Herberto Helder said: "I think memory enters through the eyes", "(memory, montage)". And if "every film is also a sum of many memories [...] many memories are born through films" – Wim Wenders. Who added: "Cinema itself has also created many memories."
If the memories of cinema are to continue to "enter through our eyes", film restoration is essential. And for some decades now, it has been a preoccupation of many directors, most notably Scorsese and Wenders.
There is a festival dedicated to them, Il Cinema Ritrovato, and festivals and theatres are increasingly programming "restored classics", giving the films a new lease of life.
At LEFFEST'23 we have chosen four exemplarily restored works: two films by Ozu, whose 120th anniversary will be celebrated next month ("If there were such a thing as a sanctuary for cinema, it would be the work of Japanese director Yasujiro Ozu" – still Wenders), the films of Man Ray, brought together by the music of Sqürl (Jim Jarmusch and Carter Logan's band), and, rescued from the ashes (the original film was damaged in a fire), Jacques Rivette's L'Amour fou, a miraculous restoration of one of the most beautiful works of the Nouvelle Vague, one of the masterpieces of French cinema.