Merrie melodies and looney tunes

A male Kuhankeittäjä / Golden Oriole (Oriolus oriolus). These fabulous, elusive birds thrive on the highest branches of the highest trees and can mostly be detected by their signature call "onko piialla vilu" and a flash of their golden plumage. There was a lively flock still in 2011. Since then, the oriole has mostly disappeared in all Finland. Photo © Imran Shah – Creative Commons. From: Tiedon portailla / kuhankeittäjä.

Il Cinema Ritrovato (25 June – 2 July 2011) ended last weekend in Bologna. I'm about to enter remarks about the magnificent festival in this blog retroactively. So far I have only managed to copy the festival's programme notes of the 49 films or short film programmes that I saw.

After a day of taking care of urgent business at the office it's time for holiday. In the morning we have a coffee break at Hamina market square where early potatoes, strawberries and other products of the season are at their best, having grown in the 24-hour sunlight. By lunchtime we reach Imatra. The delicious local fish muikku (vendace) is excellent at the best restaurant in town, Buttenhoff. Downstairs at Café Julia the "damn good coffee" and the apple pie would please Dale Cooper.

The devastating traces of last summer's enormous thunderstorm are still evident by Road Six. Kilometer after kilometer vast areas of forest are destroyed.

The farmers are working hard from morning till night. Luckily for our neighbour farmer there is a hawk patrolling in the sky and scaring off fieldfare (räkättirastas) from his strawberry fields. Also a family of long-eared owls (sarvipöllö) has settled down in the next forest as this is a good mole year. The owls also keep the fieldfare away. A signature bird here (even the "official bird" of the province of Southern Savo)  is the golden oriole, kuhankeittäjä, a bright yellow bird with a somewhat tropical look. Often almost impossible to see as it lives in the highest tree tops and flies very fast. But an avid singer with a variety of jovial tunes.

As always, it's an amusing contrast that we city-dwellers start vacationing when country folks work hardest. And we do our holiday fishing in July when the catch is at its worst. Be that as it may, a swim in the clear water of the Puruvesi works miracles.

P.S. 6 July 2011: Next morning in birdland the first sight is a Whooper Swan, in Finnish laulujoutsen, our national bird, honoured even on the Finnish Euro coin. In the 1950s the Whooper Swan was on the verge of extinction in our land because of hunting, but the population has grown after it was declared endangered in the 1930s. For the first time we observe this species of swan having breakfast just a few meters from us. It used to be a very shy bird. The more common species Mute Swan (kyhmyjoutsen) is a "city swan", blasé in the presence of crowds.

Our little bay is both a swan lake and a loon lake. A loon (kuikka) is also having breakfast, keeping a marked distance both from us and the swan. It is considered the oldest bird species in the Northern hemisphere. Both the loon and the swan have something primordial and atavistic in them in appearance and in song.

P.S. 8 July 2011: Caught a pike, felled a pine.

Too much of the good thing in Bologna (2011)

Albert Capellani: Quatre-vingt-treize (FR 1914/1921). "The early films of Albert Capellani are probably the most significant of all the discoveries of the Hundred Years Ago series." (Mariann Lewinsky). This quote by the curator of the epochal Albert Capellani retrospective was selected by Kristin Thompson as the motto of her remarkable blog entry "Capellani trionfante".

It's getting more and more impossible to pay justice to the bulging programme of Il Cinema Ritrovato which expanded now into a fourth parallel venue. There was literally an embarrassment of riches as unique introductions and showcases of labours of love kept overlapping.

Howard Hawks was this year's top-billed American director whose early work was screened in its entirety followed by examples of new restorations and rarities from his later career. I got to see at last the risqué puma comedy The Cradle Snatchers (1927) and the spoof detective story Trent's Last Case (1929). Brilliant Sony Columbia prints were screened of films such as Twentieth Century (1934) and Only Angels Have Wings (1939). The banner movie of the year was Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953) whose punchlines worked like a dream for the jam-packed audience at the Piazza Maggiore which felt hot even at midnight.

The "A Hundred Years Ago" project curated by Mariann Lewinsky, one of the most impressive film retrospectives ever, had to be restricted last year to Europe only, and now for practical reasons even famous European subjects (Asta Nielsen, Léonce Perret... ) had to be omitted as in 1911 films were getting longer. Among the semi-feature films the electrifying Calvario starring Lydia De Roberti was suggested by Lewinsky to be the precursor of the whole Italian diva school. The most impressive show was the one dedicated to the thrillers with showcases of great pantomime and striking imagery. The "A Hundred Years Ago" project has been an unprecedented opportunity to follow the growth of the art of the cinema. It has also presented a rewarding challenge to our brotherhood of film archives to take stock of our early cinema holdings.

Last year the "A Hundred Years Ago" project spawned the first part of a first ever extensive retrospective of Albert Capellani, the great French film pioneer. Among the seven shows this year were some of his greatest films such as Germinal (1913) in a marvellous new colour restoration by La Cinémathèque française. For me the big discovery was the Victor Hugo adaptation Quatre-vingt-treize (1914), which I had never seen before, now also in a brilliant new restored colour version from La Cinémathèque française. One could feel the wind of history blowing in this inspired, tragic epic about the French Revolution.

In her remarkable blog entry "Capellani trionfante" Kristin Thompson commented: "Those festival guests who missed the Capellani films missed, in my opinion, the rewriting of early film history. He is not simply another important silent filmmaker to be placed in the pantheon. Film by film, this year and last, I kept comparing what I was watching with what D. W. Griffith had made that same year. In each case, Capellani’s film seemed more sophisticated, more engaging, and more polished." (Observations on Film Art, 14 July 2011).

Another inspired retrospective, curated by Kim Tomadjoglou, was dedicated to Alice Guy, the film pioneer, in six shows. Alice Guy was among other things the first (and still only?) woman to own a film studio: Solax in the U.S.A. Alice Guy's status as an early film director has sometimes been contested, and in one sense understandably because she started so early that the job description did not yet exist. From that standpoint the most remarkable film in the tribute was Alice Guy tourne une phono-scène (1905). It leaves no doubt about who's calling the shots, and it is also invaluable as an early record about production in a professional film studio.

There was a consistent touch of grandeur in the Piazza Maggiore open air night screenings. The Orchestra del Teatro Comunale played in two live cinema events. In the first of them Timothy Brock was the conductor with inspired arrangements for two well-known films. The music for the Lobster colour restoration of Le Voyage dans la Lune (1902) was from Jacques Offenbach's homonymous operetta. For Nosferatu (1921) the music was based on Heinrich Marschner's boldly romantic opera Der Vampyr. Both music decisions were for me the best ever for these movies.

With the Orchestra del Teatro Comunale Gabriel Thibaudeau conducted his beloved score for The Phantom of the Opera (1925) with the coloratura soprano Gerda Findeisen performing the jewel aria from Charles Gounod's Faust which provides the metatext for the score. Another definitive performance of a famous movie.

On the piazza a restored America, America (1963) concluded a tribute to Elia Kazan. The 4K restoration of Les Enfants du paradis (1945) worked like magic. Besides Gentlemen Prefer Blondes the most electrifying piazza experience was another 4K restoration, that of Taxi Driver (1976); the projection for all DCP's being still in 2K. As always, it was impossible to assess restorations in the piazza circumstances. I was previously familiar with the new Taxi Driver restoration, but on the piazza it was unrecognizable.

There were many remarkable restorations to admire in cinema circumstances, however, such as Shoes (1916) directed by Lois Weber and restored by EYE Film Institute Netherlands. I could not believe my eyes when Le Quai des brumes (1938), a film with extremely demanding lighting effects, was screened in a brilliant new La Cinémathèque française 2K restoration.

America America (2011 Warner Bros. restoration) in person: Stathis Giallelis

On set: Elia Kazan: America America (US 1963). Elia Kazan directs Stathis Giallelis (Stavros Topouzoglou).

US © 1963 Athena Enterprises Corporation. D: Elia Kazan . T. it.: America America – Il ribelle dell’Anatolia; Based on the novel by Elia Kazan and on a story by Hamal; SC: Elia Kazan; DP: Haskell Wexler; Op.: Harlowe Stengel; ED: Dede Allen; PD: Vassilis Photopoulos; Co.: Anna Hill Johnstone; M: Manos Hatzidakis; S: Edward Beyer, Jack Fitzstephens, Richard Vorisek; Cast: Stathis Giallelis (Stavros Topouzoglou), Frank Wolff (Vartan Damadian), Harry Davis (Isaac Topouzoglou), Elena Karam (Vasso Topouzoglou), Estelle Hemsley (nonna Topouzoglou), Gregory Rozakis (Hohanness Gardashian), Lou Antonio (Abdul), Salem Ludwig (Odysseus Topouzoglou), John Marley (Garabet), Joanna Frank (Vartuhi), Linda Marsh (Thomna Sinnikoglou); P: Elia Kazan per Warner Bros; Pri. pro.: dicembre 1963. 35 mm. 174’. B&w. English version. From: Warner Bros. Preserved by Warner Bros with funding provided by The Film Foundation and the Hollywood Foreign Press Association. Saturday 2 July 2011 at 22.00, Piazza Maggiore (Bologna, Il Cinema Ritrovato). Presented by Fatih Akin, Margaret Bodde and Stathis Giallelis introduced by Gian Luca Farinelli and Peter von Bagh.

Catalogue: "Neither my father nor my mother liked the idea of this picture. Unvoiced, uneasy recollections of the Turks, I suspect, made them feel the whole subject was better left alone. When I planned my first trip to do research, they were apprehensive. Greece? All right, but why Turkey? I offered to take my parents with me for a visit. I had the feeling that my father should be spending his last years back there, under an olive tree, watching the harbors, drinking raki. He had no such notion. “What’s the matter with New Rochelle?” he demanded. “We stay here”, said my mother.""

"I visited the massive, terrible – and beautiful – city of Istanbul, where porters, called hamals, still work as beasts of burden. I went to where my father was born, in the shadow of the snowcapped Mount Aergius. Smells, sounds, a way of life half-remembered from my infancy, seemed to me idyllic. (…) I tried to make the film like a legend. That’s why Stavros and Vartan are on a mountain cutting ice. The ‘clean’ mountain was a symbol of their aspirations. Ice is a clean thing; snowfall is a clean thing. All of this contrasts with the hot, dirty, fifteenth – or sixteenth-century town below where the Turks not only oppressing the Armenians and Greeks, they were oppressing their fellow countrymen. (…) I used to say to myself when I was making the film that America was a dream of total freedom in all areas. I made two points about that. One was that America had a responsibility to the dream: the dream has a responsibility to the dreamer. And furthermore, what these people availed themselves of when they got here, what they turned the dream into, was the freedon to make money. Money became their weapon; it was the symbol of strenght. (Elia Kazan: Kazan on Directing, Alfred A. Knopf, New York 2009).""

