2023 Ritrovato on Tour

Lecture by Pamela Hutchinson:
"Il Cinema Ritrovato: The Future of Film History"

Thursday, May 11 at 4:30 PM | FREE | The Main Cinema

Following the talk, please join us from 6pm–7 pm in the lobby of The Main Cinema for Il Cinema Ritrovato on Tour's Opening Night reception. Hosted by Archives on Screen, Twin Cities.

To celebrate Opening Night of Minneapolis's first annual Il Cinema Ritrovato on Tour festival, film critic and historian Pamela Hutchinson will give a talk introducing Il Cinema Ritrovato: Italy's festival of restored and rediscovered cinema held annually in Bologna. Hutchinson will describe the festival, explaining how it is programmed and how it deepens our understanding of the depth and breadth of film history. Her lecture will explore how the festival impacts film programming, spectatorship, scholarship, and criticism around the world, from the archival discoveries first shared at the festival to its support for both film restoration, physical media releases, and the exhibition of archival prints. Hutchinson's talk will also discuss Il Cinema Ritrovato's influence on the growing number of events in other countries that champion and exhibit archival and restored films, including the various traveling versions of "Ritrovato on Tour" in cities across the United States and the globe.

Pamela Hutchinson is a freelance critic, curator, and film historian based on the south coast of England. She writes for titles including Sight and Sound, Criterion, the Guardian, and Empire, and she regularly appears on BBC radio. Her publications include BFI Film Classics on The Red Shoes (forthcoming) and Pandora's Box, as well as essays in several edited collections, mostly on silent film. She has curated film seasons including Marlene Dietrich: Falling in Love Again and In the Eyes of a Silent Star: The Films of Asta Nielsen for BFI Southbank in London and the nationwide touring programme Pre-Code Hollywood: Rules are Made to be Broken with Christina Newland. In 2021, she delivered the Philip French Memorial Lecture at Cinema Rediscovered (Bristol, UK). She also edits Sight and Sound’s Weekly Film Bulletin and her website SilentLondon.co.uk is devoted to silent cinema.

To learn more about Il Cinema Ritrovato's important work, check out this short video.

Béhula + Salomé

Thursday, May 11 at 7:00 PM | The Main Cinema

Béhula
France, India | Directed by Camille Legrand | 1921 | 55 min | Courtesy Fondation Jérôme Seydoux-Pathé

Most of India's prolific silent film productions have disappeared. Miraculously, we came upon Béhula, adapted from a Bengali legend in the Manasa Mangal—the epic cycle dedicated to the Snake Goddess, Manasa. The film is presented with a recorded composition.

Salomé
USA | Directed by Charles Bryant, Alla Nazimova | 1922/1923 | 72 min | Courtesy Flicker Alley and Kino Lorber

A hypnotic adaptation of Oscar Wilde’s play, this 1922 queer fever dream ruffled a few feathers in its day, but has since become a touchstone of repertory silent film. Natacha Rambova’s extravagant design and Alla Nazimova’s gestural performance reached their zenith in Salomé. The film is presented with a recorded composition.

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Far From Home (Dar Ghorbat / In der Fremde)

Friday, May 12 at 7:00 PM | The Main Cinema

Iran, Germany | Directed by Sohrab Shahid Saless | 1975 | 93 min | Turkish, German | Courtesy Saless Archives

The third film in an unplanned trilogy focusing on social isolation and stillness, Far From Home follows a few days in the life of Husseyin (played by the Iranian Parviz Sayyad), a Turkish ‘guest worker’ who shares a flat in West Berlin with a group of fellow Turks.

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Canoa: A Shameful Memory (Canoa: Memoria de un Hecho Vergonzoso)

Friday, May 12 at 9:00 PM | The Main Cinema

Mexico | Directed by Felipe Cazals | 1976 | 115 min | Spanish | Courtesy Janus Films

One of Mexico’s most highly regarded works of political cinema, Canoa: A Shameful Memory reimagines a real-life incident when a group of urban university employees on a hiking trip were viciously attacked by residents of the village of San Miguel Canoa.

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The Circus Tent (Thamp̄)

Saturday, May 13 at 12:00 PM | The Main Cinema

India | Directed by Aravindan Govindan | 1978 | 130 min | Malayalam | Courtesy Film Heritage Foundation

Thamp̄ is a poetic, allegorical film that gently explores the transience of human relationships and the rootlessness of the marginalized through the ripples created in the bucolic existence of a village on the banks of a river by the arrival of a roving circus troupe.

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Algeria in Flames (Algérie en Flammes) + Les Mains libres

Saturday, May 13 at 2:30 PM | The Main Cinema

Algeria in Flames (Algérie en Flammes)
Algeria, France | Directed by René Vautier | 1958 | 22 min | French | Courtesy Moira Chappedelaine-Vautier

Algeria in Flames depicts acts of resistance during wartime and in everyday life, as well as documenting the tragic massacre of Sakiet Sidi Youssef. The film cost Vautier physical injuries and a long spell in prison, but he had no regrets.

Les Mains libres
Algeria | Directed by Ennio Lorenzini | 1964 | 56 min | French | Courtesy Casbah Entertainment

Using the aesthetic of militant cinema of the time, Les Mains libres displays a rich array of archival material from the Algerian war: rarely-seen photos, footage, press clippings. It is the first international Algerian film production.

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Laborer's Love (Laogong Zhi Aiqing)
+ I by Day, You by Night (Ich bei Tag und du bei Nacht)

Saturday, May 13 at 4:15 PM | The Main Cinema

Laborer's Love (Laogong Zhi Aiqing)
China | Directed by Shichuan Zhang | 1922 | 23 min | Chinese, English | Courtesy China Film Archive

The early 1920s saw an unprecedented cinema craze in China. It was in this sizzling ambiance that Zhang Shichuan and Zheng Zhengqiu made Laogong zhi aiqing, a slapstick satirical commentary about an unflappable fruit seller who is in love with the daughter of a doctor. The silent film will screen with live musical accompaniment by Zimu Ma on the guzheng. Original music composed by Cong Liu.

I by Day, You by Night
Germany | Directed by Ludwig Berger | 1932 | 98 min | German | Courtesy Murnau Stiftung

A tale of interiors and interiorities, a comedy of mistaken identity that folds in on itself. I by Day, You by Night is about matchmaking and filmmaking becoming one and the same: an artistic practice giving us access to our own desires.

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The Long Farewell (Dolgie Provody)

Saturday, May 13 at 7:00 PM | The Main Cinema

Russia | Directed by Kira Muratova | 1971 | 97 min | Russian | Courtesy Janus Films

Divorcee Evgeniia Vasilevna has spent 15 years working at the same desk as a technical translator. She is equally stuck in the rut of her mothering role, refusing to acknowledge that her son Sasha has grown up, as in many ways she refuses to grow up herself.

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Flaming Ears (Rote Ohren fetzen durch Asche)

Saturday, May 13 at 9:00 PM | The Main Cinema

Austria | Directed by Ursula Pürrer, Dietmar Schipek, Ashley Hans Scheirl | 1991 | 89 min | German, English | Courtesy Kinothek Asta Nielsen

Flaming Ears is a pop science fiction lesbian fantasy feature set in the year 2700. It’s a story of love and revenge, and an anti-romantic plea for love in its many forms—a cyberdyke movie that stimulates both the body and the brain.

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