France, 103 min, Jean Grémillon
Grémillon is a master of setting and
atmosphere. Nothing seems forced or fake in his films. He has
complete control of his material. The scintillatingly scandalous Suzy
Delair (Quai des Orfèvres) plays that
sort of woman who is entangled in an affair of sex and materialism with a
fishmonger. He brings this worldly and carefree woman to his very small
village where there is more than enough going on already. Dark family
secrets; a self-sacrificial hunchback; a seemingly sickly man who is the
illegitimate son of the count’s father; a naughty yet victimized Suzy Delair; the unwilling
count of the manor who is never without his conspicuous white leggings. A delectable
recipe? Indeed.
AFTER
THE CURFEW
DCP, 1954, Indonesia, 101 min, Usmar Ismail
The aftermath of the Indonesian republican
revolution which ended Dutch rule, and destroyed the administration of the Dutch
East Indies, is explored in this passionate film about a new country,
completely lost. This new society of angry and disillusioned young people is
faced with the question: Is this what we
fought for? After The Curfew is not
a big film about exciting, revolutionary skirmishes, but it is an intimate
portrayal of a young man, and the challenges he faces after the revolution. He
is a conflicted ex-revolutionary, trying to find his way in their newly created
world. Digitally reconstructed at the
Bologna laboratory, using damaged 35mm prints, painstakingly restored frame by
frame, After The Curfew is an
important classic of Indonesian cinema. Kudos to Martin Scorsese (Chairman of
the World Cinema Foundation) and his team for having selected this film for
restoration. His advisory team includes, Abbas Kiarostami, Fatih Akin, Wong
Kar-wai, Abderrahmane Sissako, Ermanno Olmi and many others. They are doing
important work by creating a film preservation consciousness in developing countries,
so that these countries can preserve their cinematic treasures, thus creating
an international archive of restored classics to be seen and studied by
generations to come. The World Cinema Foundation is the kind of organization
that makes a significant contribution to the great heritage of international
cinema. Regretfully, I was not able to
see Uday Shankar’s Kalpana (India
1948), also restored by the World Cinema Foundation and screened at the
festival.
LA
ROMANA (WOMAN OF ROME)
35mm, 1954, Italy, 92 min, Luigi Zampa
After the very successful retrospective at Il Cinema Ritrovato 2011, and seeing all
of his classic films, I didn't think there were any other major films by Luigi
Zampa to be discovered. I was wrong. Set in Rome 1935, a young girl is pushed
into work that relies completely on her physical beauty. She is seduced,
betrayed, compromised and finally becomes a prostitute. But she becomes a
prostitute of her own volition, not because she is a poor victim. All of
this happens in the first 30 minutes. Then the real trouble begins. Highly
stylized, which is unusual for Zampa, La
Romana is very blunt in its sexuality and frank discussions on matters of
sex and prostitution.
BAND
OF ANGELS
35mm, 1957, USA, 127 min, Raoul Walsh
This film probably shouldn't work as well
as it does, but Walsh creates such compelling character who keeps you to the
end of their arduous journey. These are not quite likeable characters. Even
Sidney Poitier comes across as slightly rough. At the onset of the civil
war, a southern belle discovers publicly that she was borne of a Negro slave,
and suddenly finds herself an outcast as a new slave because of her ‘tainted
blood’. The woman decides to live as a white person, without identifying with
the real slaves. For her, it is about survival and she doesn’t make it easy for
anyone to like her, except the imperious and determined Clark Gable – plantation
master, slave-owner and ex-slave trader with a whole lot of guilty conscience.
THE
CLOUD-CAPPED STAR
DCP, 1960, India, 126 min, Ritwik Ghatak
Of the many restorations at the festival,
this is the most stunning of them all.
It retains that unique film-like quality that is so very difficult to
reproduce even with the most pristine digitizing. Amidst the melodrama of a struggling family
and the suffering daughter, we experience a lyrical tale of self-sacrifice and
resilience. There is such poetry and movement in the images and sounds
that one is enraptured by the beauty of the images and devastated by the suffering. The
opening shot of a tree is perhaps the most sublime shot of a tree that I have
ever seen. It is not hard to see why The
Cloud-Capped Star is considered one of the greatest films in all of Indian
cinema.
REGARD
SUR LA FOLIE (LOOKING AT MADNESS)
HD, 1961, France, 53 min, Mario Ruspoli
Long overdue for rediscovery, this film
should be regarded as a classic of direct cinema and a pioneer work. In
what may be the first film to be shot in an mental institution, with many
sessions of patients and doctors, it does not feel like a documentary (as
Jean-Paul Sartre said of the film), but it demands that the audience look at
mental illness as if we are experiencing it ourselves.
THE
ANTI-MIRACLE
35mm, 1965, Italy, 84 min, Elio Piccon
A rare discovery. It is noted in the
programme book that Elio Piccon is one of the most overlooked Italian filmmakers,
and it is obvious why. Part fiction, part ethnographical documentary, this film
is brutal and demanding. It was dismissed upon release and largely forgotten. With
echoes of Las Hurdes and Araya, coupled with a loose narrative, The Anti-Miracle is simply miraculous. Elio
Piccon moves to this very remote village and lived there for months before
shooting. Over the course of a year, whilst still living there, he films
the inhabitants as they tell and act out their own stories, in their
dialect. The clearing of a large marshland by hand in the dry season to
create a river to await the rainy season in order for eel-fishing to
resume, is an astounding feat of labour.
Other noteworthy favourites, chronologically:
PADRE (rediscovered and restored)
35mm, 1912, Italy, 44 min, Giovanni
Pastrone
THE
CHALICE OF SORROW (restoration)
35mm, 1916, USA, 70 min, Rex Ingram
PILLARS
OF SOCIETY
35mm, 1916, USA, 54 min, Raoul Walsh
THE
IMMIGRANT (restoration)
DCP, 1917, USA, 24 min, Charles Chaplin
EASY
STREET (restoration)
DCP, 1917, USA, 26 min, Charles Chaplin
AFTER
THE VERDICT
35mm, 1929, Great Britain, 70 min, Henrik
Galeen
ME AND MY GAL
35mm, 1932, USA, 80 min, Raoul Walsh
THE
PARTY CARD
35mm, 1936, USSR, 99 min, Ivan Pyr'ev
THE
STRANGE MR. VICTOR
35mm, 1937, France, 99 min, Jean Grémillon
6 PM
AFTER THE WAR
35mm, 1944, USSR, 100 min, Ivan Pyr'ev
JUNE
6TH AT DAWN (restoration)
35mm, 1945, France, 56 min, Jean Grémillon
THE
BIG KNIFE
35mm, 1955, USA, 103 min, Robert Aldrich
POINT
BLANK (restoration)
35mm, 1967, USA, 92 min, John Boorman
TESS
(restoration)
DCP, 1979, Great Britain, 171 min, Roman
Polanski
ONCE
UPON A TIME IN AMERICA (Restoration, Director’s
Cut)
DCP, 1984, USA, 250 min, Sergio Leone
Until 2013…