I watched just the introductions and the first half an hour about the persecution of the Armenians from this magnificent film (see my America America entry of 1998). The Finnish print I know does justice to Haskell Wexler's brilliant cinematography. The new 2011 Warner Bros. restoration looks fine on the piazza, but it is impossible to give a fair evaluation of it in the piazza circumstances.

A powerful ending to yet another great edition of Il Cinema Ritrovato. There are a few hours to sleep and to pack, and then there's an early morning flight back home via Amsterdam.

Hudutların Kanunu / Law of the Border (2011 restoration by World Cinema Foundation) (in person: Fatih Akin)

Lütfi Ömer Akad: Hudutların Kanunu / Law of the Border (TR 1966). Yilmaz Güney (Hıdır).

TR 1966. D: Lütfi Ömer Akad. SC: Lütfi Ömer Akad, Yilmaz Güney; DP: Ali Uğur; ED: Ali Ün; M: Nida Tüfekçi; Cast: Yilmaz Güney (Hıdır), Pervin Par (Ayse, l’insegnante), Hikmet Olgun (Yusuf), Erol Tas¸ (Ali Cello), Tuncel Kurtiz (Bekir), Osman Alyanak (Dervis Aga), Aydemir Akbas (Abuzer), Atilla Ergün (Zeki, primo luogotenente); P: Dadaş. 35 mm. 74’. B&w. Turkish version with English [not as according to the catalogue, French] subtitles. [Electronic subtitles in Italian.] From: Dadas¸ Film. Restored [in 2011] by World Cinema Foundation at L’Immagine Ritrovata laboratory. Saturday 2 July 2011 at 17.00, Cinema Jolly (Bologna, Il Cinema Ritrovato). Presentano Fatih Akin, and an old Turkish actor who had worked with Yilmaz Güney, introduced by Gian Luca Farinelli.

Catalogue: "The restoration was made possible through the use a positive print provided by Nil Gurpinar, daughter of the film’s producer, and held by the Turkish Ministry of Culture. As this print is the only known copy to survive the Turkish Coup d’Etat in 1980 – all other film sources were seized and destroyed – the restoration required a considerable amount of both physical and digital repair. The surviving print was extremely dirty, scratched, filled with mid-frame splices and sadly missing several frames. Although the film was shot in black and white, it was also printed on color stock resulting in significant decay. Finally, the first reel was missing and a Betacam was used instead. The restoration work was carried out at L’Immagine Ritrovata laboratory and will produce a new 35 mm dupe negative. The World Cinema Foundation would like to specially thank Fatih Akin for recommending this title, and Ali Akdeniz and Nurhan Sekerci for facilitating the restoration process.""

"Turkish cinema in Sixties took place in a dream world. The movies of that era refused to look directly at Turkish society. Hudutlarin kanunu, on which Yilmaz Güney met director Lütfi Ömer Akad, is one of the movies that changed this state of affairs. Akad’s genuine creative vision influenced Güney’s style as an actor: one can easily see the difference in Güney’s acting before and after Hudutlarýn kanunu. Akad’s influence was a positive one...""

"Güney’s natural performance marked a change in Turkish Cinema. This was the beginning of what would later be called “New Cinema” in Turkey. With its powerful cinematography and its direct and realistic depiction of social problems, Hudutlarin kanunu is one of the early milestones of Turkish cinema. Given the manner of storytelling and the style of photography, one might almost say that Akad’s film is a Western.""

"Hudutlarin kanunu depicts vital problems in the society of South East Turkey. Lack of education, no agriculture, and unemployment compelled people to live by the “law of the border” (Hudutlarin kanunu) – in other words, smuggling. Hudutlarin kanunu underlines the importance of education, which is the crucial element of socio-economical progress in third world Countries. It also helps us to understand the reasons behind the ongoing, veiled war along Turkey’s South-East border. Forty five years ago, Lütfi Ömer Akad was alerting Turkish society of the likely consequences if preventive measures are not taken in time. He alerted us with a great and lasting film, Hudutlarin kanunu."" Fatih Akin

"Lütfi Ömer Akad's Hudutlarin kanunu comes as a revelation to first-time viewers – a work of great visual and dramatic force, of terrific purity and ferocity. It was made during the year that its star and coscreenwriter, Yilmaz Güney, made his own directing debut. And it’s not surprising for first time viewers to learn that this stunning collaboration marked a shift in Turkish cinema, and ushered in what became known as “the director generation.” Once again, the World Cinema Foundation’s advisory board member Fatih Akin has brought us a great and inspirational film." Kent Jones, WFC Executive Director

AA: In his introduction Fatih Akin told about his project on Yilmaz Güney, the most important figure in the Turkish cinema.

There is a genre film approach in this movie which has a lot of action, gunplay, and chases. The border milieu and "the last outlaw" theme invite comparisons with the Western. Yilmaz Güney's performance as the last outlaw Hidir is convincing, and Pervin Par is memorable as "the first teacher" Ayse in the wild borderland. The border sergeant and Hidir are childhood friends, now on opposite sides of the law. They are also rivals for Ayse's attentions. Hidir loves his son Yusuf, who will get a chance of education thanks to Ayse. There are remarkable instances of mise-en-scène, interplay of sound and image, use of Turkish music, editing, and rhythm. Among the memorable sequences is the one in which Ayse smokes a cigarette through a holder, and we see Hidir going to sleep at night, while a woman's song is heard in the background.

The restoration is based on difficult sources, and one can be grateful that it has been possible to produce a print like this that is probably as good as it can get of this film maudit.

Man on a Tightrope

Elia Kazan: Man on a Tightrope (1953). Cameron Mitchell, Terry Moore. Photo: IMDb.

Elia Kazan: Man on a Tightrope (1953). Gloria Grahame, Fredric March. Photo: IMDb.

Nuorallatanssija / Salto mortale.
    US © 1953 Twentieth Century Fox. P: Robert L. Jacks.
    D: Elia Kazan. Based on: International Incident di Neil Paterson; SC: Robert E. Sherwood; DP: Georg Krause; ED: Dorothy Spencer; PD: Hans Kuhnert, Theo Zwirsky; M: Franz Waxman; S: Carl Becker, Roger Heman Sr., Martin Müller, Karl Becker, Roger Heman;
    C: Fredric March (Karel Cernik), Terry Moore (Tereza Cernik), Gloria Grahame (Zama Cernik), Cameron Mitchell (Joe Vosdek), Adolphe Menjou (Fesker), Robert Beatty (Barovik), Alexander D’Arcy (Rudolph), Richard Boone (Krofta), Pat Henning (Konradin), Paul Hartman (Jaremir), John Dehner (il capo), Gert Fröbe;
    Pri. pro.: 29 giugno 1953. 35 mm. 105’.
    From: 20th Century Fox.
    Saturday, 2 July 2011 at 14.30, Cinema Arlecchino (Bologna, Il Cinema Ritrovato). Presenta lo storica Foster Hirsch.

Catalogue: "Man on a Tightrope recounts the story of a third-rate Czech circus and of the political interference that finally prompts its manager, Karel Cernik (Fredrich March), to take the company on a dash to cross into the American zone of Germany. The key relationships are those between Cernik and his second wife Zama (Gloria Grahame), and his daughter Teresa and a young man who also wants to reach West Germany to search for his father. These relationships are never very convincing, and were further weakened when Zanuck subsequently cut twenty minutes from the early part of the picture. Kazan does try to stress the individuality, eccentricity and cosmopolitanism of the itinerant performers while the use of a real circus – the circus Brumbach – contributes a reasonable sense of surface realism. (…) Zanuck’s fear of heaving the film branded by critics as political or historical, assumed to be box office poison in 1953, led to it lacking any significant context relating to the politics of Soviet-occupied Czechoslovakia. More than ever, Zanuck argued, people are “going to the theatre to escape lectures, propaganda, politics and the constant talk-talk-talk which they get on TV and the radio”. (…) A rare allusion to the political context comes with Cernik’s reference to both Nazi and Soviet occupations and to Jan Masaryk and Edvard Beneš, symbols of the lost tradition of Czech democracy." (Brian Neve: Elia Kazan. The Cinema of an American Outsider, I.B. Tauris, London 2009).

Foster Hirsch in his introduction told that the youthful Hollywood veteran Terry Moore now is the only survivor of the main cast and crew. The interrogation reminded Kazan of his own experiences in front of the HUAC. For Kazan, two performances were especially strong: Fredric March (whom he saved from the black list) and Adolphe Menjou (who Kazan stated was not a Fascist). Foster Hirsch emphasized that this is a rare chance to see an unknown and uncared for film.

There is an interesting affinity between the two circus films Man on a Tightrope and Ingmar Bergman's Gycklarnas afton ([The Night of the Clowns] / Sawdust and Tinsel, also 1953): the humiliating relationship between the ageing Fredric March / Åke Grönberg and his red-blooded young wife Gloria Grahame / mistress Harriet Andersson. À propos: both Kazan and Bergman made a Cold War film on Eastern Europe. Bergman's contribution, Sånt händer inte här [These Things Don't Happen Here, 1950], is even less seen.

Man on a Tightrope takes place in Czechoslovakia in 1952. The account of Stalinist oppression feels convincing. There is a realistic approach that borders on the documentary on the daily life of a travelling circus. The film was shot on location on the Bavarian side. There are moments on circus life that have a Fellinesque-Kusturican aspect. Thanks to a brilliant plan the circus manages to pass through the Iron Curtain. Another moment of liberation is Zama and Rudolph's clandestine swim in the river (Moldau?). This is not a piece of crude propaganda, and as Foster Hirsch states, there is a special personal charge in the scenes where the circus director is interrogated by the Stalinist security police. The movie is anti-glamorous, and the general feeling is  more of a profound disappointment and disgust than liberation.

The print was fine.

A Hundred Years Ago: Programme 9: Pantomime 2 – Punch, Pierrot, Pinocchio

Giulio Antamoro: Pinocchio (IT 1911). Ferdinand Guillaume (Pinocchio), Augusto Mastripietri (Geppetto).

Cento anni fa: Programma 9: Pantomima 2 – Pulcinella, Pierrot, Pinocchio. Programme by Mariann Lewinsky and notes by David Mayer, Giovanni Lasi. Saturday 2 July 2011 at 11.15, Cinema Lumière – Sala Officinema/Mastroianni (Bologna, Il Cinema Ritrovato). Grand piano: Antonio Coppola.

