01 July 2016

EFSP's Dazzling Dozen: Rediscovering Great Faces at Cinema Ritrovato 2016

This week our blog is dedicated to the Cinema Ritrovata 2016 festival in Bologna, Italy. We are getting high on the great films from all periods of the cinematic history, found in archives all over the world. For Postcard Friendship Friday, we chose twelve postcards of stars who can be (re)discovered here at one of the five festival screens.

Vera Kholodnaya
Vera Kholodnaya. Russian postcard, no. 40. Collection: Didier Hanson.
Kholodnaya is the star of Zhizn za zhizn/A Life for a Life (Yevgeni Bauer, 1916), shown in the section '100 Years Ago: A Selection of 1916'.

Paul Heidemann as Teddy
Paul Heidemann. German postcard by Verlag Hermann Leiser, Berlin-Wilm., no. 5233. Photo: R. Dührkoop.
Comedian Paul Heidemann can be seen in the same section in the crazy comedy Die Entdeckung Deutschlands durch die Marsbewohner/The Discovery of Germany by the Martians (Otto Frankfurter, Georg Jacoby, 1916).

Vera Karalli
Vera Karalli. Russian postcard.
Karalli is the star of another pre-Soviet film of 100 years ago, Umirajuščij lebed’/The Dying Swan (Yevgeni Bauer, 1916).

Elena Makowska
Elena Makowska. Italian postcard, no. 29.
Newly preserved by the archives of Turin and Bologna is an incomplete version of La
Fiaccola sotto il moggio
(Eleuterio Rodolfi, 16), starring Polish-born diva (H)Elena Makowska. Presented in '100 Years Ago: A Selection of 1916'.

Jenny Hasselqvist
Jenny Hasselqvist. Vintage postcard. Photo: Henry B. Goodwin, 1918. Collection: Marlène Pilaete.
Another highlight from 1916 is the Swedish film Balletprimadonnan (Mauritz Stiller, 1916), featuring La Hasselqvist. A new preservation is shown.

Buster Keaton in Our Hospitality (1923)
Buster Keaton. Soviet postcard, no. 1070. Photo: Phoebus Film (Probably the Ross Verlag card, no. 1037/2, was used for this card, produced in Kiev, now Ukraine). Publicity still for Our Hospitality (1923).
The Keaton Project, officially launched in 2015, continues at Cinema Ritrovato 2016. Our Hospitality is not presented this year, but we simply love to share this newly acquired postcard.

Madeleine Renaud and Paulette Elambert in La Maternelle (1933)
Madeleine Renaud and Paulette Elambert in La Maternelle (1933). Dutch postcard by M.B.&Z., no. 75. Photo: Muntfilm, Amsterdam. Publicity still for La Maternelle/Children of Montmartre (Jean Benoît-Lévy, Marie Epstein, 1933).
Marie Epstein, subject of 'Marie Epstein: cinéaste', was the screenwriter and co-director of at least four of her brother Jean Epstein’s silent films. In 1928 she and Jean Benoît-Lévy began directing poetic films on social issues that placed emphasis on the expressive power of amateur actors and young protagonists. Masterpieces like La Maternelle combined the objectivity of documentaries and the deep emotions evoked by Epstein’s screenplays.

Isa Miranda
Isa Miranda. Italian postcard by Rizzoli, Milano, 1937-XV.
Miranda was the glamorous star of Malombra (1942), directed by brilliant and multi-faceted writer, director, and television pioneer Mario Soldati, one of the most inventive figures of 20th-century Italy and subject of the section 'Mario Soldati, an eclectic man at Cinécitta'.

Daniel Gelin
Daniel Gélin. French postcard by Editions P.I., Paris, no. 361. Photo: Sam Levin.
Arguably the most important section of this Cinema Ritrovato is 'Jean Becker - The very Idea of Freedom'. Becker was the best liked and the most respected among the French filmmakers in the days of the ‘Tradition of Quality’. Gélin starred in his manifesto Rendez-vous de juillet/Rendezvous in July (1949) about young jazz-loving Parisians.

Jean Gabin
Jean Gabin. French postcard by Editions P.I., Paris, no. 1094. Offered by Les Carbones Korès 'Carboplane'. Photo: Marcel Bougureau.
Touchez pas au grisbi (Jean Becker, 1954) starring Jean Gabin is one of the greatest Film Noirs, ever.

Marina Vlady, Robert Hossein
East-German postcard by VEB Progress Film-Vertrieb, Berlin, no. 1842, 1963. Retail price: 0,20 DM. Publicity still for La liberté surveillée/Provisional Liberty (Henri Aisner, Vladimír Vlcek, 1958) with Marina Vlady and Robert Hossein.
La liberté surveillée/Provisional Liberty is shown in the section 'Marie Epstein: cinéaste'. Epstein was one of the writers of the screenplay. EFSP presents a film special about this unusual film next week, on 6 July 2016.

Marlon Brando in One-Eyed Jacks (1961)
French postcard by EDUG, no. 133. Sent by mail in 1961. Photo: publicity still for One-Eyed Jacks (Marlon Brando, 1961) with Marlon Brando.
The pre-Leone Western One-Eyed Jacks is part of a 'Tribute to Marlon Brando' at Cinema Ritrovato. Brando, a monument of American cinema, became a legend the very moment he walked through the doors of the Actors Studio. He was the most virile and brazen of the three golden boys of his generation.

This is a post for Postcard Friendship Friday, hosted by Beth at the The Best Hearts are Crunchy. You can visit her by clicking on the button below.

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