BRIGHTS LIGHTS IN LYON

THE LUMIÈRE FILM FESTIVAL, OCTOBER 13-19, 2014

LYON, FRANCE

by MOEN MOHAMED

Created just a few years ago, the cinephile's heaven that is the Lumière Grand Lyon Film Festival is poised, in my opinion, to become the biggest classic cinema event in the years to come.  The adoration of the classics by the French is manifest in the overwhelming local support.  Almost every screening is sold-out with lengthy rush lines.  In terms of radius, the festival spreads over the entire length and breadth of the city and its immense suburbs with no less than 40 screening venues.  Armed with a good knowledge of how to traverse the city with subway tickets, it is easy to reap the benefits of the remarkably rich programming.  Each screening began with the Lumière 2014 intro set to the lilting tune of a Spanish guitar, honouring this year's Prix Lumière honoree, Pedro Almodóvar.  The intro ends with a quote from Almodóvar, so befitting a classic film festival, attended by hordes of film enthusiasts:  "Our lives would be nothing without the cinema."

Organized and directed by Thierry Frémaux, who is also the director of the Cannes Film Festival, Lumière is to the classics as what Cannes is to contemporary world cinema.  This very young festival, just based on the logistics, is a well-oiled machine and expertly organized.  With courteous staff and volunteers, interesting special guests, historians and critics introducing films, and Bertrand Tavernier everywhere, it would be impossible not to have a great festival.  However, becoming the biggest festival of this kind requires a very important ingredient for international guests, and that is English subtitles.  All films not in French are subtitled only in French.  However, there are many films in English, so one can have a good time with just these films.  I managed quite well with the French films considering I don't practise the language often.  Reading French subtitles was much easier than I expected.  However, if the festival would like to be more attractive to an international audience, it may be a wise thing to look into.  But judging from the presence of the French press, French media centre, the very busy Marché du film, the long line-ups and jam-packed houses, I doubt whether the lack of English subtitles is a major concern for this very successful and much beloved festival right now.  The invaluable and gorgeous catalogue, though only in French, is the best film festival catalogue I have ever had.  It is overflowing with pertinent information on each film and director and is nearly free of advertisements, which are in the last few pages.  It contains beautiful, glossy photographs of the original movie posters and stills. 

And then, there is the city of Lyon.  I have become enamoured with this lovely city.  A rich, warm, vibrant metropolis, throbbing with vitality and multiculturalism.  The kind and courteous people of Lyon were an added bonus.  Day after day, I met the friendliest of people and not just at the festival. They are very encouraging when one tries to speak French, even haltingly.  Then, there is the food.  There is something to eat at every corner with great coffee, mouth-watering desserts and pastries, particularly the apricot tarts.  As for the local bakeries, they are filled with the freshest breads of every sort.  Conveniently located, just outside the Institute Lumière, on Place Ambroise Courtois on a few days each week, is a grand old French farmers' market.  It is plenished with fresh fruits, baked goods, cheese, and brightly coloured vegetables.  Feeling nostalgic, I bought some Canadian apples which were imported! 

It would be remiss of me not to comment on the very well-behaved Lyonnaise audiences.  Phones are off and talking/whispering is kept to a minimum and in most cases non-existent.  There are hardly any late-comers and the majority stay until the end of the credits.  The cinemas are large, beautiful and comfortable and so are the screens.  A delight it was to listen to Thierry Frémaux introduce the films.  He is knowledgeable, affable and able to discuss films without any notes.  His passion for classic cinema is obvious and he is also quite funny.  Remarking that he is happy to see so many high school kids at the screening of Thérèse Raquin, he teasingly warns, "It's in black and white, you know..."  Speaking of the school tours, I sat with dozens of school children for many of the screenings and they were very well-behaved.  This is also a great initiative of the festival to provide the opportunity to young children to see classic films on the large screen with a packed audience, the way they were meant to be seen.  One could hear a pin drop during the screening of Powell & Pressburger's digitally restored The Tales of Hoffman, preceded by a most informative and interesting discussion with Thelma Schoonmaker, which was a highlight of the festival for me.

Another major highlight was an in depth conversation with Thierry Frémaux and Isabella Rossellini, who introduced Cineteca Bologna's beautiful digital restoration of Roberto Rossellini's La Paura (Fear).  Isabella spoke intimately and passionately about her renowned parents, her career and her gratitude to Bologna as they continue to restore her father's films as part of their Project Rossellini.  She reminisced about fond memories of her work and experience in Blue Velvet, which was also playing at the festival.

With three major director's retrospectives (Frank Capra, Pedro Almodóvar, Claude Sautet), the rest of the programme provided a dazzling array of a cinematic buffet:  Focus on Spanish Cinema, Ida Lupino, Italian Westerns, Silent Cinema, Master Classes, Cult Cinema and much more.  These are my favourites of the festival, in order of preference:

THERESE RAQUIN

35mm | Marcel Carné | France | 1953 | 107 min | Programme: Almodóvar Carte Blanche

With just Les enfants du paradis, the great Marcel Carné was guaranteed to be remembered as a brilliant director.  But along with Le jour se lève, Port of Shadows, Hôtel du Nord and Thérèse Raquin, his reputation as one of the greatest of all French directors has forever been cemented.  Marcel Carné's adaptation of Emile Zola's tale of adultery, set and filmed in Lyon, much to the audience's delight, has Simone Signoret playing an unhappy wife (believe me, she has reasons to be unhappy) who falls in love with an Italian truck driver (Raf Vallone).  Daily life is dull and at times demeaning, especially with her calculating mother-in-law, played to perfection by single-named actress, Sylvie, whose accusing eyes dominate, pierce and judge.  The mother-in-law seems to be in love with her own spineless and sickly son.  As marriage wasn’t what she envisioned it to be, she attempts to elope with the rugged truck driver, who is clearly smitten by her.  A trip to Paris by train, a tragedy and a most pernicious eye-witness played to delicious perfection by a creepy Roland Lesaffre, all culminate to make Thérèse Raquin a great film.  Lesaffre steals every scene he is in.  Released in America under the scandalous but dismissive title “The Adulteress”, the film’s story may sound familiar but under the skillful direction of Marcel Carné, the film pulsates with tension, fear and energy.  It is perhaps important to note that Emile Zola wrote Thérèse Raquin 67 years before James Cain wrote The Postman Always Rings Twice.

SOLEIL ET OMBRE (SUN AND SHADOW)

35mm | Musidora & Jaime de Lasuen | France | 1922 | 43 min | Programme: Henri Langlois - A Memory for the Future

A gorgeous 35mm print from the Cinémathèque Française of Musidora's 1922 classic was an unexpected thrill.  One of the only two surviving silent films directed by Musidora, Soleil et Ombre is set in the world of bullfighting and shot in Spain.  A woman is the lover of the star bullfighter.  In just one week, he completely drops her for another woman.  Both women are played by Musidora.  A simple love triangle is punctuated with an assured sense of style and expertly edited sequences, the most thrilling of which is a bullfight.  The emotional impact of this bullfight is much more related to the betrayed woman than the bull.  As the actual taunting and goring of the poor animal progresses, the camera cuts constantly to Musidora and each blow is inflicted on her during this very long but powerful sequence.  It ends but only when the final blow is struck on the animal.  And Cupid has lost his aim...

POACHERS
35mm | José Luis Borau | Spain | 1975 | 83 min | Programme: Almodóvar Carte Blanche

A grim tale of a young poacher who lives in the forest with his over-protective and staunch Catholic mother.  On a trip to the city, he meets a young girl who has escaped from a juvenile detention facility.  She takes one look at him and realises he will do.  She follows him, seduces him, gets him to buy her a dress so she can discard her uniform and they head back to the forest.  Without an explanation, he tells Mother the girl will now live with them.  Metaphoric and symbolic of the horrific times under Franco, the film depicts scenes of torture and cruelty to animals (representing humans) as they are hunted by a group of ignorant city officials and the hypocritical Governor, who is the poacher's stepbrother.  As the tension intensifies between the mother and the girl, the poacher has to make sure she is hidden from the officials and her former pimp/boyfriend, who has been scouring the forest for her.  Franco was still alive when this film was made, so how this got past the Spanish censors is a mystery.  He died two months after the film's release.  Allegorical without being overtly political, Poachers is one of the finest films of the festival.