Catalogue: "Albert Capellani’s féerie Vie de Polichinelle (1907) begins as Polichinelle, an automaton in a toyshop, is separated from his partner, a female automaton, when she is boxed and shipped to a ducal palace to amuse the noble’s aristocratic guests. Despairing, Polichinelle is given a chance to recover this human-size doll when a fairy queen gives him life. Polichinelle or Punch, much like Pinocchio, is far more human than a toy, and the scenic obstacles that he encounters are fully realised renderings of the effects described and illustrated in Georges Moynet’s Trucs et Décors (1893). Theatre historians seeking to recover the narrative and technologies of late-Victorian pantomime in a accessible early twentieth century French film may find that wish satisfied by this Pathé film. (David Mayer).""

"One somersault and Tontolini turned into the most famous puppet in the world: with a flip Ferdinand Guillaume, the actor of Cines’s famous comic series, opened Pinocchio, the Roman studio’s kilometric feature length film. The French actor’s impressive athletic feat – he was the descendant of a famous circus family – is a minor performance in comparison to Cines’s extraordinary show of strength producing 1350 meters, a length that had never been reached before in the history of Italian film. The film, shot by Gant (the pseudonym of Count Giulio Antamoro), transferred to screen the parable of the wooden puppet by Carlo Collodi (alias Carlo Lorenzini), keeping intact the underlying educational values of the story, the spectacular qualities of the adventure genre, even including an improvised charge of Indians, which evidently was not contemplated by the original literary work. Despite the lively action of the film, Pinocchio by Cines stands out for its lyricism and the touching drama with which the most moving episodes of the story are resolved, admirably translated into “film” with the skills Antamoro and the acting abilities of Guillaume, who proves to be not only an acrobat but also a great actor. (Giovanni Lasi).""

LA LÉGENDE DE POLICHINELLE. FR 1907. D: Albert Capellani. Cast: Max Linder; P: Pathé Frères (No. 1783). 35 mm. L. or.: 410 m. 340 m. 16’30'' a 18 fps. B&w. Russkie intertitry. From: BFI National Archive. – AA: Une féerie. Title of the print (in Russian): Legenda o Polishinele. Earphone commentary in English and Italian. Resembles Méliès in many ways but with original accents. The hero Pulcinella rides a toy horse. There is a magic castle, and an enchanted forest with swamps. The castle perishes utterly and the lady partner breaks into pieces. Pulcinella collects them in his sack, and the lady is assembled again. A black and white print of a film obviously designed for colour effects.

FUMÉES D’IVRESSE. FR 1910. 35 mm. 50 m. 2‘ a 16 fps. B&w. Intertitres français. From: CNC-Archives Françaises du Film. – AA: The title on the print: Hallucination de Pierrot. A simple vignette: Pierrot wanders in the park, and the statue of a gorgeous woman comes into life in his hallucination.

PINOCCHIO. IT 1911. D: Giulio Antamoro. Based on the fairy tale novel (1883) by Carlo Collodi. Cast: Ferdinand Guillaume (Pinocchio), Augusto Mastripietri (Geppetto), Lea Giunchi (la fata), Natalino Guillaume (Lucignolo); P: Cines (No. 672). 35 mm. L. or.: 1350 m. 1086 m. 53’ a 18 fps. Col. Italian intertitles. From: CSC Cineteca Nazionale Restaurato dalla Cineteca Nazionale CSC in coll. con La Cineteca Italiana di Milano. – Mariann Lewinsky told us that this film was the longest Italian film so far. – AA: The restoration is from 1994. This film is episodic, and some episodes may be missing, but that does not harm. Polidor (Ferdinand Guillaume) has an inspired touch in his interpretation of Pinocchio. The colours of this restoration are strong. Episodes include: pandemonium in the market place, Pinocchio's feet burn in the fireplace, Pinocchio is made to serve as a watchdog, the burglars arrest Pinocchio and hang him, but the Blue Fairy rescues him, the Fox and the Cat (la Volpe e il Gatto) seduce Pinocchio to the Stupid Bastard City and steal his coins, Pinocchio escapes prison and swims 99 days until he lands into the whale's belly from where he rescues Geppetto. They are taken captive by Indians, and Pinocchio rescues Geppetto from the Indians' barbecue stake, Canadian soldiers kill the Indians and shoot Pinocchio with a cannon back home, Pinocchio comes to a puppet theatre (teatro dei burattini), tired of Pinocchio, Geppetto attacks him with an axe, Pinocchio comes to the land of eternal play and is transformed into a donkey, but the Blue Fairy rescues him a second time. When Pinocchio once more returns home the Blue Fairy works her magic to turn him into a real boy. – Still charming to watch.

Albert Capellani: Programme 7: Borders and Blind Dates (A Workshop)

Albert Capellani: Programma 7: Ai limiti e altri incontri imprevisti (un workshop). Saturday 2 July 2011 at 10.00 at Cinema Lumière - Sala Officinema / Mastroianni (Bologna, Il Cinema Ritrovato). Earphone commentary in Italian and English. Grand piano: Donald Sosin. Presenta Mariann Lewinsky.

Catalogue: "Several of Capellani’s films are in an advanced state of decomposition (La Belle et la Bête, 1908), or have survived only as an incomplete negative, so that the colours, intertitles and the end of the film are missing (Beatrix Cenci, 1909). After seeing so many Capellani films, perhaps we, the viewers, can decide whether La Loi du pardon (1906) is a Capellani film (or is it by Ferdinand Zecca or another unknown director such as, for instance, the one who made La Loi du coeur?), or whether or not to attribute Manon Lescaut, a 1914 S.C.A.G.L. production, to Capellani." (ML)

LA BELLE ET LA BÊTE. FR 1908. D: Albert Capellani. Based on the story by Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont; Cast: Julienne Mathieu; P: Pathé Frères No 2252; Pri. pro.: 9 novembre 1908. 35 mm. 60 m. 3’ a 16 fps. Pochoir. Intertitres français. From: Lobster Films. - AA: A fairy-tale. The beast is a funny creature in this adaptation. The print: the visual quality is occasionally ok but largely so ravaged it borders on Brakhage.

FOULARD MERVEILLEUX / [the title of the print:] The Wonderful Scarf. FR 1908. D: Albert Capellani. P: Pathé Frères No. 2204. 35 mm. 140 m. 8’ a 16 fps. B&w. From: BFI National Archive. - AA: A comedy, a magic trick film. There is a scarf which can render its owner invisible. A vicious guy retaliates by means of invisibility.

BÉATRIX CENCI. FR 1909. D: Albert Capellani. P: Pathé Frères No. 2224. 35 mm. L. or.: 225 m. 132 m. 8’ a 16 fps. B&w No intertitles. From: La Cinémathèque française. - AA: A historical story in the Film d'Art style. A Renaissance story, a court story. We see Beatrice Cenci murdering her father who has raped her. The print is a fragment struck from a negative element.

LA LOI DU PARDON. FR 1906. D: Ferdinand Zecca? Albert Capellani?. Law of Pardon; SC: André Heuzé. P: Pathé Frères (Scène dramatique No. 1381); Pri. pro.: 5 maggio 1906. 35 mm. 146 m. 7’ a 18 fps. B&w. Intertitres français. From: CNC-Archives Françaises du Film. - AA: Drama. The daughter brings her parents together. The visual quality of the print is uneven, with signs of water / nitrate damage in the source.

[added:] LE CORSO TRAGIQUE. FR 1908. - AA: Tragedy. There is a nice salesgirl of mother-of-pearl. The father foils the happiness of the young. En route pour le corso. There is a masked ball, the young man is murdered, and the victim is brought to his father still wearing his Pierrot mask. 2003-2008.

EYE FOR EYE (TRAILER). US 1918. 20 m. 3’ a 18 fps. B&w/col. From: Library of Congress. - AA: Shown was actually a Fox Film Corporation trailer show: Fox West Coast greater season previews. Eye for Eye: starring Alla Nazimova.

[added:] [DANZA APACHE]. [1911?]. Fondazione Cineteca Italiana. Pochoir. - An unidentified apache dance.

[added:] TONTOLINI IMPARA A BALLARE. IT 1911. Flash titles. - Comedy. Tontolini cannot dance. He visits a joint where he sees violent apache dance. Back at the high society ballroom he starts to lead the ladies to an apache dance of the rudest kind. +

Film concert The Phantom of the Opera (1925) with Gabriel Thibaudeau and the Orchestra del Teatro Comunale di Bologna, soprano: Gerda Findeisen

Rupert Julian: The Phantom of the Opera (US 1925). Lon Chaney (Erik), Mary Philbin (Christine).

Il fantasma dell'opera / Suuren oopperan kummitus / Fantomen på den stora operan.

    US © 1925 Universal. P: Carl Laemmle per Universal Pictures; 

    D: Rupert Julian. SC: Elliott J. Clawson, Raymond L. Schrock, Bernard McConville, Jasper Spearing, Richard Wallace, Walter Anthony, Tom Reed, Frank M. McCormack (non accred.); Based on the novel Le Fantôme de l’Opéra (1911) by Gaston Leroux, Finnish translation in 1926 (by Minerva 1917-1929) as Pariisin oopperan kummitus; DP: Milton Bridenbecker, Virgil Miller, Charles Van Enger (non accred.); ED: Edward Curtiss, Maurice Pivar, Gilmore Walker (non accred.); original M for cinema orchestra: Gustav Hinrichs; Ass. D: Joe Pasternak (non accred.);

    Cast: Lon Chaney (Erik, il fantasma), Mary Philbin (Christine Dace), Norman Kerry (Visconte Raoul de Chagny), Arthur Edmund Carewe (Ledoux), Gibson Gowland (Simon Buquet), John St. Polis (Conte Philip de Chagny), Snitz Edwards (Florine Papillon), Virginia Pearson (Carlotta), Edith Yorke (madame Valerius), Anton Vaverka, Bernard Siegel (Joseph Buguet), Olive Ann Alcorn (La Sorelli), Edward Cecil (Faust), Alexander Bevani (Mephistopheles), John Miljan (Valentin), Chester Conklin;
    Pri. pro.: 6 settembre 1925. 

    Helsinki premiere: 24 Oct 1926 Arkadia, Edison, Bio-Bio, released by Adams Filmi

    35 mm. 2579 m. 93’. Col. English intertitles. 

    From: Lobster Films. Sous-titres français on the print. 

    Electronic subtitles in Italian. 

    Piazza Maggiore, Bologna (Il Cinema Ritrovato), 1 July 2011.

Music composed by Gabriel Thibaudeau (1990). Conductor: Gabriel Thibaudeau. Performed by the Orchestra del Teatro Comunale di Bologna. Soprano: Gerda Findeisen.

Catalogue: "When it was clear to Universal from critical and boxoffice reaction to The Hunchback of Notre Dame that in letting Chaney go to MGM they hade made a potentially disastrous decision, they negotiated with their erstwhile employee, Irving Thalberg, to borrow Chaney to star in a ten-reel version of Gaston Leroux’s The Phantom of the Opera."

