Among the films which the Cineteca di Bologna is digitising as part of a project to deal with nitrate elements in its collection suffering from significant physical and chemical decay, we have decided to screen four Pathé films at Il Cinema Ritrovato this year. Since we like to invent connecting threads, let’s say that all four deal with children (even if this is partially a lie, but that’s what children are like).
En Irlande: Excursion à Killarney takes us on a tourist excursion through mountain paths and still waters traversed by rowing boats and encompasses tables at a bar and local dances. Children appear suddenly in one shot, looking straight into the camera with the expression of someone who does not understand exactly what is going on.
L’Enfant des mariniers explores the classic theme of recognition with great relish. A disgraced husband takes a newborn from its mother. The baby is lovingly welcomed into a family living on a barge. The mother wanders along rivers and canals in search of her lost darling, earning the nickname of the “riverside nutcase”. We will not reveal the ending.
L’Enlisé du Mont-Saint-Michel is another powerful drama, which takes advantage of the unusual tides where it is set to spectacularly tragic effect. A noble-hearted tramp is taken in by a family as poor as it is charitable. Their little child bangs his head and is seriously injured. The tramp offers to race to dry land in order to fetch a doctor, but the mud he must cross is known to be a deadly trap. The crazy, brownish coloration of the print is the result of chemical decomposition.
[Puericultura] (The markings on the edge of the nitrate print place the date between 1909 and 1911); we are still searching for someone capable of identifying the film. The title given here was handwritten by an unidentified individual on a note inside the original can. In any case, it is set in a care home for children (possibly orphans), and we are shown both the weighing of babies and the Ring a Ring o’Roses of the older children. At least one shot is a masterpiece.

Andrea Meneghelli