ReFILM: Restoration Film Festival at the Jerusalem Cinematheque
Naked - Images courtesy of Park Circus/Film4
The Moon Has Risen © Nikkatsu
1341 © Micha Bar-Am. Courtesy of the photographer
Three Minutes © US Holocaust Memorial Museum
Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory © 1971 WBEI
Psycho - Images courtesy of Park Circus/Universal
Dates & Times
The tremendous technological changes that cinema has undergone in the last decade, primarily the transition from film to digital, make it possible for many films to return to the screens and make world heritage treasures available to the public. Considerable activity in this field is also taking place here in the Israel Film Archive at the Jerusalem Cinematheque, the cumulative products of which can be found on the archive’s website www.jfc.org.il.
ReFilm, the program celebrating restored treasures of cinema, was formed to broaden the view of archival work – here and around the world. The third edition, taking place in June 2022, offers several such endeavors: 1341 Frames of Love and War, the program’s opening film directed by Ran Tal, is constructed almost entirely from the works of renowned photographer Micha Bar-Am. The film explores the power of documentation and the archive while considering their effects on the recipients of the works and their creators.
Director Ran Tal will also participate, prior to the screenings of Three Minutes: A Lengthening, in a special discussion on the use of archive materials in films. The film uses three-minute footage taken in the town of Nasielsk in Poland just before WWII to offer a dazzling essay on the power of cinema and the meaning of memory. The event will launch Ran Tal’s completion on the Israel Film Archive website about how Israeli films use archival materials.
In addition, the program will offer screenings of newly restored prints of films from around the world. Alongside classics such as Psycho (the 4K theatrical cut; dir.: Alfred Hitchcock), The Rules of the Game (dir.: Jean Renoir), The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (dir.: Luis Buñuel), The Servant (dir.: Joseph Losey), The Outsiders (The Complete Novel, with additional 30 minutes; dir.: Francis Ford Coppola) and Naked (dir.: Mike Leigh) – masterpieces that are finally returning to the big screen in glorious quality – the program will also present cinematic discoveries, including Chess of the Wind, an intriguing Iranian melodrama made in the 1970s, I Know Where I’m Going!, a romantic drama by Michael Powell and Emrich Pressburger about which Martin Scorsese said – “I reached the point of thinking there were no more masterpieces to discover until I saw I Know Where I’m Going!,“ and perhaps the most notable discovery is the films of Japanese director, Kinuyo Tanaka. Tanaka was a prominent actress who participated in the films of the greatest Japanese directors: Ozu, Mizoguchi, and others. In the 1950s, she directed six films. The two we will present as part of the program are a tour-de-force of female filmmaking: questions of intimacy, family, and career are handled with a genuine and direct hand, brave even by today’s standards.
Tickets: 25 NIS / Members: Free entrance