"The movie was made in 1925 and Universal spared no expense on the production, constructing the interior of the Paris Opera House as well as a maze of streets for the final chase and a labyrinth of catacombs to depict the phantom’s lair under the Opera House. Once more Chaney endured hellish pain to achieve his make-up, a living skull with sparse hair over a domed head, eyes bulging under the pressure of painfully inserted wires, cheekbones emphasized with celluloid discs and a mouth framed with jagged, bestial teeth. Little wonder that people collapsed in cinemas at the moment when, after an impeccably edited build-up which stretched tension almost breaking point, the heroine, Mary Philbin, tore off the phantom’s mask to reveal to herself and the audience, the horror that was Chaney’s face. Although much of the film appears overacted at this distance, and Miss Philbin less than effective, the shock points in the movie still retain all their original potency: the unmasking, the love scene played by hero and heroine on the roof of the Opera House while above them, his red-tinted cloak billowing like the wings of an angel from hell, the phantom listened; Chaney’s appearance at a masked ball, in the character of Death, made all the more effective by the early use of colour, with his red cloak contrasted against a predominantly green background; the crashing of the giant chandelier into the auditorium and the climactic chase through the sewers and streets of Paris, all these help to overcome with the genius of Chaney’s makeup and mime, the deficiencies of a story that at times verged upon the melodrama of Perils of Pauline (1914). Nominally directed by Rupert Julian, The Phantom of the Opera was completed by Edward Sedgwick after Julian had been removed from the film, and some scenes were directed by Chaney." (Alan Frank, Horror Films, Hamlyn, London-New York 1977).

"This score for The Phantom of the Opera was commissioned by La Cinémathèque Quebecoise in 1990. Only a few months after the première in Montreal, it was performed in Bologna. Since then, many orchestras have executed it – from Canada to the USA, from Europe to Japan – always with an enthusiastic response from the audience. The music is based on a four note theme: C-D-B-C. We can hear it throughout the score, which was inspired by Gounod with reminiscences of Stravinsky, Chopin and even Bach. A soprano sings arias from Gounod’s Faust, adding a dramatic touch. Note that the final aria is the main theme of the whole score; it was written (lyrics and music) by Gabriel Thibaudeau. After touring the world for more than twenty years, the music has finally come home again, where it received its first international recognition: Bologna!" (Gabriel Thibaudeau).

AA: Gabriel Thibaudeau's is one of the best silent film scores. My first acquaintance to it was via a friend (not a film expert): a treasure of her vhs collection was a tape of a Finnish telecast (1997 or 1998) of The Phantom of the Opera, and she was especially fond of the wonderful music.

The opera in the story is Charles Gounod's Faust (1859), and Gabriel Thibaudeau weaves many of its motifs in his score, such as the Faust waltz on the Walpurgis night bacchanal ("Ainsi que la brise légère") and Marguerite's jewel aria "Ah! Je ris de me voir si belle en ce miroir!"

My first childhood acquaintance with Gounod's Faust was in Hergé's album Les Bijoux de la Castafiore. Bianca Castafiore, "the nightingale of Milan", starts to sing the jewel aria in the car. The dashed line from Captain Haddock's eye leads to the car window, the brand of which is Securit. "Fortunately the windows are made of strong glass".

The coloratura soprano Gerda Findeisen brought a brilliant, lively element to the music experience. The organ is also a vital part of the music world of the story, and on the piazza it was apparently realized via a synthetizator. The programme note lists 53 musicians of L'Orchestra del Teatro Comunale di Bologna, the instruments being violini di spalla, violini primi, violini secondi, viole, violoncelli, contrabbassi, flauti, oboi, clarinetti, fagotti, trombe, tromboni, timpani, percussioni, and sintetizzatore.

The music by Gabriel Thibaudeau and Charles Gounod is stronger than the film itself, directed in a neutral, workmanlike fashion but boasting a great macabre performance by Lon Chaney. The art direction by Ben Carré, Charles D. Hall, and Elmer Sheeley is masterful. The screenplay is also powerful, instantly introducing the contrast between the grand opera and the underground, the present and the past, das Über-Ich und das Es. There are at least five underground floors beneath the Opera, leading to old torture chambers and dungeons. Erik the Phantom, himself, is a victim of the persecution after the Second Revolution.

The Lobster Films print may not be perfect, but it has an interesting, consistent colour world. This was for me the best ever experience of The Phantom of the Opera.

A Hundred Years Ago: Programme 8: 1911: The Mirror of the Times

Cento anni fa: Programma 8: 1911: Lo specchio del presente. Programme and notes by Mariann Lewinsky. Sala Officinema / Mastroianni (Bologna, Il Cinema Ritrovato), 1 July 2011. Grand piano: Günter Buchwald. Presenta Mariann Lewinsky.

Catalogue: "In the auditorium it is 2011 and on the screen 1911; and while we watch the films of the past they start to merge into our present. The George V whom we see here crowned in 1911 is the very same that we saw recently in the cinema, the unfeeling father of the stammering George VI. And just as the bride and groom in the Cretinetti film are mercilessly pursued by the insurance agent as potential customers, so are we pursued by advertising, for similar reasons. Current events give to films showing specific areas of the world (Arab lands, China) – an enhanced actuality. The generation of nuclear power led to Chernobyl and Fukushima: a hundred years ago in Europe the most terrible man-made catastrophes were mining accidents. In 1911 Victorin Jasset not only made Au pays des ténèbres (two years before Capellani’s Germinal) and the first episode of Zigomar (Le Roi des voleurs): he also wrote an essay on the history of the development of cinema, ending (or at least breaking off) with the success of the Vitagraph comedies in about 1910. “Around 1909 to 1910 the first Vitagraph comedies appeared. Up to then, all production [of the American school] was bad, banal. Suddenly masterpieces started to appear. A new school was born and made its presence felt everywhere, not only among actors but among the general public, which welcomed it with open arms. The American school differed from ours in three main ways: 1. The camera range 2. The interplay of the actors 3. The plot structure » (V. Jasset, “Étude sur la mise en scene en cinématographie”, Ciné Journal no. 170, 25 November 1911, p. 26.)."

[CAMEL CARAVAN]. (?), 1911. P: Scientific Film. 35 mm. 79 m. 4’ a 16 fps. [not B&w] Tinted. English intertitles. From: Cinematek (Brussels). - AA: Non-fiction. Travelogue. Nomads of the desert. 1994 print from the Alan Roberts collection.

LE THÉÂTRE POPULAIRE ARABE / [the title of the print:] El teatro popular arabico. FR 1911. P: Éclair. 35 mm. 125 m. 6’ a 18 fps. B&w. Intertítulos en español. From: CNC- Archives Françaises du Film. - AA: Non-fiction. Travelogue. An arab circus with monkeys and dogs and a primitive touring cinema. A print with toning effects.

LA PEUR DES OMBRES. FR 1911. D: Roméo Bosetti. Cast: Léontine; P: Pathé Frères (No. 4588). 35 mm. 64 m. 3’ a 18 fps. B&w. Deutsche Zwischentitel. From: Cineteca di Bologna, EYE Film Instituut Nederland. - AA: Comedy thriller. Scared by shadows, the people call the police. A Jan Olsson moment: a fine extended triple-screen telephone sequence. The police are farcical. Nice. Print: beautiful in black and white. +

FESTA PIROTECNICA NEL CIELO DI LONDRA. GB [not 1911, but:] 1902. P: Urban Film. 35 mm. 80 m. 4’22'' a 16 fps. Col. No intertitles. From: Museo Nazionale del Cinema. Digitally restored in 2011 by L’Immagine Ritrovata. - AA: A beautiful colour-driven fireworks spectacle. Almost like abstract film. Fine colour effects on the print. *

CHEZ LES MURUTS, PEUPLADE SAUVAGE DU NORD DE BORNÉO. FR 1911. P: Pathé Frères (No. 4616). 35 mm. L. or.: 160 m. 97 m. 5’ a 18 fps. Pochoir. No intertitles. From: Cinematek (Brussels). - AA: Non-fiction. Ethnography. Fine. Print from the Alan Roberts collection.

EXCURSION EN CHINE / Een Uitsapje door China. FR 1911. P: Éclair. 35 mm. 80 m. 4’ a 18 fps. B&w. Nederlandse tussentitels. From: EYE Film Instituut Nederland. - AA: Non-fiction. Travelogue. A religious procession on the ice of the Yangtze River. A fine visual quality, fine toning effects in the print.

CRETINETTI AGENTE DI ASSICURAZIONI / Gribouille agent d’assurances. IT 1911. Cast: Andre Deed (Cretinetti); P: Itala Film. 35 mm. L.: 191 m. 10’ a 16 fps. B&w. Intertitres français. From: CNC Archives Françaises du Film. - AA: Comedy. A comedy of hyperbole: Cretinetti is a supernaturally persistent insurance agent, who pops up even during a honeymoon trip, walks through a grille, levitates in the air, appears from a small jug, but acquires the signatures first during the final cliffhanging sequence when the newlyweds are at his mercy. One of the best Cretinetti films. *

PARTE 2: VICTORIN JASSET, REGISTA E STORICO DEL CINEMA
PART 2: VICTORIN JASSET, DIRECTOR AND FILM HISTORIAN

AU PAYS DES TÉNÈBRES / [the title of the print:] Gluck auf!. FR 1911. D: Victorin Jasset. Cast: Charles Krauss, André Liabel, Marcel Vibert, Cécil Guyon; P: Éclair. 35mm. 517 m. 25’ a 18 fps. [catalogue: B&w, but actually:] Toned. Flemish intertitles. From: Cinematek (Brussels). There was no translation for this film. - AA: Tragedy. Milieu: a mine, like in Germinal. There is a gas explosion in the mine, and a flood. The main action of the film is the prolonged death agony of two survivors. The rescuers come too late. There is a wake for the two victims of the explosion. "Maybe the future will bring consolation". The visualization of the cave milieu is challenging, and it has been realized successfully. The composition is effective. The print has been struck from a partly damaged source, but the toning is successful, and the overall visual quality is fine.

THE TIRED ABSENT-MINDED MAN / [the title of the print:] Ein Junggeselle [...] zu heiraten. US 1911. Cast: John Bunny, Edith Storey, Lillian Walker; P: Vitagraph. 35 mm. 150 m / 7’ a 18 fps. [According to the catalogue: B&w, but actually:] toned. [According to the catalogue: English intertitles, but actually:] Deutsche Zwischentitel. From: CSC Cineteca Nazionale. - AA: Comedy. John Bunny plays a suitor prone to falling asleep. He falls asleep even on his wedding day. (Another instance of the cinema's obsession with the cancelled wedding, here only the threat of it.) The honeymoon trip starts, and John Bunny forgets to take the bride with him aboard the train and starts to read a book instead. A nice comedy.

