Parole dipinte (1940-2009)

Director: Luciano Emmer (often with Enrico Gras and Tatiana Grauding as co-directors)
Label:  Cineteca di Bologna (2010)
Format: DVD / PAL / Region 2
Audio: Italian (Dolby Digital 2.0 mono)
Subtitles: Italian, English, French

Contents:
* Racconto da un affresco (1940-1946)
* Paradiso terrestre (1941-1946)
* Cantico delle creature (1943)
* Guerrieri (1943)
* Destino d'amore, ovvero, Piccolo mondo al platino (1942)
* I fratelli miracolosi (1949)
* L'invenzione della croce (1948)
* L'allegoria della primavera (1948)
* La leggenda di Sant'Orsola (1948, French version also included)
* Isole nella laguna (1948)
* Romantici a Venezia (1948, French version also included)
* Goya. La festa di Sant'Isidoro / I disastri della guerra (1950)
* Leonardo Da Vinci (1952)
* La sublime fatica (1966)
* Il dramma di Cristo narrato da Giotto (1966, French version also included)
* Incontrare Picasso (1954-2000)
* Nostalgie (2001, French version only)
* I magici colori di Napoli (2004)
* La paz y la guerra (2009)
* Le carceri di invenzione (2009)

Bonus:

* Interview with composer Roman Vlad (16 minutes, with English and French subtitles)
* Scherzo su Giotto by enrico ghezzi and Luciano Emmer (5 minutes, with English and French subtitles)
* Passeggiate con Luciano (12 minutes, with English and French subtitles)
* 52 page Italian/French booklet

Available on Amazon.it

What are these films about?

Perhaps today Luciano Emmer is best known for a fistful of comedies shot in the '50s, but in his career he actually worked mainly in non-fictional cinema (educational shorts, spots, TV). His documentaries on art, in particular, represent his most accomplished works and are known to have inspired Alain Resnais' early films. In this wonderful 6-hour boxset Cineteca di Bologna has collected 20 shorts, ranging from Emmer's first attempts to his most recent videos. Notable appearances by Jean Cocteau (La leggenda di Sant'Orsola and Romantici a Venezia) and Picasso (Incontrare Picasso).

Recommendations
...if you want to get in touch with one of Italian greatest documentary filmmakers.

Screenshots

Racconto da un affresco, 1940-1946

Romantici a Venezia, 1948

Incontrare Picasso, 1954-2000

Ma l'amor mio non muore! (Love Everlasting, 1913)

Director: Mario Caserini
Starring: Lyda Borelli, Mario Bonnard, Giampaolo Rosmino
Label:  Cineteca di Bologna (2013)
Format: DVD / PAL / Region 2
Aspect ratio: 1.33:1 b/w
Subtitles: Italian, English

Bonus:

* Tinted fragment (9 minutes)
* Photogalleries
* 24 page bilingual booklet

Available from Amazon.it and Cineteca di Bologna.

What's the film about?

Beautifully shot and acted, this melodrama is one of the most outstanding examples of the so-called "Diva film", a hugely popular genre in Italian early cinema. These films were meant as vehicle for their leading female star (in this case, the measured, stylized Lyda Borelli), but here you also have an added value consisting in Mario Caserini's fine mise-en-scène, where each shot becomes an art déco piece. The DVD features a superior restoration, and you also have two differents soundtracks: a new 2013 orchestral score and a compilation from 1913-1961 opera recordings.

Recommendations
...if you want to discover Italian cinema from one hundred years ago.

Screenshots

Il Cinema Ritrovato DVD Awards

I just got home from Bologna, where I attended "Il Cinema Ritrovato" 2013. Here you can have a look at the DVD Awards ceremony.

http://www.cinefiliaritrovata.it/il-cinema-ritrovato-dvd-awards/

Gli ultimi (already reviewed here) won as the Best DVD of the year.
Also, Geoff Gardner wrote a nice appreciation of the film:

The Award for Best DVD of the year at the Bologna Cinema Ritrovato to Gli Ultimi. It was made in the Friuli region in 1963 and not long after fell into obscurity. Friuli, a northern province which was Pasolini’s birthplace, has its own Cineteca and it supervised the restoration work and commissioned the 150 page publication, only in Italian, that accompanies the DVD. The film itself is a sensitive story of a young peasant boy growing up in the depression years of the 30s. The son of a farm labourer he tends several sheep, is mercilessly bullied at school and lives with his family in dirt poor surroundings. The family diet is polenta (il cibo della miseria) and vegetables. The village is hollowing out as most of the able bodied men have headed for Belgium to work in the coal mines. Fascism gets only a brief nod via a ranter in the local pub. The black and white photography by Armando Nannuzzi is beautiful to behold. Singling the film out for this attention had one immediate positive effect. Nobody having heard of it there was a run on the available copies being offered at the Cineteca’s book and DVD stall and it sold out quickly.