Since my first visit, the Festival de Cannes welcomes the World Cinema Foundation created in Cannes in 2007 by Martin Scorsese along with other filmmakers, for a selection of restoration films as part of our collective cinema history. CNC hosts an annual lunch for Cinematheques and Archives at the Plage des Palmes located on the peninsula jutting past the palais and along the Boulevard de la Croisette is a gorgeous place for hosted events when not raining.
Its noncompetitve programming here dedicated to other aspects of cinema include Cannes Classics celebrating cinema heritage highlighting past, presented in with new or restored prints. International film studios champion a film that fits within their own sense of history –whatever it may be– (normally the biggest box office numbers) and provide a restored version for a screening tribute.
How many know or would ever get to see Alfred Hitchcock’s early silent films (all nine) The Ring (1927), with a live music “cine-concert” accompaniment by Stephen Home. This restoration was undertaken by the BFI National Archive and funded by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association among others. David Lean’s Lawrence of Arabia (1962) restored by Sony Pictures Entertainment is “a must see” every summer at the AFI Theater in downtown Silver Spring, Maryland.
The restoration of Once Upon a Time in America (1984), a classic spaghetti western by Sergio Leone, was requested by Martin Scorsese and supervised by the Cinematheque of Bologna at the Immagine Rtrovata laboratory in association with Andrea Leone films, the Film Foundation and Regency Enterprises and funded by the Film Foundation and Gucci. Next time I see the film, I’ll keep an eye out for the footwear. Apparently, there is an additional 25 minutes of additional scenes based on the director’s cut.
Celebrating its centennial, the surprise choice for Universal Studios was Jaws. In one hundred years and the number of classic films that could have been chosen, the money was spent on a mechanical shark. While it may be argued that this was the first summer blockbuster (it scared people away from the beaches killing the local seaside summer economy but building the weekend box office success mentality) it misses the point of the World Cinema Foundation for restoring films for cinematic posterity.
Cannes also celebrates the 30th anniversary of the Dance Cinematheque (Paris) with A Great Day in Harlem (1994) by Jean Bach and two early jazz shorts that are undated but the titles identify the times, An All Colored Vaudeville Show and Jammin’ the Blues.
In 2011, Cannes Classics introduced the Rossellini Project, a collaboration between long worded titles of film institutions in Italy: Instituto Luce Cinecitta, Cineteca di Bologna, CSC- Cineteca Nazionale and the Co-Production Film Office. This year, they present a restored print of Viaggio in Italia (Journey to Italy) (1954) by Roberto Rossellini and starring Ingrid Bergman and George Sanders, a bored couple and their disintegrating marriage.
Cinema de la Plage where Cannes Classics and out-of-competition films are shown free for the public on a big screen at Mace beach. There is also a program dedicated to film music. Things are much closer to what the Film Foundation’s intentions are. Perhaps no instructions were included in the restoration submissions.
05/25/2012
Film Festivals