Film erotici delle origini dal Pathé / CNC-AFF

Racconti erotici Pathé 1899-1907 / Erotic Tales Pathé 1899-1907. Sala Officinema / Mastroianni (Bologna, Il Cinema Ritrovato), 1 July 2011. Earphone commentary in Italian and English. Grand piano: Günter Buchwald.

Catalogue: "Nine erotic shorts by Pathé recently restored by the CNC – Centre National de la Cinématographie. They narrate anecdotes of petit bourgeois desires in which the star is the female figure, spied or secretly lusted after, or minor attempts at transgression or cheating that end humorously."

FLAGRANT DÉLIT D’ADULTÈRE. FR 1899. P: Pathé Frères. 35 mm. 1’ a 16 fps. B&w. From: CNC – Archives Françaises du Film. "A young wife having an affair with another man hides just in the nick of time and is not caught in flagrante delicto. The policeman accompanying her cuckolded husband, however, is not entirely convinced."

FLIRT EN CHEMIN DE FER. FR 1902. P: Pathé Frères. 35 mm. 1’ a 16 fps. B&w. From: CNC – Archives Françaises du Film. "A couple on a train is totally uninterested in the landscape and places that pass by as they engage in carnal pleasures. They use the darkness for bold explosions of affection, but the train conductor interrupts their fun."

LE CIREUR. FR 1902. P: Pathé Frères 35 mm. 1’ a 16 fps. B&w. From: CNC – Archives Françaises du Film. "A shoeshiner is a little to lubricious for one of his customers whose skirt he gradually lifts higher and higher. His indiscreet peeping ends up irritating the woman who gives him a kick in the face."

BAIGNADE INTERDITE. FR 1903. P: Pathé Frères. 35 mm. 1’ a 16 fps. B&w. From: CNC – Archives Françaises du Film. "Three girls play about in the water of a pond. A policeman orders them out of the water, pointing out that swimming is not allowed. The mortified girls get out of the water while the policeman uses their embarrassment to get an eyeful."

LE VIEUX MARCHEUR. FR 1903. P: Pathé Frères. 35 mm. 1’ a 16 fps. B&w. From: CNC – Archives Françaises du Film. "An old man keeps his eye on his maid, undresses her and drags her to his bedroom."

LE BAIN DES DAMES DE LA COUR. FR 1904. P: Pathé Frères. 35 mm. 1’ a 16 fps. B&w. From: CNC – Archives Françaises du Film. "Young nude women go for a swim in the fountain of a building."

MONDAINE AU BAIN. FR 1904. P: Pathé Frères 35mm. 2’ a 16 fps. B&w From: CNC – Archives Françaises du Film. "While a sophisticated woman goes for a swim, a suitor of hers arrives with a bouquet of flowers. The maid asks the visitor to wait, but instead he stands on a chair to spy on what is on the other side of the screen."

LA PUCE. FR 1907. P: Pathé Frères. 35 mm. 2’ a 16 fps. B&w. From: CNC – Archives Françaises du Film. "A young woman is pestered by a fleas and partially undresses herself to find and kill the pesky bug."

LE COUCHER DE LA MARIÉE. FR 1907. P: Pathé Frères. 35 mm. 4’ a 18 fps. B&w. From: CNC – Archives Françaises du Film. "Alone in a room with her groom, a woman undresses slowly as her moved husband watches her."

AA: There is nothing to add to the descriptions above except that the films are so restrained and innocent that they could be shown on television during children's watching hours. The term "nude" above usually means "only partly dressed". This show was the most popular of all of the ones held at Sala Officinema / Mastroianni during Il Cinema Ritrovato 2011. There was standing room only.

Wild River (2011 restoration by Academy Film Archive and Twentieth Century Fox with funding provided by The Film Foundation)

Joki tulvii / Fango sulle stelle. US © 1960 Twentieth Century Fox. P+D: Elia Kazan. Based on the novel Mud on the Stars (1942) by William Bradford Huie and Dunbar’s Cove (1957) by Borden Deal; SC: Paul Osborn; DP: Ellsworth Fredericks; ED: William Reynolds; PD: Joseph Kish, Walter M. Scott, Lyle R. Wheeler, Herman A. Blumenthal; Co.: Anna Hill Johnstone; M: Kenyon Hopkins; S: Eugene Grossman, Richard Voriseck; Cast: Montgomery Clift (Chuck Glover), Lee Remick (Carol Garth Baldwin), Jo Van Fleet (Ella Garth), Albert Salmi (Hank Bailey), J.C. Flippen (Hamilton Garth), James Westerfield (Cal Garth), Barbara Loden (Betty Jackson), Franck Overton (Walter Clark), Malcom Atterbury (Sy Moore), Robert Earl Jons (Ben), Bruce Dern (Jack Roper), Judy Harris (Barbara-Ann), Jim Menard (Jim Junior). Pri. pro.: 26 giugno 1960. 35 mm. 110’. Col. English version. From: Twentieth Century Fox. Restored [in 2011?] by Academy Film Archive and Twentieth Century Fox with funding provided by The Film Foundation. Cinema Jolly (Bologna, Il Cinema Ritrovato), 1 July 2011. Presenta Foster Hirsch.

Catalogue: "Painful change, change that is necessary but hurts. My family lost a house, when I was a boy. And I guess when my father died we also moved out of a house. Wild River was also the first picture where I said to myself: I’m going to be as lyric as I can – I’m going to stop the action. You see, I always distrusted stopping the action for lyric moments. I had much more confidence after that.""

"I also used long shots as in the scene with them way in the back of the room, sort of in the dark, on the floor. I did that a lot, and putting a person or an object in the foreground with deep focus. That was a way of keeping it natural, although it’s an unnatural technique. I’m looking at the branch behind you, and you are not in focus, despite William Wyler and Orson Welles and everybody else. It’s only fifteen feet behind you, but you are a blur. (…) I thought a film can be both true – realistic – and completely poetic. And that became the ideal of my aesthetic – to the extent that I was conscious of my aesthetic. Suddenly you look at it and it’s as plain as a loaf of bread, and it’s completely poetic at the same time. It has overtones, it has suggestions, it has poetry all around it, but then, it can also be just nothing, a loaf of bread. This is what I feel when I see paintings by Cézanne: he shows you an apple, it’s just an apple on a table, but it’s somehow poetic. I like that." (Elia Kazan, from: Michel Ciment: Kazan on Kazan. Secker & Warburg - British Film Institute, London 1973).

AA. The screening was much delayed, and after the excellent introduction by Foster Hirsch I was able to see only less than 10 minutes of the new restoration of Wild River, one of Elia Kazan's essential films. - Foster Hirsch emphasized that (synopsis): Elia Kazan was a top director of actors, and in Wild River Method acting is at its zenith. We see the characters thinking and changing through the picture, and responding to objects. Wild River contains Lee Remick's greatest performance. Wild River is about rugged individualism ("TVA keep off"). Wild River has been hardly available in 50 years, but now with the new restoration it's back in circulation. - I managed only to see Montgomery Clift's arrival at the island of Ella Garth (Jo Van Fleet).

Lucrezia Borgia (1922) (2011 restoration by Bundesarchiv - Filmarchiv)

DE 1922. D+SC: Richard Oswald. T. it.: Lucrezia Borgia; Based on the novel by Harry Scheff (1913); DP: Karl Freund, Karl Vass, Carl Drews, Frederik Fuglsang; PD: Robert Neppach, Botho Höfer; Co.: Robert Neppach; Op.: Karl Freund; Ass. op.: Robert Baberske; Cast: Liane Haid (Lucrezia Borgia), Conrad Veidt (Cesare Borgia), Albert Bassermann (Rodrigo Borgia), Paul Wegener (Micheletto), Heinrich George [in one of his earliest roles: he started in the cinema in 1921] (Sebastiano), Adolf Edgar Licho (Lodovico), Wilhelm Dieterle (Giovanni Sforza), Lothar Müthel (Giovanni Borgia), Alphons Fryland (Alfonso d’Aragona), Käte Waldeck-Oswald (Naomi), Alexander Granach, Anita Berber (contessa Giulia Orsini), Lyda Salmonova, Mary Douce (Florentina), Max Pohl, Adele Sandrock, Wilhelm Diegelmann (Wirt), Philipp Manning, Hugo Döblin, Clementine Plessner, Viktoria Strauß (Rosaura), Tibor Lubinszky (Gennaro Page); P: Richard Oswald-Film AG, Berlin; Pri. pro.: 20 ottobre 1922 Berlin. 35 mm. 3284 m. 146’ a 18 fps. Deutsche Zwischentitel. From: Bundesarchiv – Filmarchiv. Restored in 2011. Sala Officinema / Mastroianni (Bologna, Il Cinema Ritrovato: Conrad Veidt retrospective), 1 July 2011. Grand piano: Maud Nelissen. Introduce Barbara Schütz.

Catalogue: "Max Reinhardt’s influence did lead to many costume films being set in the Renaissance: Die Pest in Florenz [by Otto Rippert], one of the episodes of Der müde Tod [by Fritz Lang], Lucrezia Borgia and Monna Vanna [by Richard Eichberg], for example. We sometimes find the recollection of a Reinhardt production leading second-rate directors to film a few effectively framed shots: in Richard Oswald’s Lucrezia Borgia, for example, a row of soldiers forming a thick hedge prickling with lances recalls a scene from Shakespeare’s Henry IV in Reinhardt’s production of 1912. There also soldiers deployed along the stage contrived to give the impression of an entire army. As in Reinhardt, a few tooled sets of armour and a flag drifting in the wind establish points of reference in the design. If these compositions seem to reflect one of Uccello’s famous battle-scenes, this is due to Reinhardt." Lotte H. Eisner, The Haunted Screen: Expressionism in the German Cinema and the Influence of Max Reinhardt, University of California Press, Berkeley and Los Angeles, 2008.

AA: I was able to see most of this film but not the end because of an overlap with Wild River. - A meticulous reconstruction of an epic film. The length is now 3005 m; 280 m are still missing. This was the first screening of the reconstruction, still in black and white. - The Renaissance story that starts in the year 1495 befits Bologna. Included are memorable moments of history such as the one where Alfonso examines the model of St. Peter's Basilica. - Lucrezia Borgia belongs to the tyrant films of the Weimar Republic, with Conrad Veidt as Cesare Borgia leading an all star cast. - This is also a typical Richard Oswald film, his familiar faces here including Anita Berber. - Although a big budget production, aspects of the art direction are based on obvious miniature work, probably meant to be rendered less blatant by tinting. - There is an emphasis on the atrocities of the Borgia family, told in a casual fashion. - There is not enough dynamism in the direction, a sense of an irresistible drive is missing. - The great actors create highly stylized characters and often resort to histrionics. - It seems that Richard Oswald's Lucrezia Borgia is a film of exciting moments but not necessarily one of the Weimar masterworks.

