A BOLOGNA DIARY - IL CINEMA RITROVATO DAY 3 - Dariush Mehrjui, Mitchell Leisen, Daisuke Ito, Roy Del Ruth - Updated critics' chart

 

Lyle Bettger, Barbara Stanwyck, John Lund, No Man of Her Own

The day got off to a ripping start with a screening of Dariush Mehrjui's 1974 masterpiece The Cycle. Restored by the Cinematheque Francaise from apparently the only surviving print (with burnt in French subtitles) this mighty film remains as a fearless stick poked at the rampant petty corruption in Iranian society... but its what you do to make a living.

 

It's becoming clear that Daisuke Ito had a very uneven output. I did not book any tickets for the silent films with Benshi accompaniment. An oversight I regret that arose largely because of my desire to restrict my schedule to the Jolly, Arlecchino and Lumiere cinemas. Mistake. The programming into the Modernissimo is probably the most adventurous and already includes the remarkable 3D screenings of Lumber Jack-Rabbit (Chuck Jones, USA, 1953) and The Phantom of the Rue Morgue (Roy Del Ruth, USA, 1954). The name Roy Del Ruth usually produces something between a shrug, an eye roll and oh no. The young person doing the intro gave us a brief history of 3D, mentioned the 'star' Karl Malden and was generally enthusiastic. Was Karl Malden ever a 'star'? I don't think so.

But four films into the Ito sound selection, with the latest being his possibly monumentally intended Oedo Gonin Otoko/Five Men From Edo (1951) have their longueurs. The last named film wasn't helped by an interminable and largely uninformative intro by Italian director Francesco Sossai. It included a sequence of Kabuki theatre that also lasted a couple of reels to make its point that the local Daimyo had a few skeletons in his closet.

The day was saved by Mitchell Leisen (USA, 1950). Leisen does it everywhere all the time, and another viewing of his great and only noir No Man of her Own confirmed his mastery. Imogen Sara Smith's intro was also a model of its kind.

Below is the latest chart with some entries by new contributor Ross Barnard long time administrator of the Sydney Film Festival (a role now elevated to the designation CEO) and now Secretary of the Cinema Pioneers.

Film	Geoff Gardner	Spiro Economopoulos	Ross Barnard
L’Innocente (Luchino Visconti)		****
Kuroi Junin No Onna/Ten Black Women (Kon Ichikawa)	*	***
Ten Seconds to Hell (Robert Aldrich)		***	***
Osho /The Chess Master(Daisuke Ito)	*
Amma Ariyan (John Abraham)	*
Geru No Kobi/The Servant’s Neck (Daisuke Ito	***
Oborokago/The Inner Palace Conspiracy (Daisuke Ito)	***
Ladies of Leisure (Frank Capra)			***
Sunrise (F W Murnau)			****
Night Nurse (William A Wellman)			***
The Overcoat (Grigory Kozintsev & Leonid Trauberg)			*
La Bugiarda (Luigi Comencini)			***
Putney Swope (Robert Downey)			***
Eight Girls in a Boat (Richard Wallace)	*		***
The Devils (Ken Russell)			****
Mirages de Paris (Feodor Ocep)	**
The Cycle (Dariush Mehrjui)	****