Recently restored versions of William Friedkin‘s “The Exorcist,” Terrence Malick‘s “Days of Heaven” and Francis Ford Coppola’s “One From the Heart” feature in the Venice Classics section of the 80th Venice Film Festival.
The lineup of recently restored films in Venice Classics, which is curated by the festival’s artistic director Alberto Barbera in collaboration with Federico Gironi, was unveiled on Friday.
“The Exorcist” is screened, 50 years after it was produced by Warner Bros., alongside Disney’s “Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm,” starring Shirley Temple and directed by “the prolific and sometimes brilliant” Allan Dwan, to mark the Hollywood studios’ 100th anniversaries.
“One From the Heart” and Arturo Ripstein’s “Deep Crimson” are “not just restored, but also revised by the filmmakers themselves in what are genuine Director’s Cuts,” Barbera and Gironi said, while Andrei Tarkovsky’s masterpiece “Andrei Rublev” will be presented in the reconstruction of the original version, which was “censored before its release and has never been seen until now.”
The section also includes “a series of great films that rightfully belong to the history of cinema and its pantheon,” Barbera and Gironi said, such as Agnès Varda’s “The Creatures,” “Days of Heaven,” and “King and Country,” directed by Joseph Losey.
Also in this pantheon, according to the curators, is Sergei Parajanov’s “Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors,” which “revealed to the world the remarkable qualities of the great Armenian-Ukrainian director, despised by Soviet authorities for his work, which takes a visionary surrealistic approach to the popular traditions of the Caucasian peoples.”
The section also includes “Jungle Holocaust,” directed by one of the masters of Italian genre cinema Ruggero Deodato, who died in December. It is “one of his most extreme and recherché films,” Barbera and Gironi said.
Carlos Saura, one of the greatest Spanish directors, who died in February, will be honored with a screening of “The Hunt,” one of his first and finest films, which marked the rebirth of Spanish cinema. It was an award-winner at the 1965 Berlin Film Festival.
Italian actor Anna Magnani, who died 50 years ago, is celebrated with a screening of the newly restored 4K version of “Bellissima,” “the remarkable film by one of the greatest directors in the history of Italian cinema, Luchino Visconti,” Barbera and Gironi said.
It is the 120th anniversary of Yasujiro Ozu’s birth, and the festival will show a rare film of his, mutilated by the censorship of the time, at the height of World War II. “The recent rediscovery of part of the clips that were cut will make it possible to rediscover ‘Chichi Ariki’ (There Was a Father) in a version that is not complete but is undoubtedly closer to the original release than the version we have known to date,” Barbera and Gironi said.
They will also screen “The Working Girls” from Roger Corman’s pupil Stephanie Rothman, who gave a feminist boost to 1970s sexploitation. It’s a recently restored movie from her filmography that has joined the collection of New York’s MoMA.
Also in the field of historic taboos, director Yonfan takes cinephiles on the Lido to Singapore’s red light district to meet a group of “irresistible transvestites,” in the brightly colored “Bugis Street.”
Children are the protagonists of one of Amir Naderi’s first movies, “Harmonica,” not seen for many years, set in a sunny, coastal Iran that the average viewer wouldn’t expect.
There will also be an opportunity to discover, or rediscover, two films that are also unfamiliar to most people: “Life of a Shock Force Worker” by Bosnian director Bahrudin Čengić, a film considered by many critics to be one of the masterpieces of cinema from the former Yugoslavia, and “Moving” by Japanese director Shinji Sōmai, the “unjustly underestimated” director of 13 “remarkable films.”
As previously announced, the section will kick off with a tribute to actor Gina Lollobrigida with screenings of Mario Soldati’s feature “The Wayward Wife,” and Orson Welles’ documentary “Portrait of Gina.”
Venice Classics will also present a selection of documentaries about cinema and those who created classic films, which will be announced on July 25.