Trent's Last Case (1929)

[Not released in Finland]. US © 1929 Fox Film Corporation. D: Howard Hawks. T. it.: L’affare Manderson; Based on the novel (1913) by Edmund Clerihew Bentley [not translated into Finnish]; SC: Scott Darling, Beulah Marie Dix; DP: Harold Rosson;
    Cast: Raymond Griffith (Philip Trent), Marceline Day (Evelyn Manderson), Donald Crisp (Sigsbee Manderson), Raymond Hatton (Joshua Cupples), Lawrence Gray (Jack Marlowe), Edgar Kennedy (ispettore Murch), Nicolas Soussanin (Martin), Anita Garvin (Ottilie Dunois);
    P: William Fox; Pri. pro.: 31 marzo 1929. 35 mm. [Catalogue: 1770 m / 66’.] [Incomplete. Actual duration: 45 min.] B&w. English intertitles.
    From: Library of Congress per concessione di Twentieth Century Fox. Preserved by the Library of Congress.
    Electronic subtitles in Italian by Sub-Ti.
    Grand piano: Maud Nelissen.
    Viewed at Cinema Arlecchino (Bologna, Il Cinema Ritrovato), 1 July 2011.

Catalogue: "[It] was one of the great detective stories of all time. The only trouble was we had Raymond Griffith as the star and he talked like this [in a hoarse whisper due to damaged vocal chords]. We had it all written for dialogue because I thought it would be cute to have him say, “Now I want you to do this...”"

"The day we started shooting, they said, “It’s got to be a silent picture. We can’t have him talking like this.” The picture never showed anywhere. We turned it into a gag comedy. (Howard Hawks, from Joseph McBride, Hawks on Hawks, University of California Press, Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1992)."

"It’s a detective film that revolves around an investigation of the detective Philip Trent. The film was shot as a silent picture because they did not get the rights for making a sound version and it was never distributed by Fox: the American market in 1929 demanded sound movies, and the film was not distributed as normal except for in England. (Jean A. Gili, Howard Hawks, Cinéma d’aujourd’hui – Seghers, Paris, 1971)."

AA: A spoof detective story with great comedians such as Raymond Griffith, Anita Garvin, and Edgar Kennedy. Howard Hawks makes fun of the whole whodunit phenomenon. Old man Manderson commits suicide, frames it as a murder, frames his worst enemy as the culprit and invites the great detective Trent on the scene already before the fact. But things get complicated because there are too many clues. After the truth has been exposed Trent states that they have almost hanged four innocent people and gives up his career as a detective. "This is Trent's last case!".

This was the silent version projected in natural speed, with a duration of only 45 minutes, incomplete, but with the beginning and the ending intact. A print in low contrast and with scratches but watchable.

The Howard Hawks approach is unrecognizable. I had never seen Trent's Last Case before, and now I have seen all surviving films directed by Hawks at least once.

Hawks never took private detectives seriously as we can observe with Philip Trent, Philip Marlowe, and Ernie Malone (Gentlemen Prefer Blondes).

Alice Guy Programme 6: Cinema and the Arts

Alice Guy Programma 6: Il cinema e le altre arti. Programme and notes by Mariann Lewinsky. Sala Officinema / Mastroianni (Bologna, Il Cinema Ritrovato), Friday, 1 July 2011. Earphone commentary in Italian and English. Grand piano: Maud Nelissen.

ALICE GUY EN ESPAGNE. FR ca. 1905. P: Gaumont. Beta. ca. 60 m. 3’. B&w. From: Gaumont Pathé Archives. In autumn 1905, from mid-october to late november, Alice Guy and her cameraman Anatole Thiberville travelled through Spain and shot many films - gipsy dances, phono-scenes and views from Madrid, Sevilla, Cordova and Granada. (Monica dall’Asta, in Alice Guy, Memorie di una pioniera del cinema, Cineteca di Bologna, Bologna 2008, p. 111). - AA: Non-fiction. Travelogue. Spanish scenes. Beta video.

ALICE GUY TOURNE UNE PHONO-SCÈNE. FR ca. 1905. P: Gaumont. Beta. ca. 60 m. 3’. B&w. From: Gaumont Pathé Archives. “The voice of the artist, singer, speaker or the music for dance were recorded in the studio. The actors then rehearsed their roles until they had obtained a perfect synchronization with the phonographic recording. Then the cinematographic record was taken. The two instruments, photo and phono, were united by an electric contrivance which assured their synchronization.” (Alice Guy, The Memoirs of Alice Guy Blaché, a cura di Anthony Slide, Scarecrow Press, Metuchen, 1981, p. 44). - AA: Non-fiction. Making of. A remarkable glimpse from behind the scenes of early film production on a big studio. Alice Guy is undoubtedly the boss. She is directing the film, probably also producing at Gaumont. An important piece of evidence for the discussion of job descriptions in early cinema before the credit title "director" was established. Beta video.

LE TANGO. FR 1905. D: Alice Guy. P: Gaumont. 35 mm. ca. 60 m. 3’. Col. From: Cineteca di Bologna. “In passing I had noticed a small stage on which six guitar players were seated. It was too tempting... Soon the guitars introduced the dancer, who leaped forward, castanets in her fingers. I did not regret my evening. Her talent, grace and beauty would have conquered Paris at once.” (Alice Guy, The Memoirs of Alice Guy Blaché, a cura di Anthony Slide, Scarecrow Press, Metuchen, 1981, p. 51). - AA: Non-fiction. A record of a dance performance.

THE EMPRESS. US 1917. D: Alice Guy Blaché. Cast: Doris Kenyon (Nedra), Holbrook Blinn (Eric) William Morse (De-Baudry), Lyn Donelson; P: Pathé Exchange. 1010 m. 24 fps. 36’. B&w. No intertitles. From: La Cinémathèque française.

"The film does not only present the usual contrast of woman as the pure innocent victim of masculine aggression but also an astonishing expression of the sensuality and clearly sexual desire of the woman. The only surviving element of this beautiful film is a negative, so the print is unfortunately missing intertitles. But the plot is easily followed and the aid of the copyright description helps clarify the missing parts and lacuna.""

“To celebrate the sale of The Empress, De Baudry took his model, Nedra, to the country for a vacation; he registered as Mr. and Mrs. De Baudry, but engaged separate rooms. The proprietor of the Inn, Peterson, had a seemingly foolish hobby for photography. Shielded by some shrubbery, he snapped the unsuspecting De Baudry and Nedra. That night De Baudry forced his way into Nedra’s room and his true intention of the “vacation” dawning on her, she crept to the room of the proprietor’s daughter for protection and returned to town in the morning. When Eric Bruce, a wealthy art patron, saw The Empress, he vowed to seek and marry the original. Fortune favored him and after a short courtship they were married. Then a shadow crept into their happy home. Peterson makes Nedra a visit, shows the photo of herself and De Baudry’s arms, mentions the Inn register and demand money for his silence. She complies and Peterson continues his bleeding regularly. Nedra’s actions arouse Eric’s suspicions and he makes investigations that lead to the Inn, where he discovers the apparently black evidence. In a fury he seeks De Baudry. He finds Nedra there imploring him to tell her husband the truth. Eric refused to believe either of them. Desperate, Nedra ascends to the roof. Suddenly, from De Baudry’s room emerges the woman in the dark who gives proof of Nedra’s innocence. His heart sinking that he may be too late to save Nedra, he dashes madly to the roof after her arriving in time.” CLL 10366 The Empress March 14, 1917, Copyright Pathe Exchange, Inc., U.S. Amusement Corp. p. 221.

AA: A drama. As stated above, the intertitles are missing, and as also stated above, it is still possible to follow the narrative. A rather lavish production. An interesting aspect of the plot is the theme of photography. Another interesting feature is the theme of the friendship between women (Nedra and the innkeeper's daughter). A fine print based on the negative with occasional marks of nitrate damage.

Camille Blot-Wellens: Some issues affecting the restoration and reconstruction of silent films from negatives alone

"La Cinématheque française conserves many negatives of early films. Even if the negative is the best element we have in terms of photographic quality, this does not always enable us to restore the original work, and there are several reasons for this."

"The system used for editing negatives during the silent period was different. Unless they have been altered subsequently (by the production company or the archive), negatives are edited into small blocks ready for shooting, with a leader often identifying the title of the film and the order of the shots. But identification can be complicated by the fact that the same studio would often shoot several versions of the same title, a few years (or months) apart, and producers would sometimes copy each other’s films. Sometimes, therefore, it is necessary to consult an original catalogue, and specifically an illustrated catalogue, to identify the film correctly."

"The leaders can also carry indications for tinting and toning. This information can be undecipherable without the manufacturer’s documentation (in the case of Pathé films, it is in code) or a contemporary positive print of the film in question as a reference."

"Furthermore, negatives can sometimes be edited with no indication of the original title-cards – for these would be edited directly into the prints, as the language would vary depending on which country they were going to. The same was true of the inserts. In the total absence of title cards we have to search for the information in related documents. From 1906, the most important French companies, Pathé and Gaumont, started to deposit scripts in the Bibliotheque nationale de France. This practice became more systematic between 1908 and 1914. These documents sometimes enable us to find the original text of the title cards, but more often they simply give us extra information (such as the names of characters), but without actually enabling the re-creation of the intertitles. This is often the case with literary adaptations, as scriptwriters allowed themselves greater freedom in their treatment of the original text. Censor cards can also be a reliable source, because the documents submitted for censorship often reproduced the entire text of the title cards. Sadly, however, these documents are not always preserved. Thus, every year the film collections department of La Cinématheque française identifies and conserves many films that can nevertheless not be seen in their original form, for they cannot be reconstructed. This year, in the context of the Albert Capellani and Alice Guy sections, some unique elements from films will be shown in the form of work prints." (Camille Blot-Wellens).

Le Quai des brumes (2011 digital restoration by Canal+, La Cinémathèque française)

Sumujen laituri / Il porto delle nebbie. FR 1938. D: Marcel Carné. Based on the novel (1927) by Pierre Mac Orlan; SC: Jacques Prévert; DP: Eugen Schüfftan; Op.: Louis Page, Marc Fossard, Henri Alekan; ED: René Le Hénaff; PD: Alexandre Trauner; M: Maurice Jaubert; S: Antoine Archaimbaud; Cast: Jean Gabin (Jean), Michèle Morgan (Nelly), Michel Simon (Zabel), Pïerre Brasseur (Lucien), Robert Le Vigan (Michel Krauss, il pittore), Edouard Delmont (Panama), Aimos (Quart-Vittel), Marcel Pérèz (il camionista), René Génin (il dottore), Jenny Burnay (la ragazza di Lucien), Roger Legris (il fattorino dell’albergo), Claude Walter, Martial Rebé, Marcel Melrac; P: Grégor Rabinovitch per Ciné-Alliance; Pri. pro.: 18 maggio 1938. DCP 2K. 91’. B&w. Version française. English subtitles. From: Canal+ e La Cinémathèque française. Cinema Jolly (Bologna, Il Cinema Ritrovato), 1 July 2011.