STRANGE VOYAGE (EL EXTRANO VIAJE)

35mm | Fernando Fernán Gómez | Spain | 1964 | 92 min | Programme: Almodóvar Carte Blanche

A deliciously uproarious black comedy set in a small Spanish town.  A tyrannical spinster takes care of her simple brother and sister, both adults but infantile.  These two become aware of a plot concerning their older sister selling their property, getting rid of them, before taking off to Paris with her unknown lover and accomplice.  There is also a local shopkeeper who wouldn't rest until she has found out who has stolen the corset from her shop.  There is also the local band whose lead singer is courting the shopkeeper's assistant.  A wide array of colourful locals, idiosyncratic and hilarious, plus a dead body dumped in a wine vat (instead of ham), apparitions, and a serious bout of transvestism, Strange Voyage is not only strange, but highly original.  It is also the first Spanish film to show a man fully dressed as a woman, and not just for comical reasons.  He is on full display for the pleasure of a voyeur, showcasing evening gowns, casual wear and the frilliest of nightgowns.

PUZZLE OF A DOWNFALL CHILD

DP | Jerry Schatzberg | USA | 1970 | 105 min | Programme: Homage to Faye Dunaway

Faye Dunaway gives a powerful and perhaps her best performance as a model who tries to balance professional and personal relationships while dealing with persuasive inner demons.  It is an audacious undertaking, blunt in its execution and filled with complex ideas on societal relations.  There are scenes of such vulnerability and pain as she is rejected over and over, not as a model, but as a person.  Narratively fragmented and seemingly plotless, the pivotal moments of her life are accounted for with precise quietude, but the effects are lasting.  A film that deserves to be rediscovered as quickly as it was dismissed by American critics and forgotten.  It was, of course, embraced and championed by French critics, who most likely understood what Schatzberg was trying to say, not just about the world a model inhabits, but the fragility of a mentally unstable human being.  It has one of the best titles ever, which is quite apt.  The film itself is a puzzle in the way it unfolds as we never get a complete grasp on her character; she is still a child in many ways and her downfall started long before she even became a woman, when she was but a young girl.  I struggle to comprehend why this film was dismissed.  Puzzle of a Downfall Child is a gem from 1970s American cinema.

THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY

35mm | Albert Lewin | USA | 1945 | 110 min | Programme: Film Historian Patrick Brion Carte Blanche

Oscar Wilde's novel of the permanently youthful Dorian Gray is brought to life with intelligence and panache.  The young Dorian Gray whilst posing for his portrait, makes a wish and asks for the reverse of order - that the painting should age instead of him.  Basically, he has bargained his soul to be granted this wish.  As he is always reminded how innocent and good he looks, an inner Mr. Hyde surges from within and Dorian Gray commits many an evil act, causing suffering and losing all his friends.  He remains unmoved and cold about the plight of others.  But in spite of this and as he continues to age, he remains forever youthful and beautiful.  However, his deeds are accumulated and are on display elsewhere.  The painting serves as a reminder of his bargain, but it not only ages as a man would in terms of the passage of years.  It shows the ugliness of Dorian’s now corrupt soul.  Each cruel act he has committed is depicted in the most horrific distortion of his face and body in the portrait.  The film has some of Oscar Wilde’s best and wittiest quotes, sarcastically delivered by a cynically superior George Sanders, who gives the film’s best performance and steals every scene he is in.  He seemed to be thoroughly enjoying his role, which is not that different from the other witty cynic he plays five years later, Addison DeWitt, in All About Eve.

CLASSE TOUS RISQUES

DP | Claude Sautet | France | 1960 | 109 min | Programme: The Films of Claude Sautet

The debut film by Sautet all but fizzled upon its release and was forgotten by all and sundry until its auspicious re-release in 1971, when it was championed by the directors of the French New Wave.  Originally released just two weeks after Jean-Luc Godard's blockbuster, Breathless, which also stars Jean-Paul Belmondo, Classe Tous Risques is a gritty crime drama that did not stand a chance of being paid any attention to.  It is less stylistic than Breathless, but has a superb script and fully-developed characters.  The film begins in Milan where the always dependable character actor, Lino Ventura, plays a tough but wise criminal in exile from France.  He is trying to get back to his country by sneaking past the authorities.  He commits one last robbery in broad daylight in Milan before heading to the border along with his accomplice.  His wife and children are already en route to France.  He is relying on his criminal friends in Paris to come get him so he can have a safe journey back.  Instead, they send a young stranger, played by Belmondo.  A bond develops between the two men.  Upon arrival in Paris, Ventura’s old friends no longer want to help him even though they owe him their lives.  The film turns into an introspective look at how gangsters exist, think and feel.   It is regrettable that I was not able to see any more of Claude Sautet’s films at the festival, especially the much celebrated Un coeur en hiver, César et Rosalie, Nelly et Monsieur Arnaud, Les choses de la vie - all of which I have always wanted to see.

MR. DEEDS GOES TO TOWN

DP | Frank Capra | USA | 1936 | 116 min | Programme: The Films of Frank Capra

Frank Capra's delightful film is the first one of the festival that brought a tear to my eye.  Written and directed with skill and confidence, it has the ability to make the heart soar and bleed for the earnest Mr. Deeds.  Gary Cooper is perfectly cast as a small town man who is given the news that he has inherited $20 million.  He moves to New York City to handle the affairs of his inheritance and soon becomes the target of scandal mongers and the gossip columns as he is mocked because of his naïveté and simplicity.  Enthusiastically introduced by actor Vincent Perez, who is an intense Capra fan, he was shocked to see that there were still a few in the audience who have never seen It's a Wonderful Life, after he asked the question.  I was among the few raised hands and realise that I need to rectify this very soon.

L'ENTRAINEUSE

35mm | Albert Valentin | France | 1939 | 97 min | Programme: Focus on French Cinema

Michèle Morgan glows and glides across the screen in Albert Valentin's tale of a nightclub hostess who works at the Dame de Coeur.  After a few consecutive stressful episodes, she decides to go for a vacation on the Côte d'Azur.  There, she meets a vacationing family with three young and energetic men who all pursue her.  Michèle Morgan does not play her character as a victim or ashamed of her life.  She is gracious and offers no information about her private life.  She runs into clients on holiday at the hotel, but these scenes are cliché-free without the typical melodrama of fear of exposure.  As things progress with one of the young men, she has to decide whether to take the route back to Paris as it beckons her and if the nightclub is in her future. 

AMERICAN MADNESS

35mm | Frank Capra | USA | 1932 | 77 min | Programme: The Films of Frank Capra

Set in the world of finance, mergers and avaricious bankers just 3 years after the Wall Street crash, this gem from Frank Capra is of such relevance today, for obvious reasons.  Walter Huston plays the President of a large and successful bank.  He thrives on honest business practice and his kindness to his loyal clients causes much grief to the very conservative board of directors.  After a robbery, a rumour spreads that the bank is now bankrupt and is closing.  Still in the throes of the Depression, an understandably terrified public rush to withdraw all of their money.  Hence, a sort of American madness ensues.  With naturalistic acting, sparse music and a compelling lead performance by Huston, American Madness is timely and important 82 years later.  Not to mention, it is a fine film.

