Jornal da Mostra
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Edição:
Renata de Almeida e Leon Cakoff
Memory of cinema holds to with a festival of films restored.
The 2006 list of classics restored is immense. And one of the outstanding features, long forgotten owing to a lengthy difference of opinion between director and producer, is “El Topo”, by Chilean Alejandro Jodorowsky. Jodorowsky is outstanding as a novelist, scriptwriter for comics, actor and film director, and performer with the Panique troupe. The festival presents two films of his that were landmarks in film making in the seventies. “The Holy Mountain/ A Montanha Sagrada”.will be shown together with “El Topo”
Cannes is offering yet another rarity restored by the Dutch film society – ‘’Mystery of the Eiffel Tower’’ (1927) - one of the last silent films by Frenchman Julien Duvivier, as a tribute to the Nederland Filmmuseum, that, in 1995, retrieved and restored “Beyond the Rocks” (selection for the 29th Mostra), with Gloria Swanson and Rudolph Valentino, a film that went missing for 75 years.
Tribute will also be paid to English actor and director Carol Reed (1906-1976), author of the renowned “O Terceiro Homem/ The Third Man” (1949). Cannes will show one of his films newly restored by the British Film Institute: “The Fallen Idol/ O Ídolo Caído” (1948), “Odd Man Out/ O Condenado” (1947), “The Way Ahead/ Caminho das Estrelas” (1944), and “Kid for Two Farthings/ A Rua da Esperança” (1955).
One of the most highly acknowledged masters of animation and of abstractionism, Canadian Norman McLaren (1914-1987), will be remembered in a selection from among over 147 short films he directed as Head of the National Film Board of Canada. The 90-minute programming, with restored versions of 35 mm film includes “Blinkity Blank” (Cannes Golden Palm, 1955) and “Neighbors” (Oscar for best short film in 1953).
The tribute to the Variety Centennial - “Variety” is the oldest U.S. publication on show business - will be “Boffo! Tinseltown’s Bombs and Blockbusters”, a documentary by Bill Couturié that was never released. The film was condemned for analyzing the various motives that lead to the success or to the failure of scores of people involved in business and in the art of film making, including acting and performing.
As a tribute to the Roberto Rossellini centennial (1906-1977), the Festival includes his classic film “Roma, Cidade Aberta” and the documentary “Once Upon a Time... Rome Open City”, by Marie Genin and Serge July. Also from Italy, a documentary, “Marcello, una vita dolce”, by Mario Canale and Annarosa Morri, ten years after the death of the great actor Marcello Mastroianni.
And the third documentary that was never released will be “John Ford/ John Wayne: the Filmmaker and the Legend”, by Sam Pollard, shown before the viewing in digital of “The Searchers/ Rastros de Ódio”, a classic by John Ford made in 1956.
The attractive list of films restored includes the series “Nausicaä of the Valley of Wind”, a rarity in animation by Japanese master Hayao Miyazaki (“A Viagem de Chihiro/ Spirited Away” – Oscar for best animation). With the success in 1984 of this film, Miyazaki founded his animation studio, Ghibli, in Tokyo..
Another film recovered is the U.S. production “Blast of Silence”, by Allen Baron (1961), a police intrigue set in New York with a great deal of jazz, now raised to the category of cult. By Serguei Eisenstein, on view, is the restored version of the engaging “Outubro/ Oktyabr”, from 1926, in a hitherto unknown version with two musical items by Shostakovitch.
Tribute is also paid to Valerio Zurlini with the restored copy of “Verão Violento/Estate Violenta” (1959). Zurlini deserved special mention at the 25th Mostra International Film Festival with a large retrospective. And to one of the pioneers in Italian cinema, Giovanni Pastrone, the monumental and impressive “Cabiria”, from 1914, regarded as one of the landmarks of silent movies. Another special presentation among the films restored is “Monte-Cristo”, by Frenchman Henri Fescourt (1928), considered one of the last super-productions of the silent movies worldwide. This film was also a favorite of the great film maker Alain Resnais who saw the film repeatedly in his youth.
Restored versions in French cinema include “La Drôlesse”, by Jacques Doillon (1979) and “India Song”, by Marguerite Duras (1975). The Bologne Film Library has contributed with a restored version of an African classic – “Harvest: 3.000 Years/ Mirt Sost Shi Amit”, by Haïlé Gerima (1975), a moving agrarian drama and a rare instance of Ethiopian cinema. From China, also included is “The 14 Amazons/ Shi si nu ying hão”, directed by Cheng Kang in 1972.
And Oliver Stone has taken the opportunity to present the first 20 minutes of his new film “World Trade Center” and also, to show the restored version of his film, “Platoon”, from 1986.Cinema is, to be sure, fraught with memory.
For further information:
www.festival-cannes.org