Catalogue: "The screens were regurgitating comedies – some musicals and some not – brilliant, full of sun, joy and extras. And then I showed up with the empty nightclub, the fog, grayness, streets wet with rain and lit by dim streetlamps! Luckily it was too late to change everything, supposing – totally unthinkable – that Jacques [Prévert] and I accepted to do it. Moreover, I felt supported by Gabin, whose availability and help alone gave me a sense of security. Filming began as planned on January 2, 1938 in Le Havre, without any cuts. The cold was awful. (…) Naturally, we had counted on the fog, which instead decided not to show up. Trauner and Schüfftan created it artificially by burning a kind of tar in big metal containers. (…) [Trauner] excelled at building “false perspective” sets. For example, a thirty meter street, once transferred to the screen, gave the impression of being four times as long, if the right tool was used, that is, a lens with a short focal length. The effect depended on the organization and especially the proportions of the buildings along the street: the ones in the foreground were normal in size or much smaller, while the other ones gradually decreased in height and width; depending on the length of the street, the last buildings were only two or even just one meter high. The road’s inclined plane rising towards the end also helped the optical illusion." (Marcel Carné, La Vie à belles dents, Jean Vuarnet, Paris 1979).

""Port of Shadows had such a deep influence on French cinema that when Godard presented Breathless twenty-two years later, both Gabin the deserter and Belmondo the murderer on the run had many qualities in common as do the two films. The same is true for Have I the Right to Kill? [by Alain Cavalier] in which Delon is compared to Gabin. And it will probably happen again each time characters show up on the screen who, at one time or another, are cut off from their roots and try to escape from their past with a passionate love story; like the sets where grayness, rain, glimmering pavement and dismal dawns foreshadow misfortune and the certainty of defeat." (Robert Chazal, Marcel Carné, Seghers, Paris 1965).

AA: Camille Blot-Wellens reported that there was a new dupe positive from the original negative by Neyrac, the 2K digitization, the digital restoration and the grading was done at Éclair, and the restoration of the sound by Le Diapason. This was the first screening of the restored Le Quai des brumes. A leading French film archive authority was enthusiastic and said that he had never seen Le Quai des brumes in a version as wonderful as this. I agree, having always seen prints that are mediocre or worse. Le Quai des brumes is an extraordinarily difficult film for the definition of light, being a "film noir" full of fog, dusk, and smoke. I sampled the opening scenes until the appearance of Michel Simon. I look forward to seeing this restoration in its entirety.

Taxi Driver (2011 Sony Pictures 4K restoration)

US 1976. D: Martin Scorsese. T. it.: Taxi Driver; SC: Paul Schrader; DP: Michael Chapman; ED: Marcia Lucas, Tom Rolf, Melvin Shapiro; PD: Charles ‘Chuck’ Rosen; Op.: Fred Schuler; Ass. op.: Alec Hirschfeld, Bill Johnson, Ron Zarilla, Sandy Brooke; M: Bernard Herrmann; Cast: Robert De Niro (Travis Bickle), Jodie Foster (Iris), Albert Brooks (Tom), Leonard Harris (Charles Palantine), Peter Boyle (Mago), Cybill Shepherd (Betsy), Harvey Keitel (‘Sport’ Matthew), Leonard Harris (Charles Palantine), Steven Prince (Andy, il trafficante d’armi); P: Michael Phillips, Julia Phillips per Columbia Pictures; Pri. pro.: maggio 1976. 35 mm. 114’. Col. English version. From: Sony Columbia. Restored in 4K from the original camera negatives. Thursday, 30 June 2011 at 22.00, Piazza Maggiore (Bologna, Il Cinema Ritrovato). Restauro promosso da Sony Columbia. Presentano Margaret Bodde (The Film Foundation), Grover Crisp (Sony Columbia). Serata promossa da GUCCI.

Catalogue: "The appearance of the “yellow cab”, driving around in slow motion through the steam spewing from manholes, has all the solemnity of a ceremony. Robert De Niro’s ordinary taxi emerges in the setting of Manhattan like an apocalyptic cavalcade. With the fascination and terror of someone who relives a familiar nightmare, Scorsese celebrates the rediscovered city in this film. Like with Mean Streets, he is not afraid of using hyperbole to conjure up evil. Is this hellish iconography over the top? No doubt about it, but we know not to expect a calm realistic approach from the clairvoyant. He is in too much of a hurry to stop at the surface of the world he is filming, and he first has to demonstrate its spectacular side. It is not surprising that Bernard Herrmann made his own contribution to the undertaking: the dark emphasis of his orchestration mimics the same disproportion, the same sense of impending disaster, the same certainty that a fatal air wraps the urban setting he makes us enter. (…) The tangible hell of the city and the hell of roasted souls. Travis knows both of them very well, and Taxi Driver shows him in an attempt at martyrdom (...). His room is in the last circle: at the drift’s edge, De Niro looks crumpled like in the bottom of a well, flattened by a vertical high angle shot that seems to be the point of view of God. The metaphor reigns as far as the director uncovers the hero’s mental landscape. Hell, Travis coasts along it every day, on the sidewalks where the indistinct fauna of prostitutes, pimps and drug addicts swarm about, in his taxi where his passengers spray sperm and blood in sordid mating, and even in the loftiest circles of high society. (…) It would be futile to look at Taxi Driver as if it were a sociological study of the phenomenon of the vigilantes or even the phenomenological analysis of a “case”. The film’s point of view is that of solipsist who has lost touch with reality. (…) We are warned right from the opening credits in which De Niro’s eyes, framed in the rectangle of a rear-view mirror, are superimposed with the iridescent lights of the city. The film’s puritanical iconography is summed up in this vision of him as if severed from his body. Obsessed with the filth of the spectacle of the city that gathers waste." Michael Henry, Qui veut faire l’ange..., “Positif”, n. 183-184, July-August 1976.

AA: Again the Piazza was crowded. I believe this together with Gentlemen Prefer Blondes was the most popular and exciting Piazza film of this year's Il Cinema Ritrovato. The Italian connection (Robert De Niro, Martin Scorsese) brought a special electric charge to the screening. I sampled just the beginning, with a fresh memory of our Kino Tulio screenings in 2K and 4K. Both the visual quality and the sound quality were unrecognizable, I could not have told that this was the same restored version. The excellence of the restoration was not evident on the Piazza Maggiore.

A Hundred Years Ago: Programme 6: Pathé and Its International Brands

From the film: Albert Capellani & Henri Desfontaines: Le Roman de la momie / Romance of the Mummy (FR 1911), d'après le roman de Théophile Gautier, tourné en 1910 et sorti sur les écrans en 1911. Participation de Miss California. Production S.C.A.G.L / S.A.P.F / Film n°4063. Tirage argentique d'époque sur cartoline.

From the novel: Théophile Gautier: Le Roman de la momie (FR 1857). "Evandale et Rumphius devant la momie de Tahoser. Composition de Georges-Antoine Rochegrosse gravée à l'eau-forte par Decisy, 1920." Image and caption: Wikipedia.

Cento anni fa: Programma 6: Pathé e i suoi marchi internazionali. Programme and notes by Mariann Lewinsky. Thursday 30 June 2011 at 18.15, Cinema Lumière - Sala Officinema / Mastroianni (Bologna, Il Cinema Ritrovato). Earphone commentary in Italian and English. Grand piano: Gabriel Thibaudeau. Presentano Bryony Dixon e Mariann Lewinsky.

Catalogue: "In January 1911 the Établissements Pathé Frères started announcing their new films in a weekly Bulletin Hebdomadaire Pathé Frères. The market leader now made a definitive change in its production and marketing system, which would now be based on subsidiaries in different Countries, while the séries de production categories, which had previously dictated the industry’s operational methods, now served simply as an indication of genre. In offering these different brands, Pathé promised greater variety in its presentations: “What does the cinema manager want? A programme with enough variety to satisfy its customers and secure their loyalty. Is it easy to put together such a programme? No.” So as to offer the possible range, the Établissements Pathé Freres decided “to produce fewer scenes in order to concentrate on releasing those developed by the different brands, each one specialising in its own individual genre.” The article then goes on to introduce the brands: the Film d’Arte Italiana (F.A.I.), the Société Cinématographique des Auteurs et Gens de Lettres (S.C.A.G.L.), the Film Russe, American Kinema, Modern Pictures, Comica, Nizza and Imperium, as well as the parent company’s products, the PathéJournal, the Série d’art, the Série Pathécolor and the Vues de vulgarisation scientifique. (“A varied programme”, Bulletin Hebdomadaire Pathé Frères, 1911, pp. 11-12).""

"Our programme can only illustrate six of these brands. The American Kinema films, especially their many Westerns with stories centring on the Indians, should be seen more frequently and properly appreciated. Thanhouser was, according to Bousquet, not a Pathé subsidiary but Pathé distributed its product. The Coffin-Ship was plainly low-budget – which was never a Pathé characteristic. Imperium’s industrial films are visually impressive, transforming the lighting conditions that made interior filming so tricky into a virtuoso play of soft and sharp focus. Collezione Fondation.""

LA PHYSIQUE AMUSANTE. FR 1911. PathéSerie No. 6: Enseignement sciences naturelles; P: Pathé (No. 4576). 35 mm. 165 m. 9’ a 16 fps. Col. Intertitres français. From: CNC-Archives Françaises du Film. - AA: A scientific film. Wonderful about uranium, hydrogen, carbonic acid. Nearly experimental. A brilliant print.

A WESTERN MEMORY / [the title of the print:] Le Cœur de Violette. US 1911. Cast: Crane Wilbur; P: American Kinema; Distr.: Pathé Frères (No. 5108). 35 mm. 302 m. 14’ a 18 fps. B&w. Intertitres français. From: CNC-Archives Françaises du Film. - AA: A Western. The cowboys pull a trick on the convalescent Jack and put him on an untamed horse. Violette saves him. Having recovered Jack returns to the city. There is a memorable extreme long shot where we see the train puffing away in the valley. Years later Jack returns with his wife and finds a grave on the mountain where he used to meet Violette: "Ici repose Violette Drew". Ok print.

