<\/p>\n
by David Bordwell<\/p>\n
Immense scale and teeming\u00a0activity are nothing new to Il Cinema Ritrovato<\/a>, the Cineteca di Bologna\u2019s annual jamboree of restored and rediscovered films from all over the world. The scorching heat\u201390 degrees and more for the first few days\u2013only makes it seem more intense than usual. Kristin and I had to miss the last Ritrovato session, but we\u2019re convinced that this nine days\u2019 wonder is still the film-history equivalent of Cannes. <\/p>\n In one way, your choice is simple. You can follow one or two threads\u2013say, the Robert Mitchum<\/a> retrospective or the Colette and cinema<\/a> one or the classic Mexican<\/a> one, or whatever\u2013and dig deep into that. Or you can skip among many, sampling several, smorgasbord-style. In practice, I think most Ritrovatoians pursue a mixed strategy. Settle down one day for a string of, say, early Universal<\/a> talkies and another day check out the restored color items. On off-days roam freely. The problem is you will always, always miss something you would otherwise kill to see.<\/p>\n At the start, I plumped for\u00a01910s films, particularly Mariann Lewinsky\u2019s reliable\u00a0100 Years Ago<\/em><\/a> cycle. My other must was the Japanese films from the 1930s<\/a>; half of the titles brought by Alexander Jacoby and Johan Nordstr\u00f6m, were new to me. As of this writing, I haven\u2019t seen those, but I have dug into the 1917 items. And I indulged myself\u00a0with, no surprise, some gorgeous Hollywood things.<\/p>\n