Resistance and Fight for Peace: Bologna's “Cinema Ritrovato” with 140.000 Spectators in 9 Days

A success also due to the fortunate intersection between new restorations of masterpieces or great films of the past with respect to the pressing current themes – resistance and fight for peace. There were 454 titles scheduled for the 39th „Il Cinema Ritrovato“ in Bologna. It was followed in its 9 days of programming (21th -29th June) in 8 theaters by approximately 140 thousand spectators, 5 thousand of whom were accredited from all over the world.

But beyond the growing numbers and even without having been able to enjoy it in its entirety, the selection put in place this year by the co-directors of the festival seemed to indicate a precise, not casual, narrative, absolutely focused on something that urgently touches contemporary existence: the need to rebel, to resist, to fight for peace and in general for a better world, of men and women.

And the extraordinary nature of the consideration lies in the fortunate intersection between the new restorations of masterpieces or great films of the past with respect to the pressing current themes. A striking example comes from the opening and closing films shown in Piazza Maggiore, respectively „Close Encounters of the Third Kind“ – „Director’s Cut“ (USA, 1977) by Steven Spielberg (projected in 70mm) and „Strike“ (URSS, 1924/25) by Sergej M. Ėjzenštejn (projected in 35mm and live music).

If the first can be read as the reconciliation between the human being and the alien (= the different) that in Trump’s America, but also in states led by sovereignist and nationalist governments, has the flavor of an authentic challenge, the second is one of the most striking manifestos of the rebellion against power from above (in the historical case against the Tsarist regime) by the people.

Also in Piazza Maggiore, in front of an audience that crowded it without any more seats “on the floor”, we saw, among others, a couple of American works in the name of “rupture”: „One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest“ (USA, 1975) by Miloš Forman and „Five Easy Pieces“ (USA, 1970) by Bob Rafelson, both emblematic titles of the New Hollywood and interpreted by an extraordinary Jack Nicholson, who represented the new face of the actor-against. Two films that rebel against every form of established system, whether they take shape in a psychiatric hospital or in a wealthy family in the state of Washington.

In short, four films that not only have profoundly marked their time, but that continue to speak to us both for the intrinsically cinematic value expressed, and for their push for socio-political change that unfortunately has returned to being a collective and individual emergency of our time. But not only Piazza Maggiore. In the theaters, among the thousand proposals, some paradigmatic retrospectives of an ancient and contemporary “feeling” paraded. Consider the review dedicated to the great, multifaceted and underrated American director Lewis Milestone (Lewis Milestone: „Of Men and Wars“) with a selection of titles that highlight his ability and courage to tell the story of war in its most deadly and dehumanizing meanings, made in the 1930s or in an era contemporary with World War II in which the feeling of patriotism was a priority.

War movies such as the pacifist masterpiece ante litteram „All Quiet on the Western Front“ (1930) based on Remarque's novel, the poignant „Salerno, Now X“ (1945) but also the devastating and existentialist „Of Mice and Men“ (1939) adapted from Steinbeck's masterpiece, which already puts an end to the American Dream.

And, although very differently, the “dialoguing” retrospectives dedicated respectively to the inimitable Katharine Hepburn (Kathrarine Hepburn: feminist, acrobat, lover) and to the great Japanese author Miikio Naruse (Pain and Passion: Miikio Naruse’s cinema before the war) expressed an opposition to machismo and patriarchy: If the first one made the public savor the often unconventional and rebellious characters embodied by the legendary American actress, the second one put on stage the submissive women of Japan in the 1930s with the clear intention of denouncing their condition, already in that era.

The only exception, extraordinarily and exquisitely feminist, is the protagonist of the beautiful „The Sorrows of a Woman“ (Nyonin aishu, 1937) whose protagonist, forced into an arranged marriage and reduced to a family slave, rebels and leaves.

Last but not least, there were conversations with exceptional authors of the present who are in their own way “rebels” or “resistors”: from Terry Gilliam to Jim Jarmusch, from Jonathan Glazer to Asghar Farhadi.