Events

The BRIFF has collaborated with the
Cineteca di Bologna to bring together
five fully restored gems, emblematic of
the transalpine cinematographic art of the
1950s and 1960s. Signed by the country’s
greatest directors such as Antonioni, Ferreri
and Pasolini, and then coated with the
“amore” that the Italians have established as
an art of living, they generously contribute
to enriching the cinematographic heritage
of the most romantic of peninsulas.
Last but not least: starring in three of our
five selected films, the fabulous Marina
Vlady will honour us with her presence
during this fifth edition of the festival.

Here is what Guy Borlée, coordinator of the Bologna Cinematheque, says:

“I chose five not well known gems that
highlight different facets of the Italian
cinema. Five stories that show the incredible
talent of the Italian filmmakers to describe
amore and to change the world. Marina
Vlady, radiant with beauty in three of the
films will share with you her memories and
her emotions.
In Giorni d’amore by Giuseppe De Santis,
Marina Vlady is but 16 years old when finds
herself sharing top billing with young star
Marcello Mastroianni. Two poor peasant
families in the south are in a feud worthy
of Verona and unable to accept la passione
between their children.
La Ragazza in vetrina which boasts Pasolini
as one of its screenwriters cost director
Luciano Emmer his career. He dared to show
l’attrazione fatale between an Italian miner
and Marin Vlady, an Amsterdam prostitute.
Shot four years after the Marcinelle mining
disaster, the film tells the story that the
government wanted to hide and the censure
was implacable.
Una Storia moderna - L’ape Regina by
Marco Ferreri turns Marina Vlady into a
queen bee who dominates her husband
and uses him as nothing more than a
reproductive tool. A sulfurous film against
bourgeois Catholic morality that afforded
an acting award at Cannes for Marina
Vlady.
With Comizi d’amore, Pier Paolo Pasolini
leads an investigation on sexuality from
southern to northern Italy. Always ahead of
his time, he asks the real questions that are
common conversation these days but which
were taboo in 1964.
Thanks to Cornaca di un amore,
Michelangelo Antonioni leaves neo realism
behind and starts his investigations of
feminine psychology opening up to la
modernità.
These films were restored by the Cineteca
di Bologna and presented at Il Cinema
Ritrovato festival for which I have worked
as coordinator since 1994. The goal of
these magnificent digital restorations is to
give films a second lease on life and new
audiences the world over. Buona visione.”