WAKE IN FRIGHT

DP | Ted Kotcheff | Australia | 1971 | 108 min | Programme: Homage to Ted Kotcheff

When introducing the film, Ted Kotcheff said that at an Australian screening where the film was first released and then quickly closed, a man shouted from the audience, "This is not us!"  A response echoed, "Shut up!  This IS us!"  A tight screenplay interweaves frighteningly real and shocking moments of manly behaviour gone awry.  It is a mystery how and why this film took decades to be rediscovered or even remembered, because I think it’s unforgettable.  It is thanks primarily to the personal finance and hard work by the film’s editor, who spent years tracking down a copy of the print.  He found one in a warehouse in Pittsburgh in a box that was marked for destruction the following day.  The film depicts how easy it is for the evolved and civilized man to retrogress as he is tempted and influenced by primal instincts.  A film of discomfort and the complicated notions of manhood, it is a classic of Australian cinema.  Well, at least it should be.

LE VIEUX FUSIL (THE OLD GUN)

DP | Robert Enrico | France | 1975 | 102 min | Programme: Restorations

What starts as an idyllic family film set during the final days of the Nazi occupation of France, quickly turns into a bitter saga of vengeance and death.  Philip Noiret is terrific as a doctor whose wife and daughter are savagely murdered by the Nazis as the family spends a few days in their old country chateau.  The Nazis have now taken over the chateau.  Noiret's transformation from the good doctor and adoring husband to a vengeful and determined killer is quite striking.  What makes it even more special is the tense and tight proximity director Robert Enrico takes us through the second half of the film.  The old chateau is the doctor's childhood home so he is familiar with every nook and cranny, each hidden room and passageway.  A physical endurance indeed as Noiret leads, chases and taunts the Nazis throughout the chateau, as he coldly exacts his vengeance.  Beautifully restored, Le vieux fusil won the César for Best Film and Best Actor at the 1976 César Awards.

Other great screenings:  

Overlord (Stuart Cooper, 1975)

Opening Night (John Cassavetes, 1977)

They Drive by Night (Raoul Walsh, 1940)

My Love Will Never Die (Mario Caserini, 1913)

The Hitch-Hiker (Ida Lupino, 1953)

The Criminal Life of Archibaldo de la Cruz (Luis Bunuel, 1955)

The Exile (Michael Curtiz, 1914)

Au grand balcon (Henri Decoin, 1949)

Embrujo (Carlos Serrano de Osma, 1948)

MOEN MOHAMED

October 2014

Festival Report: Pordenone

I need to thank Moen Mohamed again for contributing this great festival report. - D.D.

DAYS OF SILENCE, NIGHTS OF REST

Le Giornate del Cinema Muto, October 4 - 11, 2014

Pordenone, Italy

Have you ever been to a soirée and within minutes you knew you would want to stay for a long time?  That's how I felt after just a few hours about The Days of Silent Cinema (Le Giornate del Cinema Muto) in Pordenone.  The cultural, artistic and historic significance of this unique festival has become apparent in the world of cinema.  Though similar in theme to Il Cinema Ritrovato in Bologna, it is quite different.  One is reminded that there is a treasure chest of silent films that rarely gets to be opened.  There is hardly a platform anywhere that showcases these films with the length and breadth of the programming as in Pordenone.  Without having any knowledge of the town or doing any research, I was expecting Pordenone to be small and quaint, which is why its modernity took me quite by surprise.  With its fashion shops, chic restaurants and cafés, it clearly wasn't what I expected.  But like many places in Italy, the people in Pordenone are courteous and warm to visitors, particularly those in attendance to the Giornate, as it is called by the festival regulars and organizers.  Upon arrival, the staff at the guest office greeted me with such smiles and warmth as if I had been attending for years. 

Highly organized and well-run, the festival's screenings are centralized in one location in the middle of the town's main square.  A superb venue indeed is the Teatro Verdi, with its large auditorium plus three balconies.  The soft red velvet seats are fashionably suited to the hardwood floors that run throughout the entire building.  Not to mention the very large screen that works beautifully for all variations of the 1.33 aspect ratio.  No complaints about that screen, it is perfect.  Upon arrival, I was presented with my accreditation which costs a paltry 65 Euros, plus the programme book and a warm welcoming letter from the president and director of the festival.  In addition to the letter, there was supplementary information of every kind that one may need:  supermarket, post-office, pharmacy, emergency etc.  The welcoming letter ends with a most original and amusing wish:  "We want to see you tired, but happy."  There is a welcome and a farewell cocktail party for all pass holders.  Every film is subtitled in English.  What can you say about a festival that flashes a sign on the screen just as the film is about to start that says, "Did you turn off your mobile phone?"

Being a festival of days past and nostalgia, the first dedication upon the screen for my first evening screening was to Peter von Bagh, the artistic director of Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna, who recently passed away.  This 33rd edition of the festival was dedicated to him.  Peter's demise has left a vacuum in the world of the studies on classic cinema.  He will always be remembered and missed.  The thunderous applause that greeted this nightly dedication on the screen was so heartfelt and sincere, that I am reminded each day of Bologna's brilliant programming and Peter von Bagh's tradition of excellence.

Like Bologna, the Pordenone audience comprise of archivists, professors, academics, curators and programmers.  It seems everyone either works or studies within the realm of silent/classic cinema.  A Cinema Studies professor from Wisconsin sitting next to me for a film was surprised when I told her I was on vacation and wasn't "working in attendance" at the festival.  She was even more surprised when she found out what my job was.  Snippets of conversation overheard during the festival contain words like, "nitrate print", "inter-negative", "lost print", "Eastman House", "recently rediscovered".  Announced at this year's festival by a representative from the George Eastman house, is a new film festival to be unveiled in May 2015 called The Nitrate Picture Show.  That will be a trip worth taking to Rochester, New York.  

The films may be the central attraction, but without a doubt, the star of the festival is the music.  These stars are world-renowned musicians who are invited each year to treat the audience to their talent.  Films are not just accompanied with piano solos, but artists playing a variety of instruments are engaged during a single screening for maximum musical serenade.  One of the traditions of the festival is working with Pordenone school children who are still in training as they hone their musical skills.  A rapturous evening it was when about 40 children played a full orchestra and then some, to a series of Chaplin short films.  Another very special event was a live performance of a Japanese Benshi artist who narrated Hot-Tempered Yasubei (1928), with such vigour and skill, not to mention perfect comedic timing.  It was unlike anything I have ever experienced in terms of unique screenings.

Here are my favourites, in order of preference:

PAN

35mm | Harald Schwenzen | Norway | 1922 | 107 min | Programme: Rediscoveries

Due to time restraints, I was not able to read anything on any of the films, so I saw all of them blindly.  Pan is the first and only film directed by Harald Schwenzen.  It tells the story of a man who lives almost hermetically in the woods, but not far from the town.  He desperately wants to fall in love even if it means fitting in with societal masquerades.  Unfortunately, he falls for the charms of a woman who plays with him and toys with his emotions.  At times, it becomes almost unbearable to watch.  She insults him and he stays away.  She goes back to him and declares her love then plays the same game over and over.  But is it really a game?  There is one moment of deadpan comedy where she drives him to jealousy on a boat.  He throws one of her shoes into the river.  Later he recovers it and gives it to her saying, "I am sorry I threw your shoe into the river."  She dryly responds, "Yes, that was a weird thing to do," and promptly walks away.  The last third of the film takes a very different turn and is evocative of Miguel Gomes' Tabu.  It is narrated by a friend of the man, who has since left the woman, his home and country.  He and a friend have travelled to Algeria where a different story plays out between the two friends that is evocative of the man's previous history coming back to haunt his current environment.  Pan was appropriately and perfectly programmed in the Rediscoveries section.  Nature in all its Norwegian glory is perfectly blended with the narrative as it highlights the sea, mountains, lakes, forests in all their panoramic beauty.

