Bologna and il Cinema Ritrovato
For the past three years, I have been fortunate to attend the Cinema Ritrovato Festival in Bologna. These last few years have provided the chance to meet Agnes Varda, Bernardo Bertolucci, Marco Bellocchio, Nanni Moretti, Vittorio Storaro and many others, all while watching an elaborate schedule of films and engaging in interesting discussions.
This is an incredible event for any filmmaker because you get the opportunity to meet great directors, cinematographers, producers and other people who are really interested in filmmaking and cinema. You're able to watch movies that you wouldn't be able to see anywhere else, in a variety of forms and venues.
This year, together with my students, we had the honor of meeting the living-legend, Martin Scorsese, while speaking at the Teatro Comunale. If that wasn't exciting enough, we also had the chance to talk with Luca Guadagnino about Suspiria as well as Matteo Garrone and Alice Rohrwacher, who are freshly graduated from Cannes Film Festival and legendary cinematographer, Luciano Tovoli (The Passenger, Suspiria, etc.). I thoroughly enjoyed listening to him talk about Technicolor and is non-traditional, crazy lighting techniques.
Of course, I also need to mention the great people at the Cineteca di Bologna-Restoration Lab, who always find the time to show us how they work. A place where students can really get a grasp on what film restoration entails and an in depth look on what the process of analog film looks like.
Being here is like being in an intense Master's program, where you can update your mind and your ideas.
Here some highlights of the Cinema Ritrovato week