Cinecittà is pleased to celebrate the 120th anniversary of Roberto Rossellini’s birth with a significant retrospective whose title, Roberto Rossellini Prefers Real Life, nods to the 1963 essay by François Truffaut, which described the Italian filmmaker as “the father of the Nouvelle Vague” for his influence on young French filmmakers. The event will open on November 4 at the Academy Museum in Los Angeles and will run through the end of the month. Isabella Rossellini will be present at the opening. Starting on November 20, the retrospective will travel to the Film Forum in New York and will likely be complemented by a new restoration. Here are the films on the program, many of which were restored by Cinecittà:
- Roma Città aperta
- Paisà
- Germania anno zero
- L’amore
- Stromboli
- Francesco, giullare di Dio
- Viaggio in Italia
- La macchina ammazzacattivi
- Europa ’51
- La paura
- Giovanna d’Arco al rogo
Della retrospettiva fanno parte inoltre i documentari Viva Ingrid! di Alessandro Rossellini, Rossellini visto da Rossellini di Adriano Aprà e My Dad Is 100 Years Old di Isabella Rossellini. Quest’ultima, ha detto, parlando dell’iniziativa:
Mio padre aveva una profonda curiosità per il cinema, per le persone e per il mondo, che ha plasmato la mia curiosità e la mia comprensione del racconto. Sono felice di condividere i suoi film e di celebrare l’eredità che ha lasciato.
Viaggio in Italia at the Venice Film Festival 2026 in a Restored Version on September 5
The first stop of the festival’s US itinerary is actually in our country, more precisely for the 2026 edition of the Venice Film Festival. On September 5, in the Corinto cinema hall, within the Venezia Classici section, the 4K restored version of Viaggio in Italia will be presented. The film, released in 1954, tells the story of a couple from the English upper class. The two spouses Katherine and Alex travel to Naples to sell a house they inherited. Their marriage is faltering, and during a visit to Pompeii the crisis reaches its peak.
Brilliantly acted by George Sanders and Ingrid Bergman — the latter in her third collaboration with the director after Stromboli and Europa ’51 — Viaggio in Italia began as an attempt to adapt Colette’s novel Duo, but in the end the writer refused the rights to the book, and Roberto Rossellini was forced to rewrite the entire screenplay, even finding himself writing at night what he would shoot the following day. When the film was released, critics gave it a hostile reception: due to its loose structure, to a deliberately unpolished sound, and to the use of natural light. These characteristics, however, thrilled the young Cahiers du Cinéma critics who would soon become the voices of the Nouvelle Vague, starting with Jacques Rivette and the aforementioned François Truffaut. The former wrote: “With the appearance of Viaggio in Italia, all films have suddenly aged ten years.” The latter, instead, campaigned to repair the damage caused by the French distributors, who had cut and re-edited it, restoring the original version to the big screen.
Regarding the restoration of Viaggio in Italia and the retrospective, Manuela Cacciamani, Chief Executive Officer of Cinecittà, stated:
Per parafrasare Preminger, c’è un cinema prima e un cinema dopo Roberto Rossellini. Cinecittà non vede l’ora di portare a Los Angeles e poi a New York, cioè al centro del cinema mondiale, un patrimonio rivoluzionario di film, storie, pensiero, emozioni, che viene dall’Italia ed è divenuto patrimonio dell’umanità intera. Siamo onorati di festeggiare i 120 anni di Rossellini partendo da Venezia dove il restauro di Viaggio in Italia ricorderà a tutti, ancora una volta, il ruolo del nostro Paese nella settima arte: è grazie a capolavori come questo che il cinema è improvvisamente diventato più grande.
A clip from the restored version of Viaggio in Italia
From the 4K restoration of Viaggio in Italia, we have received a first beautiful clip, which we promptly share with you:
Comments