project curated by
Azienda Speciale Palaexpo and La Farfalla sul Mirino
promoted by
Roma Culture
in conjunction with
SNCCI – Gruppo Regione Lazio
acknowledgements
Park Circus (London), Light Cone (Paris), Fondazione Cineteca di Bologna, Lab80 Film
Some Like It Classic, now in its twelfth edition, is back with a series of landmarks in the history of the cinema that audiences can finally view in 35 mm film in a real cinema theatre. Just like last year, the customary formula will be availing itself once again of the collaboration of the Sindacato Nazionale Critici Cinematografici Italiani – Gruppo Regione Lazio, thanks to whom each film will be introduced to the audience by a different critic in order to better set each one of the films in its appropriate context.
The show gets going on 24 January with Ball of Fire, a sensational comedy from the golden years of Hollywood that combines the unparalleled talents of Billy Wilder as scriptwriter and Howard Hawks as director, along with the equally talented Barbara Stanwyck and Gary Cooper as, respectively, a dancer and a clumsy professor forced to come out of his shell. Comedy continues to hold centre stage in this year’s programme with some of its greatest exponents such as Frank Capra with The Matinee Idol, a jewel of a silent movie screened here in a historic version restored by the Cineteca di Bologna, or as Woody Allen with Zelig, one of the New York genius’s loftiest achievements. Also classifiable as comedies, in their own way, are The Player, a searing satire on the world of show biz directed by Robert Altman, The Knack… and How To Get It, a film that perfectly captures the Swinging London era or Tirez sur le pianiste, a youthful work by François Truffaut steeped in the lighthearted irony of the early Nouvelle Vague.
The darker side of the cinema, on the other hand, is conjured up in the work of two directors of whom our audiences are always extremely fond, namely Fritz Lang and Alfred Hitchcock. Here we will be screening two of their lesser-known films, Clash by Night and Sabotage, the latter filmed when the master of suspense was still working in England and based on a novel by Joseph Conrad. The programme is completed by a pair of legendary names from the world of the art house movie, Béla Tarr and Maya Deren who made experimenting with different styles their banner. We will be screening Damnation by the Hungarian director Tarr, still considered a cult movie today, and paying tribute to Maya Deren with a selection of shorts that perfectly embody her role as a formidable pioneer in the history of the American avant-garde cinema.
Info
Palazzo delle Esposizioni - Sala Cinema
Admission via the steps in Via Milano 9 a, Rome
ADMISSION FREE WHILE PLACES LAST – RESERVATIONS ARE REQUIRED. Reservations may be made on this website from 9.00 am on the day before the chosen performance until one hour before the performance is due to begin. If for any reason you are unable to come, please remember to cancel your reservation on the website so that someone else can book the place you’re freeing up. Please show up at least 10 minutes before the performance starts, otherwise your reservation will no longer be considered valid and your place will be given to the first person waiting in line at the entrance.