Journal of Film Preservation - FIAF

welcome occasions like the chance to see at long last Ludwig Beck’s INRI
- die Katastrophe eines Volkes - a tragic vision of the troubled times -, or
an opportunity to see the work of directors that still remain to most of
us more just names than a concrete knowledge – Tintner... von Bolvary
...Eichberg... even Wiene. Ich küsse Ihre Hand, Madame! (Robert Land,
1929) was one of the unlimited pleasures of the week, Frauen, die nicht
dürfen (Geza von Bolvary, 1925) a tough film from a director before and
after mostly in the midst of his “gnädige, schöne Frau” comedies – a film
about the fakes and grotesques of the world of money, about the cruel
working of years on the human face, about the inevitable perversion of
youth.
The lost continent of Mitteleuropa became thus strangely palpable and
familiar so that some views from the outside startled authentically: O destino
(Portugal) directed by the Frenchman Georges Pallu, a Chinese picture
poem (A Poet from the Sea, 1928). In good programming the old
montage principle of “one plus one is now two but 2 plus...” always
works, and thus also here even the shorts got very exciting. There were
some very feeble copies (an incomprehensible rendering of the always
expected Segundo de Chomon) but also a great set of jokes from Fregoli
(1898-1903 – saved by the grace of “Lumière”), a fine print of the
incredible Pathé film called Un coup d’oeil par étage which as a celebration
of voyeurism grows into a missing link between Grandma’s Looking
Glass and Rear Window... and a rare occasion of the authentic futurist
cinema in La Gazza Ladra (or Rivista Luce N. 2) – a unique testimony of
its moment, and as such a moment worth the whole trip.
Perhaps there were masterpieces, although that is not so important.
Faust, the sublime restoring job of Luciano Berratúa and Filmoteca
Española, became a crowning moment only the last afternoon instead of
the first evening (when one of the few – the only – sad moment of the
festival was experienced, as the lights of Piazza Maggiore and the orchestra
sabotaged the noble image). Other great moments were given their
full value, and more. Bologna is on its way to set a new standard with
wonderful musicians like Maud Nelissen, Paul A. Hensel, Marco Dalpane
or inspired groups like DIRE GELT – the music was all in all clearly an
inspired result of an overall plan instead of just taking care of single performances
one at a time.
The magnificent Rapsodia Satanica was a perfect show to end the week
which, from the “masterpiece point of view”, included The Lodger,
Yiddishe Glikn (the true miracle of the week), then two long lost French
masterpieces (or near so), the wholly impressive Belle Dame sans Merci
(Germaine Dulac, 1920) and the intensely complicated and intriguing
Marcel L’Herbier film about the nature of appearances, truth and illusion
– Le vertige which incidentally is frighteningly near the themes of
another film of almost the same name – a certain Vertigo...
I experienced especially luminously – some weeks have gone and I can
witness their force – the faces – they sure had faces then – from the time
when their illumination was general knowledge and when writers like
the young Béla Balazs knew that the human face is “der einzige Text”,
61 Journal of Film Preservation / 53 / 1996
Féru de découvertes, l’auteur nous
propose, sa chronique à la fois enthousiaste
et critique, subjective et
juste, partielle et en même temps
globale de l’expérience que
représente la participation, pendant
huit jours, à un festival
unique dans une ville unique: Il
cinema ritrovato à Bologne.
Au gré des aléas conjugués des
programmes, du paysage urbain
Bolonais, de la bonne table, des
rencontres et des limitations
imposées par Hypnos, Peter von
Bagh nous invite à participer à son
bonheur.