Cinema Reborn 2023
Cinema Reborn Film Festival is an annual event created by a community of film enthusiasts, programmers, directors, screen historians and critics. The focus of the festival is the conservation of the international film heritage and research into the long history of cinema the worldwide film restoration activity and the treasures hidden in the film archives of the world.
For some years now, the Italian Cultural Institute has collaborated successfully with Cinema Reborn for the inclusion of Italian films in the program. Also for 2023 we are pleased to confirm the screening of two great masterpieces of Italian cinema: Sciuscià (Shoeshine) by Vittorio De Sica (1946) and L’ultimo imperatore (The Last Emperor) by Bernardo Bertolucci (1987).
Sciuscià (Shoeshine) (Vittorio De Sica, 1946)
Though orphan Pasquale (Franco Interlenghi) and his best friend, Giuseppe (Rinaldo Smordoni), squirrel away the money they earn shining shoes in Rome, their dream of buying a horse seems out of reach until Giuseppe’s older brother ropes them into a scheme to con money from a local fortune teller. The boys are able to purchase the horse, but end up in a juvenile detention centre where they are slowly driven apart by the police determined to make one of them talk.
Shoeshine is the first major work by Vittorio De Sica and one of the first Italian neorealist films. In 1948, it received an Honorary Award at the Academy Awards for its high quality. This award was the precursor of what would later become the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.
The experience of the war was decisive for all of us… We sought to liberate ourselves from the weight of our sins… Shoeshine was a small stone, a very small stone, a contribution to the moral reconstruction of our country (Vittorio De Sica)
The 7 pm screening on Wednesday 26 April will be introduced by Noa Steimatsky, a film historian currently writing a book on Cinecittà during the war. She is the author of The Face on Film (2017) and Italian Locations (2008).
Information and bookings: https://www.ritzcinemas.com.au/movies/shoeshine-1946