From June 28th to July 5th every summer in Bologna, Italy, the Cineteca di Bologna hosts Il Cinema Ritrovato, a film festival for restored films. The Cineteca di Bologna is a center for film archives and restoration. I was able to attend the festival with a group from my film school at Chapman University.
Our course fee included this big festival book that had technical information on the restoration of each film, as well as information about the films’ production from film scholars or, if the film is young enough, possibly the director.
The Festival Hub
Piazza Maggiore, where each night of the festival, a film was screened for festival goers and the residents of Bologna
Piazza Maggiore at night, before a screening
Most silent films had live musical accompaniment on the piano
My group got to tour the facilities of the Cineteca di Bologna during our stay, this is one of several walls full of film reels
The negative from a Fellini film: A Director's Notebook!
The last screening of the festival was the restoration of Richard Lester's A Hard Day's Night!
Each year, the festival has categories that all of the films fit into. This year, the categories were as follows: Recovered and Restored, About 100 years ago: 1914, William Wellman: Between Silent and Sound, James Dean, The Golden ’50s: India’s Endangered Classics, Riccardo Freda: A Master of Popular Cinema, Italian Style Shorts: Part I (1952-1968), Werner Hochbaum: A Man Between, Dr. R. Portegg, I Presume?, Comedies by and with Rosa Porten, Germaine Dulac, A Cinema of Sensations, Views from Ottoman Empire 1896-1914, Cinema at War Against Hitler, The 50th Anniversary Österreichisches Filmmuseum, Japan Speaks Out! Shochiku’s Modern Times, Polish New Wave and CinemaScope, Documentaries, and Musical Orphanage.
Going to Bologna for the festival was amazing, I saw so many films that I might not have otherwise been able to see, and not only that, but I got to see them in a big theater full of cinephiles, and on real film with introductions by experts or even the director! I saw so many films, but I also got to see some of Bologna, which is so beautiful. I hope I can go back another summer for the festival in the future!
Written By Ellie Schlosser
