Il Cinema Ritrovato XXV. (Restored Films)

Bologna is alive and well, the main piazza, Maggiore has been transformed into a massive cinema complex, with seating for several hundred, and a 20 x 50 meter screen. Last Saturday night we went down with Mike Nicholls and family to see two of the greatest films ever. Seating is free ,but you have to get there early, l rushed down with the boys and found 2 separate seats, sitting Ewan and Hunter on them, l stood in between them to look for Jayne and the others, who strangely were taking their time to arrive. In the end they found some great seats at the nearby bar and watched from there, while Ewan and I shared a chair, and Jayne and Hunter.
The first film was Le Voyage dans la Luna, 1901. Perfect for the kids, all about some astronomers deciding to build a rocket and fly to the moon, where they discover moon people, get into a fight and escape with one moon man hanging on all the way back to earth. It was hand coloured and gloriously humorous. The second which sadly the others left as it started, except Hunter who stayed with me, was Nosferatu, 1921, a vampire film, with the lead looking alot like Peter Garrett. Both films were accompanied by a full orchestra, which heightened the atmosphere. The whole piazza was full of people, those seated on chairs, others at the bars, and hundreds more sitting on the ground, and it started at 10pm, finishing at 12.15am.
All over Bologna in cinemas and buildings are films being shown, some for free, others you pay. Made from early in the 1900 up to 1970, films by Howard Hawkes, Luigi Zampa, , Richard Oswald, Boris Barnet, Eric Rohmer, Martin Scorsese, French, German, Russian, Italian and American.
There are many film festivals in Bologna, and one of the most prized schools in film here. Not surprising how popular and well received photography is in the galleries.
I would suggest that anyone interested in coming to Bologna would be well advised to try to link it when a film festival is on.

Studio

View from my studio

Mike Frayne playing with planes