SIR ARNE'S TREASURE

35mm | Mauritz Stiller | Sweden | 1919 | 109 min | Programme: The Canon Revisited

Three Scottish soldiers, almost dying from starvation but drunk from over-imbibing, embark on a night of mayhem and murder, killing a lord, Sir Arne and his entire family on a small Swedish island.  Their intent was to steal the much rumoured treasure of money that Sir Arne may have hoarded and accumulated by questionable means.  All in the household are killed except one daughter who is consumed with guilt of having survived the ordeal.  The killers all but vanish into the Swedish winter and this chilling landscape consumes each frame and every second of the film with an ice-cold grip.  God's hand and his retribution for evil-doers are very much in the mind of the director.  The winter has frozen every route out from the island, thus trapping everyone.  The murderers, if still alive, would also be trapped.  Guilt and vengeance play out like the best of Shakespeare's tragedies.  

THE LOVES OF JEANNE NEY

35mm | G. W. Pabst | Germany | 1927 | 92 min | Programme: The Canon Revisited

Pabst creates a tense work of art that is all at once a thriller, melodrama, adventure, political drama and romance - all done in deep shades of noir with areas of grey.  Jeanne escapes Crimea where the Reds and the Whites continue to fight.  After her father is killed by the Bolsheviks, she leaves for Paris to live with her miserly uncle and his blind daughter.  Her lover also comes in search of her from Crimea.  She is reunited with him, but soon their happiness is threatened by a swindler who knew Jeanne and her father in Crimea and is now in Paris, courting the blind daughter of Jeanne's uncle.  Sounds complicated, and so it is, but also purely Hitchcockian.  Along with her mesmerizing performance in Metropolis, Brigitte Helm steals every scene as the blind girl.  There is something so purely cinematic about her face even as she is just staring blankly into space, you know she is not.  One of the most memorable sequence features the miserly uncle who is awaiting a large payment for one a stolen diamond.  He practises as if he is receiving the money (thin air), placing it on his desk, licking his fingers, counting each bundle and placing each imaginary bundle in his safe, which is his only love.  He does this with eyes bulging, perspiration dripping and tongue hanging.  It is a frightening and superbly edited sequence.

THE FEAST OF YORGEN

35mm | Yakov Protazanov | USSR | 1930 | 84 min | Programme: Yakov Protazanov

Never before has the holy church or religion been skewered with such precision and cynicism.  Well, at least not back in 1930.   Yakov Protazanov's incendiary film attacks organized religion with such a rapacious yet delicate touch, even religious cinephiles will forgive it for what they may deem as "blasphemously insulting".  How this was made and released 84 years ago is in itself be a miracle!  It opens with a gentle-faced, long-haired shepherd with a graceful face.  He is being crucified when an angel appears and he helps him during the ascension.  Suddenly the film and projection stops and we realise we are watching the rushes of a film based on the life of Saint Yorgen (whose life is not different from that of Jesus Christ).  A group of priests are previewing the film which they have financed.  There is the scene when Yorgen walks on water before a group of fishermen.  The plank on which he walks is quite visible.  Yorgen walks but starts gesturing wildly at a group of vacationers whose boat has gotten into the frame.  At the end of the screening, the priests tell the director, "Less psychology and more miracles!"  At a breakneck pace, we encounter the business of religion with church-manufactured items for sale, in particular Yorgen's tears and his hair.  We see the counting of donations and the handing over of the cash to the banks that sponsor the annual Yorgen event, which features a beauty pageant with a holy touch as the annual Bride of Yorgen is chosen.  The winner of this pageant and her family wins 100,000 gold rubles.  Needless to say, the bishop's daughter wins.  In the midst of this confusion, two criminals are surveying the profitable business of the church,  and one of them remarks, "This is how you make money without knowing how to pick a lock!"  

DIE NIBELUNGEN

35mm | Fritz Lang | Germany | 1924 | 293 min | Programme: The Canon Revisited

I was completely unprepared for this 5-hour masterwork by the great Fritz Lang.  What begins as a pulsating, mythical adventure soon becomes darkly tragic with overtones of Macbeth (well, Lady Macbeth to be precise) and other Shakespearean tragedies.  Siegfried is granted immortality when he slays a dragon, but is vulnerable in one part of his body.  After winning the deadly queen Brunhild for the king, his death is desired by the queen.  Trust leads to treachery, which leads to murder and this leads to vengeance.  Thus, an all-out war ensues within a family.  Meticulously designed and expertly directly by Lang, it is easy to see how influential these early films of his are.  The burning of the castle in Kurosawa's Ran seems to be an exact replica of the one done by Lang 60 years earlier in this film.  Even the shape of the castle looks the same.  The beautiful 35mm print was rich and sumptuous.

DON DIEGO AND PELAGEYA

35mm | Yakov Protazanov | USSR | 1928 | 75 min | Programme: Yakov Protazanov

An absolutely delightful social satire.  Pelageya is an old woman from the countryside, illiterate and simple.  She farms her land with her husband.  One day, she crosses the railroad, is accosted and brought before the courts by the priggish and self-important stationmaster, nicknamed Don Diego.  As she doesn't know how to read, Pelageya did not understand the warning sign.  She is sentenced to 3 months imprisonment.  The films of Yakov Protazanov are truly a discovery.  He knows how to create comical situations within a serious social context.  To Pelageya's aid come her neighbours and the local Komsomol.  They endure the quagmire that is Russian bureaucracy with all its injustices and irritations.

BEAU BRUMMEL

35mm | Harry Beaumont | USA | 1924 | 129 min | Programme: The Barrymores

John Barrymore gives one of his most accomplished and heartbreaking performances as the infamous London dandy who became friends with Prince of Wales, who uses Brummel well to his advantage.  The Prince, who later becomes King George, employs Brummel to act as the bait to build his personal gathering of the hip and socially ubiquitous.  Familiarity breeds contempt, so they say.  Kings are supposed to be respected and obeyed, but Brummel does not acquiesce.  His punishment is exile to France, without a penny.  How extraordinarily rich and powerful this film is.   It lightly begins as a royal romp replete with an obese and odious Prince and an arrogant Brummel, and quickly descends into a tug-o-war of shame, deceit, pride and the annihilation of a being.  Loneliness kills ever so slowly.  As with anyone who has ever experienced abject loneliness, the same it is with Brummel, as it eats away at his very existence.

THE BELLS

35mm | James Young | USA | 1926 | 64 min | Programme: The Barrymores

The Alsatian winter setting provides the backdrop for a tale of murder and a guilty conscience.  A deeply indebted but good man is tested when presented with an opportunity to steal gold coins from a travelling merchant, who is introduced as a Polish Jew.  After the deed is done, the man is plagued by ghostly apparitions of the dead man as he shakes the bells of his horse, which was his last act before he died.  The bells signify a reckoning, a countdown, a celestial reminder of the heinous act that went without punishment.  They jingle ominously throughout the film.  The musician performing at the film brought similar bells which he rang simultaneously with the ringing in the film.  The effect was chilling.  Hilariously over-the-top with his facial expressions is Boris Karloff as the local mesmerist who is willing to make the murderer confess, if he gets the chance.  Lionel Barrymore's composed yet guilt-induced performance is one of his very best.  

BEN-HUR: A TALE OF THE CHRIST

35mm | Fred Niblo | USA | 1925 | 143 min | Programme: The Dawn of Technicolor

I have no idea what critics think about this film or how it was compared to the wildly successful William Wyler's version.  Needless to say, I am sure the Wyler's version is more appreciated and beloved for obvious reasons.  For me, this was a film way before its time, superbly made by a director I don't know anything about.  Much can be said about the scale of the film, the massive sets, the expert editing.  But it is a shame that the Wyler chariot race gets all the credit when the 11-minute heart-stopping chariot race in this silent version is just as thrilling and reckless, perhaps even more so, considering the lack of technology and any special cameras that preceded the 1959 version by 34 years.  Ramon Novarro is splendid as the Jewish Prince.  He is in almost every frame of the film.  It is mainly because of his compelling performance, Ben-Hur is not lost amidst the splendour of a big-budget extravaganza.  Novarro provides the much-needed heart and soul in this film, a typical substance that is usually lacking in such fare.  Scenes of the Christ were done without showing an actor playing Christ - just a silhouette or a light is shown or an illuminated hand.  This was done with grace and respect that it added to the serenity of these scenes which we have seen countless times in other films. 

DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE

35mm | John S. Robertson | USA | 1920 | 87 min | Programme: The Barrymores

I haven't seen any other versions of Robert Louis Stevenson's classic tale, but this silent version should certainly be among the best.  John Barrymore is riveting as the good doctor who is challenged by his colleague to question the notion of a full life.  If one only does good deeds and experiences only the decent things in life, then how can one claim to have a complete life's experience?  This sets the plot in motion and leads to the doctor's twisted transformation into his sadistic and brutal alter-ego.  With just simple make-up and body contortions, John Barrymore creates the good and evil facets of man's duality.  It is a shame this early silent version is not nearly as well-known as the others.

RANKS AND PEOPLE

35mm | Yakov Protazanov | USSR | 1929 | 74 min | Programme: Yakov Protazanov

Another wonderful film by Yakov Protazanov based on short stories by Chekhov.  It chronicles how we behave within societal class structures and the human cost.  A girl of lower class is married to a much older but wealthy man.  She promises to help her poor father and brothers but her husband is stingy and treats her like a servant.  One day, he is invited to a ball hosted by very rich and important officials.  His wife accompanies him but makes a splash with her beauty.  Within a short time, all the men at the party are at her feet.  The tables have turned and with a renewed self-esteem, she now controls her house.  But will she help her family or even remember them?  The other story is a unique delight.  An ordinary man sneezes with the utmost liquidity at the back of the head of a high-ranking and powerful official at a performance of the Russian Ballet.  He is overcome with fear and guilt.  He apologizes but is ignored.  He tries again but is told to go away as the official doesn't care about man's apology.  The man is utterly torn apart and is consumed by his need to be forgiven, but most importantly, to be acknowledged that his apology is sincere.  Things go from worse to catastrophic when the man shows up at the official's workplace the next day, intent on having his apology acknowledged.

JIM THE PENMAN

35mm | Kenneth Webb | USA | 1921 | 62 min | Programme: The Barrymores

Lionel Barrymore plays yet another anti-hero, in fact, this time he is downright rotten.  He plays a master forger whose employer uses Barrymore's forgery skills to his advantage in business.  When an act of a forged cheque places him in the hands of the underbelly of Wall Street miscreants, he is bound for twenty years to forging his way through life and eventually to a massive fortune.  He has no regrets as his life is one of luxury and pleasure.  But it is always in the matters of the heart that one stumbles.  He forges his way into the life of a young woman by imitating her handwriting and her fiancé's, writing break-up letters to both from the other.  He marries her and settles down.  But the past, even when written in someone else's handwriting, always comes back to haunt.

THE BLACK PIRATE

35mm | Albert Parker | USA | 1926 | 96 min | Programme: The Dawn of Technicolor

Well, a Douglas Fairbanks picture has finally won me over.  I was cheering along with the packed audience even before the film ended.  This early Technicolor extravaganza from 1926 is a lean, no-nonsense adventure on the seas without any clichés or silliness that one would find in films of this genre.  A merchant ship is attacked and the crew plus a princess are taken hostage for ransom.  What proceeds thereafter is a tense and exciting cat and mouse game played by the gallant pirate (who is really a Duke) and some malefactors on board, ready for some malfeasance.  And these men are really impatient as to who will get to sample the princess.

Moen Mohamed

THE FLOODGATES OF NOSTALGIA by Moen Mohamed

IL CINEMA RITROVATO, JUNE 28 – JULY 5, 2014

BOLOGNA, ITALY

Bologna does for nostalgia in a few days more than any other impetus.  This year, the William Wellman retrospective yielded many fresh and vibrant films.  I thoroughly enjoyed Beggars of Life (1928), The Man I Love (1929), Night Nurse (1931), Other Men’s Women (1931) and A Star is Born (1937), all shown in very good 35mm prints.  A major discovery was the German director Werner Hochbaum, whose avant-garde sensibilities inter-woven with narrative story-telling of 1930s Germany, sparked many an interesting conversation and my admiration.  His unique style and expertly edited films were a pleasure to behold.  Immediately following a Hochbaum screening, I heard someone say, “I cannot believe I never even heard of Werner Hochbaum!  I can’t wait to see the other films!”  Then, 10 seconds later, just a few feet away I heard someone else say, “Well, I was told that I should check out the Hochbaum films.  I have seen one and that’s enough!  Hochbaum has all the irritating stylistic touches of contemporary directors - only he was doing it in the 1930s!” 

This year, a new event to their already exciting programme is the transformation of the Cineteca Bologna courtyard, called the Little Piazza Pasolini, into an open-air late-night cinema for a couple of screenings.  The special projection was done via a large projector that uses a carbon lantern.  Watching Germaine Dulac's entertaining 1928 film, La Princesse Mandane, in a gorgeous 35mm print with the strong scent of carbon burning in the air was quite an experience.  The carbon lantern produced a shimmering, velvet cascade of black and white pictures that glowed in the night.

The lustre of the images created by this unique projection brought back memories of my childhood and visits to A. J., our faithful and hard-working projectionist at the Roxy Cinema in Leonora, Guyana.  The old projectors at the Roxy also used carbon.  Even after 23 long years, the familiarity of that scent, the cool late-night breeze and the dance of flickering images, re-opened memories and made that screening an emotional experience.  Amidst all of this, I remembered A.J. himself and how kind he was to me and my endless questions.  I would watch him closely as he wrote the glass plates for the slides of the coming attractions.  I would help him run the films on a spinner post-projection and put them back in their cans.  If I did a good job, he would give me pieces of spliced 35mm film.  A.J. is no longer alive but I will never forget him.  It was only after his death I realized that I had never ever found out what his initials stood for.  Visiting Guyana many years later and seeing all that remained of the abandoned Roxy Cinema was an empty space and dilapidated pieces of an instantly recognizable yellow and black concrete wall with a diamond design... well, there are no words to describe the impact of such a sight.  But thanks to a festival like Il Cinema Ritrovato, memories never die.  And suddenly, without rhyme or reason, during a screening at this very special festival, a sweet, buried memory is rejuvenated and the floodgates of nostalgia are opened.  Of the 44 films I saw, these are my favourites, in order of preference:

****

LIFE BEGINS TOMORROW​
35mm | 19​33 | Germany | 76 min | Werner Hochbaum | ​Programme: The Films of Werner Hochbaum

The obscure German director, Werner Hochbaum, has crafted an artistic tableau suffused in stylistic rigour.  A woman receives a note from her imprisoned husband indicating that he will be released the next day at 9 a.m.  He is expecting her to be there when he is released and they will begin a new life tomorrow.  What transpires in between the time the letter is received and the climax is an event of countless innovations.  Way ahead of its time, the editing technique, the continuous flow of the camera, the stunning dissolves - all brilliantly executed.  I don’t think I have ever seen a room filmed from the point of view of a violin before!  Time plays an integral part of the film’s motif and there are innumerable shots of clocks everywhere, including a most curious shot of a close-up of the back of an alarm clock focusing on the winding keys.  When he is released from prison, the man is recognized by neighbours and suddenly the soundtrack is filled with a cacophonic hiss of whispers coupled with shots of women opening and closing windows, their lips in close-up and tongues that wag.  One of the best sequences in the film is just after he is released, he comes across a merry-go-round.  He sees a young girl standing next to the ride.  He touches her hair.  Her older sister is on the merry-go-round and looks on suspiciously.  The camera is attached to the merry-go-round so it takes us on a 360 degree pan of the area and each time the camera approaches the man and child, we fear for the child’s safety although there is nothing to fear except the anticipation of a rotating camera.  Another special sequence:  A man rings a doorbell.  There is no answer and he rings it again.  A pet bird in a cage inside the house chirps back in response.  The man rings and the bird sings and before you know it, a most unusual musical dialogue is derived from this wordless scene.  Life Begins Tomorrow is a tour-de-force of rhythmic photoplay.  With very few lines of dialogue, it sets the heart soaring when one discovers a director of such talent who is practically unknown.