VENICE CLASSICS
“Andrei Rublev – Director’s Cut”
By Andrei Tarkovsky (USSR, 1966, 191 minutes, Color/B/W)
Restored by: Istituto Internazionale Andrei Tarkovsky in collaboration with Coevolutions and Cloudpost
“Bellissima”
By Luchino Visconti (Italy, 1951, 114 minutes, B/W)
Restored by: CSC – Cineteca Nazionale in collaboration with Compass Film
“Bugis Street”
By Yonfan (Hong Kong, 1995, 98 minutes, Color)
Restored by: L’immagine Ritrovata/Far Sun Film
“La Caza” (The Hunt)
By Carlos Saura (Spain, 1966, 87 minutes, B/W)
Restored by: Video Mercury Films
“Chichi Ariki” (There Was a Father)
By Yasujiro Ozu (Japan, 1942, 92 minutes, B/W)
Restored by: Shochiku/National Film Archive of Japan
“Les Créatures” (The Creatures)
By Agnès Varda (France, 1965, 94 minutes, Color/B/W)
Restored by: Ciné Tamaris/CNC with the support of She Echoes and Chanel
“Days of Heaven”
By Terrence Malick (U.S., 1978, 94 minutes, Color)
Restored by: Criterion/Paramount
“The Exorcist”
By William Friedkin (U.S., 1973, 132 minutes, Color)
Restored by: Warner Bros.
“King & Country”
By Joseph Losey (U.K., 1964, 88 minutes, B/W)
Restored by: Studiocanal
“Ohikkoshi” (Moving)
By Shinji Sômai (Japan, 1993, 124 minutes, Color)
Restored by: Yomiuri Telecasting Corporation
“One From the Heart: Reprise”
By Francis Ford Coppola (U.S., 1982, 95 minutes, Color)
Restored by: American Zoetrope
“Profundo Carmesí” (Deep Crimson) – Director’s Cut
By Arturo Ripstein (Mexico, Spain, France, 2023, 136 minutes, Color)
Restored by: Alebrije Producciones/Wanda Films
“La Provinciale” (The Wayward Wife)
By Mario Soldati (Italy, 1953, 113 minutes, B/W)
Restored by: CSC – Cineteca Nazionale, in collaboration with Compass Film
“Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm”
By Allan Dwan (U.S., 1938, 81 minutes, B/W)
Restored by: Walt Disney Studios/The Film Foundation
“Saaz Dahani” (Harmonica)
By Amir Naderi (Iran, 1973, 76 minutes, Color)
Restored by: Institute for the Intellectual Development of Children and Young Adults – Kanoon/Roashana Laboratory
“Slike Iz Života Udarnika” (Life of a Shock Force Worker)
By Bahrudin Bato Čengić (Yugoslavia, 1972, 78 minutes, Color/B/W)
Restored by: Slovenska Kinoteka/Filmski Centar Sarajevo/Hrvatski Državi Arhiv – Hrvatska Kinoteka/Ōsterreichisches Filmmuseum with the support of the EU Creative Europe Media Programme/Association Des Cinémathèques Européennes/Ministrstvo Za Kulturo Republike Slovenije
“Tini Zabutykh Predkiv” (Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors)
By Sergei Parajanov (Ukraine, 1965, 99 minutes, Color/B/W)
Restored by: Oleksandr Dovzhenko National Film Studio
“Ultimo Mondo Cannibale” (Jungle Holocaust) – Midnight Screening
By Ruggero Deodato (Italy, 1977, 90 minutes, Color)
Restored by: Minerva Pictures
“The Working Girls”
By Stephanie Rothman (U.S., 1974, 80 minutes, Color)
Restored by: The Museum of Modern Art, New York
OUT OF COMPETITION
“Portrait of Gina”
By Orson Welles (U.S., 1958, 27 minutes, B/W)
Restored by: Munich Filmmuseum, in collaboration with Cinecittà
