Il Cinema Ritrovato XL, Bologna June 2026

I was fortunate to attend this year’s 40th Il Cinema Ritrovato in Bologna – so many films (over 400!), screened in 6 theaters and 2 piazzas. A theme of celebrating strong women ran through the festival: one featured actor was Barbara Stanwyck, in Double Indemnity, Forty Guns, Clash by Night, and Ball of Fire. Films of Josephine Baker were also celebrated: Princesse Tam Tam, Fausse Alerte – in which she plays a sly amused match-maker between a man and woman who’ve been cultivating enmity for generations, and La Sirene de Tropique, along with numerous short clips of her performances. An extensive exhibit was devoted to the lifework of Agnes Varda, and her film Vagabond screened at Piazza Maggiore, introduced by her daughter Rosalie for a crowd of thousands as the evening sky darkened. 

Also on hand were Isabella Rossellini, Wim Wenders, Irene Jacob. A special video appearance by Mel Brooks helped us all to celebrate his 100th birthday – the crowd sang the Italian version of Happy Birthday, which he gladly acknowledged – prior to a screening of Young Frankenstein in the Piazza Maggiore. 

Given the centrality of film restoration, one of the festival highlights was Beyond Zero: 1914-1918, assembled by Bill Morrison in 2024 from fragments of nitrate stock from the US National Archives. These fleeting and damaged images show soldiers digging trenches, moving artillery piece by piece through snow, a horse corps, tanks, biplanes in combat, a zeppelin launched, and at the end a lone parachutist descending slowly to earth. The holes and discolorations in the film stock make the age of this footage more poignant – here is what remains of a record of war. In a time when we can no longer trust the images presented to us, these deteriorated clips are a testament to the importance of authenticity, of recording events. The Kronos Quartet contributed the score. 

Another treat was films of Daisuke Ito, a Japanese director who made samurai films, silent and sound, notably Five Men of Edo, and Osho, a gentle story about a chess-obsessed husband/ father who cannot stop himself from pawning household goods to pay admission to chess tournaments. I was also introduced to the work of Mitchell Leisen, a maker of light fare with matinee idols. We saw his 1941 film Hold Back the Dawn about immigrants cooling their heels in a Mexico border town while trying increasingly-desperate ways to enter the US. 

During Wim Wenders’ conversation with cinema savant Gianluca Farinelli about his career and the making of his first (student) film, Summer in the City, still unreleased, he reflected on the difference between scripted stories and his naturalistic camera work: it was hard to know when to “Cut!” As the actors continued, something surprising could arise at any time: “Who am I to interrupt this?” he asked. Having blown his full budget on filming, he had nothing left for post-production, where editing, soundtrack, and organization of footage take place. He used music from the Kinks, the Troggs, and Bob Dylan without securing the rights. His sound engineer, admonished to avoid the hiss of too-loud audio, turned conversation sound so low the actors are barely audible. 

Wenders also made the point that it was only after coming to Hollywood that he encountered his German predecessors: Fritz Lang, F.W. Murnau, Ernst Lubitsch, and became aware of his lineage as a filmmaker. Wenders remarked that when he feels safe in a film – when he trusts the director to be honest – he often sleeps. He long felt apologetic about this, but finally came around to accept this as a valid response to the comfort of being in a safe place. 

Scorsese was featured with The Color of Money, 20-year-old Tom Cruise lighting up the screen with flamboyant pool-playing and the sheer joy of being so good at something. Paul Newman and Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio do their utmost to bring him around to the strategies of the hustler’s game, but they have a tough job – his exuberance just won’t cool off. A less-characteristic film was Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, in which Ellen Burstyn plays the abruptly-widowed mother of an 11-year-old son, scrambling to make a living as a singer and finally a waitress. Mother and son’s free-wheeling banter gives the film buoyancy. Scorsese rounded out his part in the festival with a Piazza Maggiore screening of New York, New York, a flop at the time but an over-the-top evocation of lives and places dear to him. 

Many of these films were made in the 1950s, 60s, 70s and 80s, a useful reminder of the richness of cinematic history. Viewing Luchino Visconti’s sumptuous 1963 epic Il Gattopardo (starring Burt Lancaster and Claudia Cardinale) was a treat, on the big screen it deserves. 

For me, the finest point in the festival was Krysztof Kieslowski’s Trois Couleurs: Rouge, his final film, from 1994. A conversation with Irene Jacob preceded it, and her moving performance as a woman leading with love and kindness, matched against Jean-Louis Trintignant’s jaded cynic, proved yet again for this viewer Kieslowski’s insight into human emotion and connection, with his fearless use of parallel experiences, repeated images, and how the heart may challenge the mind and prevail. He is the filmmaker of our highest potential, his creative approach to human relationships opening our eyes and hearts.