PARIS — Joseph L. Mankiewicz’s “Cleopatra,” Billy Wilder’s “Fedora” and Hal Ashby’s “The Last Detail” are among 20 restored film gems and three documentaries in Cannes Classics, announced today in Paris.
The sidebar will fete Joanne Woodward, who appears with husband Paul Newman on the Cannes Film Festival poster, with a screening of 2012 documentary “Shepard & Dark,” which she produced.
Helmed by Treva Wurmfeld, the doc follows the 50-year friendship of Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright and thesp Sam Shepard and Johnny Dark conducted via letters. Woodward’s presence in Cannes still has to be confirmed.
Bearing the imprimatur of delegate general Thierry Fremaux, Cannes Classics boasts a mix of pics by U.S. helmers — including a restored print of Ted Kotcheff’s “The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz” — plus a wide spread of big-name French and European auteurs.
Cannes Classics highlights will take in two Nouvelle Vague milestones, Alain Resnais’ 1959 “Hiroshima Mon Amour” and Jacques Demy’s “The Umbrellas of Cherbourg.” Marking the 50th anniversary of his death, Jean Cocteau will be remembered with a pristine print screening of 1946’s “La Belle et la bete.”
Cannes Classics will also showcase gems from Italian helmers including Bernardo Bertolucci’s Oscar-winning “The Last Emperor,” Marco Ferreri’s “La Grand Bouffe” and Valerio Zurlini’s “The Desert of Tartars.”
As already announced, Cannes guest of honor Kim Novak will grace a restored print screening of Alfred Hitchcock’s still hugely influential “Vertigo,” released in 1958.
The sidebar, whose importance has grown in step with growing audiences for classic film restorations, will also highlight documentaries. One is “Con la pata quebrada,” from Spain’s journalist and documentary filmmaker Diego Galan, longtime director of the San Sebastian Film Festival.
Also making the cut is “A Story of Children and Film,” Mark Cousins’ follow-up to his 15-hour “The Story of Film: An Odyssey.” Adam Dawtrey, who produces with Mary Bell, describes it as “a personal, poetic portrait” in which Cousins “explores what cinema tells us about childhood and childhood tells us about cinema.” Hanway is handling sales at Cannes.
Details of the studios, film libraries and national archives behind the restorations, including the World Cinema Foundation, launched at Cannes in 2007 by Martin Scorsese, will be confirmed Tuesday, the fest said.
The Cannes Classics selections are:
RESTORED PRINTS
“Borom sarret” (1963), Ousmane Sembene
“Charulata (Charulata: The Lonely Wife)” (1964), Satyajit Ray
“Cleopatra” (1963), Joseph L. Mankiewicz
“Fedora” (1978), Billy Wilder
“Goha” (1957), Jacques Baratier
“Hiroshima mon amour” (1959), Alain Resnais
“Il deserto dei Tartari” (The Desert of Tartars) (1976), Valerio Zurlini
“La grande abbuffata” (“La grande bouffe”) (1973), Marco Ferreri
“La reine Margot” (1994), Patrice Chereau
“Le joli mai” (1963, 2013 cut), Chris Marker and Pierre Lhomme
“Les parapluies de Cherbourg” (The Umbrellas of Cherbourg) (1964), Jacques Demy
“Lucky Luciano” (1973), Francesco Rosi
“Maynila: Sa mga kuko ng liwanag” (The Nail of Brightness) (1975), Lino Brocka
“Plein soleil” (Blazing Sun) (1960), Rene Clement
“Sanma no agi” (An Autumn Afternoon) (1962), Yasujiro Ozu
“The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz” (1974), Ted Kotcheff
“The Last Detail” (1973), Hal Ashby
“The Last Emperor 3D” (1987), Bernardo Bertolucci
“Visions of Eight” (1973), Youri Ozerov, Milos Forman, Mai Zetterling, Claude Lelouch, Arthur Penn, Michael Pfleghar, John Schlesinger, Kon Ichikawa
DOCUMENTARIES ABOUT FILM
“Con la pata oeubrada” (2013), Diego Galan (Spain)
“A Story of Children and Film” (2013), Mark Cousins (U.K.)
“Shepard & Dark” (2012), Treva Wurmfeld (U.S.)