AN UP-TO-DATE SQUAW / L’Indienne Ko-To-Sho se modernise. US 1911. P: American Kinema; Distr.: Pathé Frères (No. 4876). 35 mm. 212 m. 10'' a 18 fps. B&w. English and French intertitles. From: CNC-Archives Françaises du Film. - AA: A Western. White folks visit an Indian camp, and the white women's wear attracts attention. A 1997 Cinémathèque française print.

THE COFFIN SHIP / [the title of the print:] In Meere verloren. US 1911. P: Thanhouser. 35 mm. 300 m. 15’ a 18 fps. B&w. Deutsche Zwischentitel. From: EYE Film Instituut Nederland. - AA: Drama. In the harbour a girl greets a captain. The ship-owner declines the request to repair the ship. There is a shipwreck and a rescue.

[LA] FABRICATION MÉCANIQUE D’UN LIVRE. FR 1911. P: Imperium Film; Distr.: Pathé Frères (No. 4563). 35 mm. 189 m. 10’ a 16 fps. B&w. Intertitres français. From: CNC-Archives Françaises du Film. - AA: Non-fiction. A fine account on the process of the printing of a book. An ok print.

LE ROMAN DE LA MOMIE / Il romanzo della mummia / La Momie / Romance of the Mummy / Den levende Mumie. FR 1911. D: René Leprince, Co-D: Albert Capellani. Based on the novel by Théophile Gautier (1858); SC: Théo Bergerat; Cast: Paul Franck (Lord Evandale), Romuald Joubé (il faraone), il mimo Thalès, Louis Ravet, Miss California (la mummia), Jeanne Brindeau; P: S.C.A.G.L.; Distr.: Pathé Frêres (No. 4063). 35 mm. 220 m. 11’ a 18 fps. Pochoir. Didascalie italiane. From: CSC – Cineteca Nazionale. - AA: A drama based on the decadent novel by Théophile Gautier. A man will not marry a woman since he is in love with a mummy. In his hallucinations he returns to ancient Egypt. A spectacle of forbidden love played in histrionic style. The man wants to shoot himself, but "We'll know how to heal you from your neurasthenic idea". A beautiful 1995 print preserves the pochoir colour effects.

ROSALIE EMMÉNAGE. FR 1911. D: Roméo Bosetti. Cast: Sarah Duhamel; P: Comica; Distr.: Pathé Frères (No. 4135). 35 mm. 124,5 m. 6’ a 18 fps. B&w. Intertitres français. From: Cinematek (Brussels). - AA: A comedy based on the chaos principle. Rosalie's moving and cleaning is wildly exaggerated. She cleans the floor so thoroughly that it gets planed. The neighbour's book-case falls down. The ceiling is broken and Rosalie swings up on a capstan. An excellent catastrophe comedy. A fine 1994 print from the Alan Roberts collection. *

PARTE 2: CINEGIORNALI 1911. L’ASSEDIO DI SIDNEY STREET
PART 2: NEWSREEL 1911. SIEGE OF SIDNEY STREET

Catalogue: "The Siege of Sidney Street occured on 3 January 1911 as the consequence of the murder of three London policemen on 16 December 1910 who interrupted members of a Latvian anarchist group burgling a jeweller’s shop in Houndsditch (a street in the City of London). Two associates of the anarchists (not directly involved in the murders) were tracked down to rooms in No. 100 Sidney Street in the poor East End of London. The subsequent siege by armed police and Scots Guards was filmed by five news film companies and witnessed by great crowds of Londoners and the then Home Secretary Winston Churchill, whose involvement in the action caused much controversy. The two anarchists died in the house, which eventually caught fire and a fireman died when part of the burning building collapsed. The final shoot out of the siege was immortalised by Hitchcock in The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934). Films by Co-operative and Warwick are not known to exist but we do have these three films, different views from Pathé, Gaumont and Andrews Pictures." Bryony Dixon

THE BATTLE OF LONDON. FR 1911. P: Pathé Frères. DigiBeta. B&w. English intertitles. From: BFI National Archive.

THE GREAT EAST END ANARCHIST BATTLE. FR 1911. P: Gaumont. 35 mm. 76 m. 4’ a 18 fps. B&w. English intertitles. From: BFI National Archive.

HOUNDSDITCH MURDERS / [the title of the print:] Die Houndsditch Mörder. GB 1911. P: Andrews Pictures. 35 mm. 87 m. 4’ a 18 fps. B&w. Deutsche Zwischentitel. From: BFI National Archive.

AA: Non-fiction. A fascinating opportunity to compare three news films of the same dramatic event in London.

Searching for Colour in Films: The Two Zigomars, Or, How to Reproduce Tinting

Alla ricerca del colore dei film: I due Zigomar ovvero come riprodurre le imbibizioni. Thursday, 30 June 2011 at 14.30, Cinema Jolly (Bologna, Il Cinema Ritrovato). Grand piano: Donald Sosin and Maud Nelissen. Intro: Blažena Urgošíková.

Catalogue: "In the Fifties and Sixties of the last century the archives which had large collections of nitrate films intensively worked on their transfer to safety stock. NFA Praha acted in the same manner but soon realized that by duplicating to acetate b&w material, the films lose the most important aesthetic and emotional components – richness of colour, of tinting and toning. That is why NFA, in the mid-seventies of the last century, asked the prestigious Research Institute of Sound, Image and Reproduction Technique (VÚZORT) for help to solve this problem. Together with this institute three methods were tested:
1) to make a colour internegative and a colour print
2) to make a black – and - white dupe negative and a colour print with the help of colour filters
3) to make a black and white dupe negative, a black and white positive print and do tinting and toning, according to the original nitrate print.""

"From these three methods, the third gave the best results. In seventies we made our first tinted copy of the French film Zigomar. The first prints were tinted in the classical manner, that is to say the corresponding coloured scenes were cut up, dyed and spliced into a final form. Later a procedure without splicing was realized in a small private laboratory. In the Nineties we made 40.000 m of tinted prints in a year. The documentary film Raft Voyage from the Town of Hluboká to Štĕhovice shows beautiful landscapes of the basin of the Czech river Vltava, rural cottages, castles and manors (Hluboká, Zvíkov, Orlík), river streams calm and wild, the laborious work of rafters, in wild rapids and passing through culverts. Many of the places the cameraman filmed so skilfully do not exist any more. The deep valleys of the Vltava river, old churches, mills, ferries, have all disappeared under the water of big barrages forever. The tinting, coming from the laboratory of Mr. Ledecký, underlines the beauty of the natural scenery, before its devastation." Blažena Urgošíková, Senior Curator and Restaurator, Národní Filmový Archiv.

ZIGOMAR ROI DES VOLEURS. FR 1911. D: Victorin Jasset. DP: Lucien Andriot; Cast: Alexandre-Charles Arquillières (Zigomar), Charles Krauss (Nick Carter), André Liabel (Paulin Broquet), Olga Demidova (Olga Leontieva), Josette Andriot (La Rosaria); P: Éclair. 35 mm. 260 m. 15‘ a 16 fps. Tinted (Desmet). From: EYE Film Instituut Nederland. [Nederlandse tussentitels. An improvised loudspeaker translation into Italian and English was difficult to follow.] - AA: Another wild and fantastic Zigomar action movie with disguises, catacombs, coffins, secret passages, and ruins. Nick Carter lands into a coffin, there is gunplay on horseback, and a fantastic dance sequence at Moulin Rouge (*). The story ends in ruins. - A Jan Olsson moment: a beautiful triple-screen telephone sequence between Zigomar and a woman (*).

L’ALCHIMISTA DI PRAGA 1 / AN ALCHEMIST FROM PRAGUE 1

ZIGOMAR CONTRE NICK CARTER. FR 1912. D+SC: Victorin Jasset. DP: Lucien Andriot; Cast: Alexandre-Charles Arquillières (Zigomar), Charles Krauss (Nick Carter), André Liabel (Paulin Broquet), Olga Demidova (Olga Leontieva), Josette Andriot (La Rosaria); P: Éclair. 35 mm. 921 m. 51‘ a 18 fps. Tinted (Ledecký, ca 1980). Deutsche Fassung, deutsche Zwischentitel. From: Národní Filmový Archiv. - AA: In Pordenone's great Éclair retrospective in 1992 I saw a black and white NFM print with Dutch intertitles. The story started in an electric room. A fake Zigomar was created. A magician was able metamorphose people and beings. - This Czech colour print with German intertitles is in direct continuation to Zigomar roi des voleurs. The story starts in ruins. Zigomar's boisterous gang can turn into peaceful inhabitants in an instant, and the gamblers of  Zigomar's electric casino can change into a dignified concert audience. Zigomar leads Nick Carter astray by hiring a double. At the very moment Nick Carter tries to place Zigomar's gang under arrest Zigomar's engineer arranges a black-out. In Marseilles, Zigomar, attempting a big jewel robbery, is surprised by an X ray. There is a last minute rescue at Nice. In Zigomar's den there is an opium hallucination sequence (*). Finally Nick Carter realizes that there are two Zigomars. The curtain falls, there is a free-for-all at the pub, and a chase at sea. Disguises change, black capes and masks are adopted, there is a car chase. Nick Carter and Olga land into the hands of the enemy. They are dropped into a deep cellar where there is a red glowing oven. Nick and Olga clear an escape route through bundles of brushwood. The cellar and the villains' den go up in flames. During their escape Nick and Olga are separated by wild bulls. Olga and La Rosaria fight it out while running in the sea. Olga is captured and tied to a galloping horse. Seriously injured she is rescued by country folks. Marc Martial (= Nick Carter) plants a misleading news item into the newspaper ("Nick Carter Found With Skull Broken"). Zigomar throws a big party to celebrate, but the maître d' is none other but Nick Carter in disguise. Zigomar falls into the hands of the police, but La Rosaria slips poison into his hands, and lifeless, Zigomar falls down, all stiff. - Victorin Jasset is the father of the action film, and the action was incredibly fast and crazy from the very beginning. - The strong tinting of the print is effective.

PLAVBA PO VORECH ZHLUBOKÉ DO ŠTĔCHOVIC. [The title of the print:] [Fahrt und Flössen von Hluboká nach Štĕchovice]. CZ 1925. T. ing.: Raft Voyage from the Town of Hluboká to Štĕchovice. P: Slavia Film. 35 mm. L.: 582 m. 24‘ a 24 fps. Tinted (Ledecký). Deutsche Zwischentitel. From: Národní Filmový Archiv. - AA: a beautiful print with beautiful tinting and toning of a beautiful travelogue: a river voyage with magnificent views of Prague, Budweis, Frauenberg, lumberjacks, Moldau with its rapids, Schloss Klingenberg, Vltava, rapid-shooting on a raft, Johannis with its rapids. "Nichts Schöneres und Überwältigenderes", nothing more beautiful or overwhelming could one expect to see.