IL CINEMA RITROVATO - A Bologna Diary - Opening Day and some underwhelming moments

Fists in the Pocket

Il Cinema Ritrovato gets underway on a Saturday afternoon. That's after a bit of show business involving the festival's artistic direction team in the marvellous Modernissimo cinema under a corner of Bologna's Piazza Maggiore. Last night  a few people sneaked off to see Marco Bellocchio introduce a 4K restoration of his debut feature Fists in the Pocket.  It was hailed as a masterpiece back in the day and remains so..or at least that was the advice of someone who was there. Two years ago Bellocchio, who is the Chair of the Foundation that manages the Cineteca di Bologna (pardon if my understanding of the governance arrangements is a bit thin) presented his film Slap the Monster on Page One, a brilliant excoriation of the right wing yellow press which Cinema Reborn went after for its 2025 season but to no avail. The rights holder didn't answer our polite email enquiries.

But the real show started today and for me there were three screenings in a row in the Jolly Cinema. Two years ago it was loudly trumpeted that the aircon in the Jolly had finally been fixed but the sad news is that it seems to have, like many Catholics, lapsed once more. The swelter seems to be back.

Amma Ariyan

First up though was Amma Ariyan (John Abraham, India, 1986)  from India's Parallel Cinema cohort. The catalogue notes tell us this was  "Abraham’s final work before his untimely death in 1987. It is a film that details the history of revolutionary politics in Kerala through the prism of the road movie, adopting an iconoclastic structure in which flashbacks, ellipses and inserts punctuate the narrative with personal and historical reports on social resistance and political disillusionment, including the militant labour riots of Cochin in 1953." 

The restored film screened in Cannes Classics just last month and the restoration work was done by Shivendra Singh Dengapur's Film Heritage Foundation. Anti Alanen told me how impressed he was by it, a profound film. I found watching it a slog I have to say. Screened in a superb 4K restoration where a lot of work has been done on the sound.

Publicity shot for Easy Living

Light relief followed with Mitchell Leisen's Easy Living,  screening on a 35mm print, the first film in the Leisen strand and kicking off with one of the director's least subtle comedies. There are likely more pratfalls in this movie than in the rest of Leisen's entire career. It's called screwball and the moments when Jean Arthur expresses her incomprehension as to why such privilege and lavish hospitality is being rained down on her are brilliant. Preston Sturges script is either too broad for comfort or Leisen made it so. Who will ever know but it may have been one of those crucial moments that caused Sturges to want to film his own scripts.

Daisuke Ito may well have been a totally unknown (outside Japan) name until the Bologna team announced it was devoting a major retrospective to him. Curator Johan Nordstrom spelt out in detail just how much institutional and corporate assistance has gone into the Daisuke Ito selection - three silent films with Benshi and traditional Japanese instrumental accompaniment, plus a seven film sound period selection. 

Osho

Co-curator Alexander Jacoby introduced the first Ito sound film Osho  suggesting that it was slightly to one side of Ito's Jidaigeki  movies. The catalogue note says Osho is "Arguably the most famous film of Ito’s postwar career, ... a biopic of a master of shogi (the canonical Japanese variant of chess). From a humble background, illiterate and initially selftaught, Sakata Sankichi (1870-1946) rose to rank among the great players of his generation. Ito focuses on his rivalry with Kinjiro Sekine, the leading professional player of his era.

Chess is not a great background for a movie of interest to many. Dont ask me how I know this, I just do. This film doesn't jump that hurdle and the ecstasy of an obsessed man and the agony of those who have to put up with his obsessions is not something that grabbed me. I think I'm going to be even more appreciative of the jidaigeki movies to come.

The excitement of the day wasn't/isn't on the movie screen. As I write this Ivory Coast is putting up a great show in its World Cup match against Germany. The Africans are far more imaginative, elegant and exciting...It's 1/1...who knows...

Streaming on YouTube - Reminders of Donald O'Connor and Ethel Merman...and Vera-Ellen

Donald O'Connor had the misfortune to play second banana to Gene Kelly in the greatest musical of all.  He had his moments but it's Kelly's rain-soaked street solo that everyone remembers. O'Connor does a bit of best mate stuff and some zany dancing in the Make 'em laugh number  but it's Kelly and Debbie Reynolds to the forefront.

"What else has Donald O'Connor been in?" was the question and the immediate YouTube answer was Call Me Madam  and There's No Business Like Show Business. Superb copies including full Cinemascope for No Business which you can find if you click on each film's title. And at least when we watched, totally uninterrupted by other than a single advertisement before each film started. 

In each O'Connor gets to do a seriously good solo... and in each he has to deal with the greatest song belter of them all Ethel Merman. Cole Porter is reported to have said: "When you write lyrics for Ethel Merman they'd better be good because everyone's going to hear them.''

Both of the films originate from that period in the early 50s into the 60s when Fox made some big budget, somewhat bloated musicals. Merman had starred in Irving Berlin's Call Me Madam on Broadway. It was a huge success and Merman recreated her Broadway role. O'Connor was brought in to play the brash young press attache Kenneth Gibson.  O'Connor has two brilliant numbers, the first a solo song and dance  and the second a number with the gorgeous Vera-Ellen. (13 shots in 4'46" and 13 shots in 5'04" respectively, the economy in the filming is remarkable) and Vera-Ellen demonstrates once again what a phenomenal dancer she was. Her singing voice was however dubbed. More of the O'Connor/Vera-Ellen magic is on show in one of the various iterations of "It's A Lovely Day Today".

Fox had Merman and O'Connor back in harness within a year with There's No Business Like Show Business. The star ensemble was added to by Dan Dailey, Marilyn Monroe, Johnny Ray and Mitzi Gaynor, to make a backstage showbiz family story of ups and downs and  happy endings. Sixteen numbers ranging by Irving Berlin, with the title song lifted from another Merman/Irving Berlin show Annie Get Your Gun. And that was basically it for Merman's starring screen career. 

During this time O'Connor was saddled (pardon the pun) himself with a contract at Universal. Wikipedia comes to the rescue for a succinct summary. "In 1949, O'Connor played the lead role in Francis, the story of a soldier befriended by a talking mule. Directed by Arthur Lubin, the film was a huge success. As a consequence, his musical career was constantly interrupted by production of one Francis film per year until 1955. O'Connor later said the films "were fun to make. Actually, they were quite challenging. I had to play straight in order to convince the audience that the mule could talk.

"He did Francis Goes to the Races (1951), another big hit. In February 1951 he signed a new contract with Universal for one film a year for four years, enabling him to work outside the studio.

"He received excellent notices for Francis Joins the WACS (1954) and was scheduled to play Bing Crosby's partner in White Christmas (1954). O'Connor was forced to withdraw because he contracted an illness transmitted by the mule." That's showbiz.

...and for another sample of Vera-Ellen's magic here's her Miss Sadie Thompson number from Love Happy

...and dancing with Fred Astaire in Three Little Words