IT HAPPENED HERE

35mm | 1965 | Britain | 100 min | Kevin Brownlow, Andrew Mollo | Programme: Rediscovered & Restored

Reviled by most and sundry upon its release, this film poses the question, what would have happened had the Nazis invaded England during the war and took control of every establishment?  How this film was made in England just 20 years after the end of WWII, shot in the streets without significant funding is a feat in itself.  Made for just a few thousand pounds with countless volunteers over a period of seven years, It Happened Here is a chilling and frightening account of the what-if scenario.  Accused of both fascism and pacifism, the film is a curious blend of fiction and cinema verité.  A nurse finds herself seeking employment with the Nazis.  She is seen as a traitor to the British, but her intention is to make Britain new and improved.  A non-political person, she focuses only on her work which compels her to nurse the sick, regardless of who is in charge.  She is not ashamed of working alongside the Nazis.  However, when her loyalty to the Nazis is questioned, she is demoted and sent to a hospice for the sick deep in the English countryside.  Her first task is to tend to newly-arrived tubercular Polish migrant workers, all dressed in striped pyjamas, which happens to be what patients wear at this “hospice” run by British doctors and nurses.  After giving them injections the first night of their arrival, she is surprised to find their beds all empty the next morning.  When she questions this further, things get worse.  The juxtaposition of these images to actual events in concentration camps just 20 years earlier is inescapable.   Commanding the screen is Pauline Murray, in one of her two roles ever.  She never acted again after this film.  The directors employed real neo-Nazis to play themselves in key roles as leaders of the invading German army.  Their anti-Semitic diatribe was all theirs and not scripted.  The film was only able to be completed, thanks to the generosity of Stanley Kubrick, who heard of this independent project and wanting to help, offered the filmmakers film stock that was left over from Dr. Strangelove.  Thank you, Mr. Kubrick.

WOODEN CROSSES (LES CROIX DE BOIS)​
DCP | 1932 | France | 115​ min | Raymond Bernard | ​Programme: Rediscovered & Restored

​One of the most underrated French films ever, Wooden Crosses chronicles war as the most desolate and terrifying event man has ever encountered.  With rigorous direction and authentic to a fault, Raymond Bernard captures the disintegration and annihilation of a squadron of French soldiers in WWI with the precision of a surgeon and the soul of a humanist.  Simple in structure, it avoids melodrama and story development to make us sympathize with the soldiers.  In fact, it makes us feel for them just as they are - men going to their doom.  From the opening shot of rows and rows of soldiers that dissolve and morph into rows and rows of white wooden crosses in a cemetery, I felt a tingle up my spine. One of the most famous endings of war films is the butterfly scene in All Quiet on the Western Front (1930) which is also about WWI.  But I argue that the final agonizing moments of Wooden Crosses are the most powerful final scenes of any war film.  Never has death been more terrifying in the eyes of a soldier left alone to die.  The utter feeling of abandonment.  The inevitability of death.  The mouth agape.  The eyes bulging.  The cries weakening.  And then, all is silent and a wooden cross stands where you once stood.  I felt I was there, on that field, watching someone dying in real time.  A poetic ​gem​ of a film, urgently in need of being rediscovered.

TWO ACRES OF LAND (DO BIGHA ZAMEEN)​

DCP | 1953 | India | 132 min | Bimal Roy | Programme: 1950s Indian Cinema​

For a long time, I have been waiting patiently for an opportunity to see Bimal Roy’s acclaimed film on the big screen.  After years of anticipation, Bologna has made that wish come true.  Needless to say, my expectations were high, but I had no need to be anxious because from the very first few minutes, I knew I was watching something special.  A destitute farmer stands to forfeit the only thing he possesses – the two acres of land upon which stands his small house and farm land.  If he does not gather 235 rupees within three months, the landlord will auction the land, upon which he plans to build a mill.  Leaving his pregnant wife and elderly father, the farmer sets out to the city to earn some money only to find the harsh realities of trying to find work and earn money in the big city.  He is willing to do anything to make money so that he can ease his burden.  But he ends up physically carrying human burden as he is transformed into a human carriage, a rickshaw puller.  The irony is obvious.  Bimal Roy does not milk the unhappy turn of events for sympathy.  In fact, the script does not allow for scenes of sentimentality.  There are moments of desperation that unfold melodramatically, but they are directed with skill and acted with genuine emotion.  Through a relentless performance by the great character actor, Balraj Sahni, the farmer firmly keeps his mind focused on one thing only – saving his two acres of land.  The songs are kept to a minimum and are featured as background accompaniment to the plot.  I am afraid that the more cynical audiences of today may be tempted to call this film ‘miserable’.  The sad reality is that this 60-year old film is more relevant in India today than ever before.  The en masse suicide of rural farmers in the past few years as India continues its modernization process makes this film more topical than ever.  In Competition at Cannes 1954, where it won a Special Prix International, Do Bigha Zameen is one of the most moving films I have ever experienced.

SAMSON

35mm | 1961 | Poland | 118 min | Andrzej Wajda | Programme: Polish New Wave

A terse and sobering experience of WWII through the eyes of a Polish Jew.  Before you can say, I have seen this many times already and although this is a subject oft-revisited in Polish cinema, Wajda has a different angle - he focuses completely on Polish behaviour and actions.  The Germans are almost never seen.  There are no German characters, except a few soldiers in the streets.  Wajda explores the ugliness, hypocrisy and prejudice that war brings out in people.  Anti-Semitism and its alleged moral justification are at the heart of this complex and intelligent film.  A young Jewish man is set free from prison during riots and chaos when Germany invades Poland.  Later, as all the Jews are put in the ghetto, he becomes a corpse-collector of the ghetto streets.  His escape from the ghetto and attempts at survival among Poles is chronicled and the experience is harrowing.  There are no villains or clichéd characterizations.  These are just people and can only be judged by themselves.  The hate he experiences among the Poles produces a unique twist, for his life outside the ghetto becomes so unbearable that for the rest of the film, all his efforts are not to escape the war or the country, but simply to return to the ghetto, to die with his own people.  One of the key points Wajda makes in the film is that anti-Semitism was not exported to Poland by the Germans.  It was already there, thriving as part of Polish pre-war society.  Hence, the film, dismissed upon release, is Wajda's unknown great film.  Along with The Ashes (1965), Landscape After Battle (1970), Innocent Sorcerers (1960) and Sweet Rush (2009), Samson (1961) is one of Wajda's best films.

A GIRL GOES ASHORE​
35mm | 1938 | ​Germany | 91 min | Werner Hochbaum | Programme: The Films of Werner Hochbaum​

A tough, realistic, no-nonsense woman, Erna Quandt loses her man at sea, where she spent most of her time accompanying him for his work.  After his demise, she goes ashore.  She has learnt one thing being on the seas:  the team must band together for the captain to ensure the voyage is successful.  She soon finds employment as a housekeeper to a wealthy couple under marital strain.  What an absolutely original and memorable character is Miss Quandt!  She takes her courteous but firm attitude to her new job and tells her mistress that it is not proper to entertain other men when her husband is not at home.  She also refuses to lie to callers saying that the mistress is not at home, when she is.  She  declares to her mistress, “A lie is a lie!  You are at home!”  But it is her efficiency and hard work that keep her in their employ.  A strange occurrence makes her question her steadfastness and naturally it concerns the affairs of the heart.  Miss Quandt meets a man of shady character.  We (and she) know that he uses women for money.  She is aware that she will eventually be asked to give him money but she does not repel his sweet-talk.  Her willingness to tolerate him makes him question his actions in the most unexpected of ways.  Once again, as in his earlier films, Werner Hochbaum uses his unique style of continuous flow of scene to great effect.  Beautifully shot and heart-rending, A Girl Goes Ashore is one of Hochbaum’s best from his small but unique filmography.

