Film / News
Watershed launches Cinema Rediscovered
It’s something of a boom time for meticulously restored cinema classics. Many of them have never looked better, even to their original audiences. Now the Watershed is celebrating this development with Cinema Rediscovered – a welcome new addition to the city’s packed film festival calendar, which will run from July 28-31.
“Audiences have responded so positively to seeing classic films back on the cinema screen at Watershed that I thought it was about time that we had a festival dedicated to the history, preservation and presentation of this extraordinary art form,” says Cinema Curator Mark Cosgrove.
The inaugural festival boasts the world premiere of StudioCanal’s new restoration of the 1968 British historical drama The Lion in Winter, with Peter O’Toole as Henry II and Katharine Hepburn as Eleanor of Aquitaine. This is the centrepiece of a weekend-long tribute to the late cinematographer Douglas Slocombe, whose work ranged from the great 1945 horror anthology Dead of Night to several Ealing comedy classics and all three original Indiana Jones films.
Also included is a special screening of the 4K restoration of Nagisa Ôshima’s BAFTA winning 1983 English language debut Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence, starring David Bowie. In addition, should your bottom be sturdy enough to survive it, they’ll be showing all fifteen hours of Mark Cousins’ The Story of Film: An Odyssey over multiple days “in an informal setting.”
Cinema Rediscovered is inspired by the pioneering Il Cinema Ritrovato festival in Bologna, Italy, and brings together partners the Independent Cinema Office (ICO), South West Silents and 20th Century Flicks. Watch this space for the full programme when we get it.