The second edition of the Ca’ Foscari Short Film Festival is honoured to present a special screening in collaboration with AIRSC, the Italian Association for Research on Cinema History, led by an outstanding scholar and friend, Carlo Montanaro. The Association was founded in 1964 with the aim of redefining the methods and contents of the historical research in the cinema field, as suggested by the publication of “Immagine. Note di storia del cinema” (Image. Annotations on the history of cinema) the first journal on early cinema studies. Of great importance the efforts intended to evaluate cinema productions as historical and cultural contributions: films of the past are retrieved, preserved and restored. A clear example of this is one of AIRSC’s main contributions, Le giornate del Cinema Muto(The Silent Cinema Festival), held in Pordenone.
Thanks to AIRSC and in collaboration with the Archivio Storico CinecittàLuce (Historical Archive CinecittàLuce) in Rome and La Cineteca del Friuli in Gemona, the Festival will show five rare short films of Italian animation, experiencing fascinating experiments and challenging innovations.
SCREENINGS SCHEDULE
La storia di Lulù – The story of Lulù (1909/10, 5’, mute)
Regia – Director: Arrigo Frusta
Fotografia – Photography: Giovanni Vitrotti
Produzione – Production: Ambrosio
The first film told “from the knee down”, where settings and costumes manage to show in a wonderful way the social rise of a countrywoman, from the hills to the city. The last scene is the oldest sequence in “animation” of Italian cinema, achieved through “step one” with tridimensional objects (two pairs of shoes).
Anacleto e la faina – Anacleto and the Stone Marten (1941, 8’)
Regia – Director: Roberto Sgrilli
Consulenza tecnica – Technical Consultant: Gaetano Ventimiglia
Fotografia – Photography (Agfacolor): Aldo Angelici
Musica – Music by: Gino Filippini
Produzione – Production: Bassoli, 8’
The ugly duckling, forerunner of Calimero. The rising Italian animation as a confrontation with the Disney universe.
Il paese dei ranocchi – The Land of Frogs (1941, 7’)
Fantasia a disegni animati – Cartoon fantasy
Regia – Director: Antonio Rubino
Consulenza – Consultant:: Ugo Amadoro
Tecnico di ripresa – Technician (Agfacolor): Luigi Minaldi
Musica – Music by: Raffaele Gervasio
Produzione – Production: INCOM, 7’
The great illustrator Antonio Rubino builds up with great ability an extremely attractive world, magnificently exalted by an appropriate use of Agfacolor
L’ultimo Sciuscà – The Last Shoeshine (1947, 11’)
Regia – Director: Gibba (Francesco Maurizio Guido)
Direzione della produzione – Production direction: Giannetto Beniscelli
Musica – Music by: Costantino Ferri
Produzione – Production: Alfa Circus Film
A neorealist attempt to outline a poetic inspiration, a unique and unrepeatable experiment.
La piccola fiammiferaia – The Little Match Girl (1951, 8’)
Regia/fotografia – Director/Photography: Romano Scarpa
Commento musicale – Musical accompaniment by: Quartetto Cetra
Produzione – Production: Mario Casamassima
The activity of Romano Scarpa, the designer who will later be led by several events to become the undiscussed master of the comics school of the Italian Disney. Animation in a self-managed studio in Venice, with the use of a “multiplane camera”.