KAAGAZ KE PHOOL (PAPER FLOWERS)

35mm | 1959 | India | 146 min | Guru Dutt | Programme: 1950s Indian Cinema

A film deemed as an essential in the canon of Indian classics.  I waited patiently for many years to see this film on the big screen and thanks to Bologna, this has come to pass, and in 35mm and all!  A successful film director finds a young woman to play the lead in his next film.  He takes a chance against protests from the studio and the woman herself who has no interest in acting.  It pays off as not only is she a natural, but audiences identify with her simplicity.  As their relationship develops, even though he is married with child, the unspoken love between the two is observed and by all especially the director's pre-teen daughter.  His marriage is already under considerable strain as his in-laws and wife are strongly against the vulgarity of the cinema and its people.  His wife abandons him and takes custody of his daughter and he abandons himself in his work.  His work suffers and his latest film fails and loses millions.  Finished, he falls into despair, depression and alcoholism.  Years later, he revisits the studio as an old man and is mistaken for an extra and cast as a beggar.  Guru Dutt made only a handful of films but they were unlike anything the Indian film industry had ever seen. His early Bollywood commercial films Baazi (1951), Jaal (1952), Baaz (1953) and Aar-Paar (1954) are some of the most memorable and exciting films of that era.  With Pyaasa (1957) he carved a new name and niche for himself and what a legacy he has left!  Kaagaz Ke Phool foretold his downfall as the film was extremely expensive and was a massive failure. The studio and Dutt were in financial ruin.  Disgraced, he never directed another film.  His marriage fell apart.  He was having an affair with Waheeda Rehman, the star of his films Pyaasa and Kaagaz Ke Phool.  He started drinking heavily and very soon the affair ended.  In 1964, just 5 years after Kaagaz Ke Phool, he took an overdose of sleeping pills and died at the young age of 39.  It's as if he made a film about his life and how it would end, and then he proceeded to do exactly that.  What other gems may have been in store for us if only this, his most ambitious film, was successful?  Guru Dutt has left us with a brooding gem of loneliness and the fear of being forgotten.  Precisely 50 years after his death, he is acclaimed and remembered more than he or his contemporaries could ever imagine.

PATHETIC FALLACY (AJANTRIK)​
DCP | 1958 | India | 102 min | Ritwik Ghatak​ | ​Programme: 1950s Indian Cinema​

A surreptitiously sly tale that begins as an apparent comedy, ends up being one of the smartest films of the festival.  We follow two silly characters, an uncle and nephew, as the latter is on his way to his own wedding.  They contort their faces, giggle, and repeat idiotic observations.  They take a dilapidated taxi that looks like it’s about 30 years old.  Once they arrive at their destination, suddenly we continue on in the taxi and the story follows the driver.  We find out that the only important thing in the taxi driver’s life is his broken, asthmatically wheezing, rattling contraption of a car.  Ridiculed and laughed at by all in his village, not to mention the local garage, the man is actually in love with his car, his only means of sustenance.  Deeply humanist, Pathetic Fallacy is reminiscent of Dariush Mehrjui’s classic Iranian masterpiece, The Cow (1969).  This film surprises on every level as it explores the strange bond between man and machine.  The original title means a mechanical man, but the English title works just as well.  It would be remiss of me to credit the greatness of this film only to Ritwik Ghatak and not mention the brilliant lead performance by Kali Bannerjee.  It is through him we relate to his strange kinship with the machine.  It is a staggering performance of pathos and determination.  If we do not believe him, there is no film.  It builds to an unforgettable moment that includes a look of angst, a crying sound, dust in the wind, a little boy playing with a particular object, and then a smile and a teardrop.

 

THE FIELD POPPY​

35mm | 1935 | Japan | 73​ min | Kenji Mizoguchi | ​​Programme: 1930s Japanese Cinema​

This 35mm restoration of one of the great Mizoguchi’s rare films will remain with me for a long time.  An understated drama, it is heartbreaking and stifling but always subtle, elegant and sophisticated.  A boy is raised by a kind stranger and develops a bond between the man and his daughter.  Now a young man, he leaves the countryside for Tokyo to study and have a career.  He promises to return to marry the man’s daughter.  Caught up in the new and fast world, he does not return.  The old man and daughter travel to Tokyo to find out about his intentions.  It is in the city the drama unfolds ever so quietly without even a harsh word spoken.  There is no confrontation, only painful realizations and the agony of waiting and waiting and waiting.  The old man and daughter are given hints of the young man’s drastic change of heart via a messenger, but never from his own mouth.  Shame, ingratitude, pride and defeat play out in the confines of their rented room.  This is an elegant and underappreciated film from one of the world’s most gifted filmmakers.

THE GROOM TALKS IN HIS SLEEP​

35mm | 1935 | Japan | 74​ min | Heinosuke Gosho | ​​Programme: 1930s Japanese Cinema​

What a wonderful surprise this film is!  It is of sorts, a sister film to The Bride Talks in Her Sleep (1933), both directed by the under-appreciated Japanese master, Heinosuke Gosho.  Very well-written with sharp characterizations, the film opens with a newly-married couple preparing for the day.  I don’t believe I have ever seen such physical display of affection ever in any Japanese film.  Both kiss and cling to each other as if their lives depended on it, but their sincerity cannot be questioned.  As soon as he is off to work, she goes to sleep.  Rumours are started by prying neighbours and the young husband finds out and is outraged.  Sleeping this early in the day signifies a wanton lifestyle and laziness that bring dishonour to him and his family.  He comes home stealthily one day and confronts her.  When she refuses to give him the reason she sleeps, he threatens divorce.  She then confesses that she cannot sleep at night as he talks non-stop in his sleep.  On top of that, seeing that he is so good-looking, she is worried that one day he will mention other women’s names in his sleep, so she stays up all night to make sure that he doesn’t say another woman’s name.  The in-laws arrive as the news of the sleeping bride reached them and they demand the divorce be carried out.  It is now up to the young couple to save their marriage.  Then the doctor of mesmerism arrives on the scene.  Hilarity ensues.

THE BRIDE TALKS IN HER SLEEP​

35mm | 1933 | Japan | 57​ min | Heinosuke Gosho | ​​Programme: 1930s Japanese Cinema​

A group of friends show up at their newly-married friend's home one night under the pretence of a cordial visit.  However, they have heard rumours that the new bride talks in her sleep.  They are adamant to stay (even if they are not welcome) until she falls asleep so they can eavesdrop on the contents of her nocturnal monologue.  How times have changed!  Back then, and I am sure not just in Japanese culture, a woman talking in her sleep was considered something sexually scandalous.  What would she say?  Would she reveal anything titillating?  Would she disclose any intimate secrets in her sleep?  The men are so intrigued by the fact that a passive woman mumbling fragmented sentences in her sleep could possibly be an exciting event for them.  Their reasons for the stay-over are not apparent, nor are they mentioned by any of the men.  It is with excellent acting and witty writing we get the gist of their minds.  It is a fascinating comedy of manners and gender politics. Gosho's deft touch and skilful direction make this film an undisputed pleasure of the festival.

THE MAN I KILLED​

35mm | 1932​ | USA | 75​ min | Ernst Lubitsch | ​Programme: World War I​

It is not the usual case to discover a film by a famous director that no one seems to talk about, but this is precisely what happened during the screening of Lubitsch's remarkable film.  Alone in the trenches during WWI, a young French soldier bayonets an equally young German soldier.  He looks at the dying boy's perplexed face that has a mixture of sadness, surprise, fear and expectancy.  He dies with his hands still on the letter he was writing.  The French soldier finds out from the letter and other letters in his coat that the young German hated war.  He had no quarrel with the French as he lived in Paris for 2 years prior to the war.  Stricken with guilt and grief, the French soldier falls into depression and turns to the church for answers and guidance.  He is told by the priest: "Forget it, you were only doing your duty."  Disillusioned, he goes to Germany to meet the parents of the man he killed.  A technically astute and remarkably authentic film, I could have sworn it was made in Germany with German extras if I didn't know better.  Tender, political, poignant, it is one of the most precious finds of the festival.  One of the most moving scenes features two German mothers at the graves of their sons.  This is their exchange: 

"Your boy loved my cinnamon cakes."

