Il Cinema Ritrovato Festival Presents

At the end of June, Bologna comes alive with a collective ritual: thousands gather in the largest open-air cinema – Piazza Maggiore – to “rediscover” films from the past, for some their first encounter, for others a return. This is the Il Cinema Ritrovato (“Rediscovered Cinema”) festival, marking its 40th anniversary this year. Its creator and director, Gian Luca Farinelli, calls it a “time and space machine”. The journeys that take place here are not only numerous but also full of passion, and the cinematic cosmos – seen from this perspective – appears vast and diverse, full of discoveries.

However, there is another reason why this international event and its organizer, Cineteca di Bologna, are so important. It is the establishment in 1992 of L’Immagine Ritrovata (“The Rediscovered Image”) – one of the world’s most renowned and respected laboratories specializing in film restoration. Although the magic of the Bologna festival lies primarily in its diversity – of films and audiences alike – the quality of the copies and film reels also matters, as scratches, frame jitters, and yellowed colors take on a tangible, almost physical charm during screenings. Undoubtedly, the immense work of the L’Immagine Ritrovata laboratory allows us today to “rediscover” the splendor of historical screenings as experienced by both filmmakers and their first audiences. It is this splendor that once again enchants viewers in Bologna.

In keeping with the spirit of Il Cinema Ritrovato, this section aims primarily to present the Timeless Film Festival audience with six diverse works of Italian cinema in beautiful, restored versions, straight from Bologna. A distinctly “Italian”, yet far from obvious, selection in which different poetics – the films were made in different decades – enter into a surprisingly close dialogue. From Antonio Pietrangelo’s I Knew Her Well to Marco Ferreri’s The Ape Woman, from Bernardo Bertolucci’s The Spider’s Stratagem and The Dreamers to Lina Wertmüller’s Swept Away by an Unusual Destiny in the Blue Sea of August and Nanni Moretti’s Dear Diary — this selection represents exceptionally original cinema, marked by a critical gaze, figures of doubt, and characters reluctant to fully anchor themselves in reality and the world around them.

The body – especially the female body – becomes a site of social, economic, and ideological negotiation. From exploitation in The Ape Woman, through erotic violence in Wertmüller, to fetishization in Bertolucci’s films, physicality reveals hidden relationships of power and conflict. Dear Diary and The Dreamers bring this conflict into the realm of self reflection and memory, showing how ideologies – political, cultural, and cinematic –colonize intimacy. Each of these films undermines the dominant narratives of its era: the myths of social advancement, revolution, sexual freedom, love, or political engagement. Rather than confirming official histories, they expose their cracks, revealing whom they serve and how. Freedom appears as a private and fragile illusion – an attractive promise that often conceals loneliness, inequality, and loss.

The self-awareness of this cinema, which reflects on the power of images, the construction of narrative, and the very act of seeing, is worth careful consideration. Aesthetically and narratively – and entirely in an Italian style – different tones collide or intertwine within a single film: irony and melancholy, eroticism and cruelty, grotesque and tragedy coexist. Instead of offering easy emotional comfort, these films suggest conflict as a fundamental mode of human creation and understanding of the world. And within this conflict, as is so often the case with classics, a surprising form of human love is born.

The irresistible and enduring appeal of classics – as you well know – applies to cinema as well. Years later, you may encounter a good old friend, find a lost book, or return to a forgotten film. But can you “rediscover” a film you have never known before? That is the magic of cinema. This place – a ritual where you can gaze, fall in love, get lost – and find yourself. Not alone, but together. Loudly and quietly, together.

Stanisław Bardadin

Films presented in the Il Cinema Ritrovato Presents section:

• I Knew Her Well / Io la conoscevo bene (Antonio Pietrangeli, 1965),
• The Spider’s Stratagem / La strategia del ragno (Bernardo Bertolucci, 1970),
• Swept Away By un Unusual Destiny in the Blue Sea of August / Travolti da un insolito destino nell’azzurro mare d’agosto (Lina Wertmüller, 1974),
• Dear Diary / Caro diario (Nanni Moretti, 1993),
• The Ape Woman / La donna scimmia (Marco Ferreri, 1964),
• The Dreamers (Bernardo Bertolucci, 2003).

Section curator: Stanisław Bardadin.

The section’s partners are Fondazione Cineteca di Bologna, Il Cinema Ritrovato Festival and Istituto Italiano di Cultura di Varsavia.

Text translated by Barbara Feliga.