Please note: This was screened in July 2016
A historic programme of striking short films curated by II Cinema Ritrovato festival and restored by L'Immagine Ritrovata labs. This collection showcases Kinemacolor and the Pochoir colour technique, which employed elaborate stencils to add precise colour detail to two-tone Kinemacolor prints.
Patented in England, this short-lived commercial film format produced a series of absolutely spectacular films, a strikingly colourful chapter from the mostly black and white days of early cinema. With a new digital restoration direct from the collections held in Bologna, this is an excellent opportunity to experience these films as they were meant to be seen: with an audience, on the big screen, and with live music. Context is key to these rarely shown shorts, and with deft accompaniment from the pianist John Sweeney, and with an introduction from festival director and film expert Gian Luca Farinelli, there can be no better way to approach this historic collection.
This event is presented by Bologna’s Il Cinema Ritrovato the inspiration for Cinema Rediscovered with thanks to Cineteca Di Bologna.
Running order:
Coiffures et types de Hollande (France, 1910, 3mins, Pathé)
Restoration by Cineteca di Bologna at L'Immagine Ritrovata laboratory in 2010, from a nitrate print held in Amos Levoni collection deposited at Cineteca di Bologna.
Rapsodia Satanica (Dir Nino Oxilia, Italy, 1915-17, 45mins)
The 4K digital restoration was produced from a tinted, toned and hand-painted positive print belonging to the Cinémathèque Suisse. The original score, composed by Pietro Mascagni, allowed for the correct reconstruction of the film. The restoration was promoted by Fondazione Cineteca di Bologna and the Cinémathèque Suisse.
Plus a selection of Kinemacolor Shorts restored in 2016 by Cineteca di Bologna:
The Harvest (UK, 1908, 6mins)
L’inaugurazione del campanile di San Marco (Italy, 1912, 12mins)
Plotoni nuotatori della IIl divisione cavalleria comandata da S.A.R. il conte di torino (Dir. Luca Comerio, Italy, 1912, 9mins)
Fording The River (UK, 1910 3mins)
Image c/o Fondazione Cineteca di Bologna