"Did he?  How do you know this?"

"He used to visit me on Saturdays when I did my baking."

"Oh, I see.  How do you make your cinnamon cakes?"

"Well, I use flour, eggs, shortening, two cups of sugar..."

"Two cups of sugar!?!  Oh, I would only use one cup.  Now I know for next time..."

And her voice trails off as they both realise there will never ever be a next time for either of their sons.

​ LA CHIENNE

DCP | 1931 | France | 96 min | Jean Renoir | Programme: Rediscovered & Restored​

Renoir’s unsentimental, harsh yet sensitive examination of human behaviour and class structure is about the downfall of a quiet, soft-spoken middle-aged man and his relationship with his wife and mistress.  It is a relatively unknown film compared to Renoir’s more popular works.  This may be his most brutal film and it passes no judgment in its moralistic ambiguity.  The man has a chance encounter with a younger woman who is under the influence of her pimp.  The girl believes in her heart that the pimp is the love of her life.  Upon the knowledge that the older man has money and is also a part-time painter, her pimp thrusts her into his arms.  Not before long, deceit, abuse and murder ensue and this culminates in the most unpredictable chain of events.  Michel Simon soars as Legrand in perhaps his most complex role.  The use of fade to black is especially effective in the last 20 minutes of the film.  This is a toxic concoction of a film.  An unforgettable scene focuses on a fleeting painting, two pan-handlers and the name Clara Wood.  But my favourite sequence involves a group of musicians, a busy street, a gathered crowd, a room, a woman on a bed, a man in the room and the camera that travels up from the street to the room, then down from the room to the street.

RAID IN ST. PAULI

35mm | 1932 | Germany | 63 min | Werner Hochbaum | Programme: The Films of Werner Hochbaum

Hochbaum's camera slips through the narrow streets of Hamburg to explore its slinky and surreptitious Red Light district.  Once again, the story he weaves is simple but the poetry of his images is inspiring.  A criminal is on the run.  He breaks into a young woman's room.  They look at each other and without uttering a word, much is said.  There is an instant connection.  She hides him.  Thus begins their 24-hour tryst while the police are still on the hunt for him.  From the opening moments, a plethora of activity is captured via stylistic touches:  legs walking, dancing, climbing, fingers at work, waves at the Hamburg port crashing, tired faces, weary eyes, nightlife and frivolity.  A panning shot of flagstones morph into piano keys.  To depict the criminal and woman have had intimate relations, there is a peculiar and rather naughty shot of a teddy bear lying atop a doll.  Hochbaum holds that shot for a good 5 seconds or so and its meaning is conveyed in more ways than one.  In one amazing sequence, women are in a bar, they are talking, smiling and the piano is being played.  Then all of a sudden, the women stop talking, there is absolutely no sound, the music has stopped, everyone is immobile.  The eyes have stopped blinking.  The life has been drained from the party.  Perhaps it is a statement being made by Hochbaum about the monotony of their lives.  But, after a minute or so, a customer enters the bar and then everything bursts into life again.  The inhabitants of the bar resume talking, laughing, dancing.  And the music plays on in this stunning sequence of movement, vitality and life. 

THE CABINET OF DR. CALIGARI​

​DCP​ | 1920 | Germany | 75​ min | Robert Wiene | Programme: Rediscovered & Restored​

It is inexplicable how this very famous film eluded me for so many years.  Featuring a pristine restoration, this unforgettably haunting film is the epitome of Expressionism.  A kaleidoscope of contorted streets, crumbling houses, triangular doors, shadows on the walls, fill the screen to the brim and then some.  These eccentric images seem to want to spill over the sides of the frame.  All of this is perfectly designed in the setting of a fair of oddities and sensational exhibitionism.  It is not wonder the zigzag roads eventually lead to an insane asylum.  A strange creature in the form of Dr. Caligari comes to town bringing with him a somnambulist as a sideshow.  Who better than Conrad Veidt to play the weird somnambulist?  Not before long, both Dr. Caligari and his somnambulist are under suspicion of malfeasance.  This film is so brilliantly constructed and directed that I felt hypnotized throughout.  The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari may be the most exemplary of the films of German Expressionism.

WANDA’s TRICK​

35mm | 1918 | Germany | 45 min | Rosa Porten, Franz Eckstein | ​Programme: The Films of Dr. R. Portegg​

A delightful comedy that highlights the talents of Wanda Treumann and the co-directors, Rosa Porten and Franz Eckstein. Love and money intertwined in a maze of marketing, business, trickery and eventually marriage.  A worker in a cigarette factory falls for the president of the company but he wants to be amused only and has no care for a commitment.  She then wins the grand lottery.  The factory is in financial difficulties and the president rethinks his refusal and asks her to marry him. She wastes no time is showing him the door!  But wanting to prove herself as his equal in business, she comes up with a brilliant marketing strategy to boost cigarette sales.  Since she is now in demand after winning the lottery, they will do a campaign where her photo will be inserted in one packet of cigarette.  Whosoever buys that packet, will be the lucky man.  In exchange for her golden advertising idea, she asks to become an associate.  Of course, nothing turns out as planned.  How fun are these two directors - they used the first syllable of both their last names to come up with their pseudonym, Portegg.

FANTOMAS

DCP | 1913-1914 | France | 352 min | Louis Feuillade | Programme: Rediscovered & Restored​

This 100-year old, 6-hour film is quite excellent in how it entertains, intrigues and excites.  Feuillade is a master controller of the camera and the action that resides within.  A beautiful and extremely clean restoration, with the right amount of grain, this massive episodic film contains many labyrnthian plots of twists and turns at ever corner.  A diabolical, murderous and sociopathic villain, a determined police inspector, his eager assistant, zealous villains disguised as bankers, businessmen, priests, judges and one of the funniest of all – an American detective sent to help with the investigation, his name:  Tom Bob.  Logic should not be applied to the various plots as one could easily find many holes in them.  But the mise-en-scene, structure, flow and design of the film are splendid.  The film bristles with energy and good performances especially René Navarre as the titular Fantômas, and Reneé Carl who plays his mistress.

 LA CIGARETTE​

35mm | 1919 | France | 51​ min | Germaine Dulac | Programme: The Films of Germaine Dulac

A young, bored wife to an archaeologist/museum curator takes to entertaining a younger man, much to her older husband's chagrin.  He tries to be understanding and fights his jealousy, but alas, the monster overpowers him.  What is unusual is that he doesn't vent his anger on his young wife, but decides to play a game of chance on himself.  He poisons one cigarette and places it among many others in his cigarette box.  Eventually, he will smoke that cigarette, but when that will be, he doesn't know.  When it happens, it happens.  His wife is completely oblivious of her husband's emotional distress but senses all may not be well.  This 95-year old film is the earliest surviving film of Germaine Dulac.  It features a young liberated woman, location shooting, realistic performances and an advanced montage style.  

Farewell and see to your journey, but return soon…

To bid me arrivederci from this wonderful festival, I couldn’t ask for a more poignant farewell.  As I was waiting for my train to Roma Termini station, the previous train was departing Bologna for Naples on the same platform.  A few feet from me, a father was saying goodbye to his wife and young children through the soundproof glass window.  As the train started to move, he began to walk alongside the train, waving and blowing kisses to his family.  His wife appeared to be tearful and so were the children.  He then stopped and mouthed the words repeatedly, “Ti amo, ti amo”.  The train disappeared and he stood there for a moment with a sad look on his face.  Then he looked at me, smiled, shrugged in the most recognizable Italian manner and walked away.  And like that, until we meet again, la vita continua…