The Venice Classics section returns to the 79th Venice International Film Festival of La Biennale di Venezia, following two years in which, due to the pandemic, it was hosted in Bologna by the Il cinema ritrovato festival (August 2020), and held last year in the historic city centre of Venice.
Venice Classics is the section that since 2012 presents world premiere screenings at the Venice Film Festival of a selection of the finest restorations of classic films completed over the past year by film libraries, cultural institutions and productions from around the world. Curated by Alberto Barbera with the collaboration of Federico Gironi, Venice Classics also presents a selection of documentaries about cinema and its auteurs.
The return of this section to the Lido takes place in a year that celebrates the anniversaries of important events in cinema that Venice Classics could not fail to acknowledge, such as the centennial of Pier Paolo Pasolini’s birth, with the restoration of Theorem, and those of Vittorio Gassman and Ugo Tognazzi, commemorated with the restorations of March on Rome and Crazy Desire, the latter also marking the celebration of the centennial of the birth of the director Luciano Salce, and commemorating the recently departed Catherine Spaak.
Venice Classics could also not fail to pay tribute to the great Monica Vitti, with the restoration of one of her lesser-known films, but one of those she treasured most: Teresa the Thief, directed by her life partner at the time, Carlo Di Palma.
There are three films in the 2022 line-up of Venice Classics from the United States (Cavalcade by Frank Lloyd, The Black Cat by Edgar Ulmer and Canyon Passage by Jacques Tourneur) and three from Japan (A Hen in the Wind by Yasujiro Ozu, Profound Desires of the Gods by Shohei Imamura and Branded to Kill by Seijun Suzuki).
Venice Classics’ world tour continues through India with Satyajit Ray’s The Chess Players, through France with My Little Loves by Jean Eustache and The Elusive Corporal, Jean Renoir’s penultimate film, Taiwan with A Confucian Confusion by Edward Yang, England with The Draughtman’s Contract by Peter Greenaway, Tajikistan with The Little Brother, the surprising debut of director Bakhtyar Khudojnazarov, and the Czech Republic with Karel Kachyna’s The Ear.
The Venice Classics line-up is completed by the erotic film Therese and Isabelle by Radley Metzger, from the personal B-movie collection of Nicolas Winding Refn, who recently restored the film and will be at the Venice Film Festival to present it.
Also returning is the Jury composed of film students from Italian universities which – for the ninth year – will assign the Venice Classics Award to the best restored film, and will be chaired by the director Giulio Base (A Starry Sky Over the Roman Ghetto, Il banchiere anarchico, Crack). The Jury, composed of 21 students, each recommended by the faculties of the various film programmes of Italian universities, of DAMS Drama Arts and Music Studies departments, and Ca’ Foscari in Venice, may also assign an award to the best documentary about cinema presented within the Section.
Below is the complete line-up of the restored films in Venice Classics selected for the 79th Venice Film Festival:
VENICE CLASSICS
TERESA LA LADRA (TERESA THE THIEF)
by CARLO DI PALMA (Italy, 1973, 125’, colour)
restored by: Cineteca Nazionale
MES PETITES AMOUREUSES (MY LITTLE LOVES)
by JEAN EUSTACHE (France, 1974, 123’, colour)
restored by: Les Films du Losange
THE DRAUGHTSMAN’S CONTRACT
by PETER GREENAWAY (UK, 1982, 104’, colour)
restored by: BFI NATIONAL ARCHIVE
KAMIGAMI NO FUKAKI YOKUBO (PROFOUND DESIRES OF THE GODS)
by SHÔHEI IMAMURA (Japan, 1968, 173’, colour)
restored by: Nikkatsu
UCHO (THE EAR)
by KAREL KACHYNA (Czechoslovakia, 1969, 97’, B/W)
restored by: Národní Filmový Archiv / National Film Archive
BRATAN (THE LITTLE BROTHER)
by BAKHTYAR KHUDOJNAZAROV (USSR, 1991, 97’, B/W)
restored by: Veit Helmer-Filmproduktion
CAVALCADE
by FRANK LLOYD (USA, 1933, 112’, B/W)
restored by: The Film Foundation / Walt Disney Picture
THERESE AND ISABELLE
by RADLEY METZGER (France, USA, Germany, Netherlands, 1968, 119’, B/W)
restored by: NWR-Denmark / Cinema Preservation Alliance-U.S.
KAZE NO NAKA NO MENDORI (A HEN IN THE WIND)
by YASUJIRÔ OZU (Japan, 1948, 84’, B/W)
restored by: Shochiku
TEOREMA (THEOREM)
by PIER PAOLO PASOLINI (Italy, 1968, 98’, B/W)
restored by: Cineteca di Bologna
SHATRANJ KE KHILARI (THE CHESS PLAYERS)
by SATYAJIT RAY (India, 1977, 129’, colour)
restored by: The National Film Archive of India
LE CAPORAL ÉPINGLÉ (THE ELUSIVE CORPORAL)
by JEAN RENOIR (France, 1962, 107’, B/W)
restored by: StudioCanal
LA MARCIA SU ROMA (MARCH ON ROME)
by DINO RISI (Italy, 1962, 94’, B/W)
restored by: Cineteca Nazionale
LA VOGLIA MATTA (CRAZY DESIRE)
by LUCIANO SALCE (Italy, 1962, 110’, B/W)
restored by: Cineteca Nazionale
KOROSHI NO RAKUIN (BRANDED TO KILL)
by SEIJUN SUZUKI (Japan, 1967, 91’, B/W)
restored by: Nikkatsu
CANYON PASSAGE
by JACQUES TOURNEUR (USA, 1946, 92’, colour)
restored by: Universal Pictures / The Film Foundation
THE BLACK CAT
by EDGAR G. ULMER (USA, 1934, 65’, B/W)
restored by: Universal Pictures
DULI SHIDAI [A CONFUCIAN CONFUSION]
by EDWARD YANG (Taiwan, 1994, 128’, colour)
restored by: Taiwan Film and Audiovisual Institute