"In Search Of Treasures" by Moen Mohamed

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…