Renewed ‘Regained’: Méliès, Scorsese, Kubelka and more

41st International Film Festival Rotterdam
25 January – 5 February 2012

PRESS RELEASE 9 January 2012

Renewed ‘Regained’: Méliès, Scorsese, Kubelka and more

Regained, a regular section of the International Film Festival Rotterdam’s Signals programme, returns in a renewed form. This programme section, dedicated to the memory of film, focuses attention on experiment and now also includes special events and exhibitions.

The annual Regained section devotes attention to new films that refer to the memory of film. The section shows how relevant this memory is to us today, to our views on cinema, history and visual culture. As ever, documentaries, homages and restored works will be presented, sometimes linked to an original, old film print. From this year, however, Regained will go further, paying more attention to a broad range of genres. A second innovation this year is that the programme section will consist not only of film projections, but also exhibitions, presentations and events. Below, you will find a sample of what's on offer at this year's Regained; the full programme will be available from 19 January. Regained is compiled by IFFR programmer Edwin Carels.

George Méliès and Martin Scorcese
A hundred and fifty years following his birth, film magician Georges Méliès’ legacy is still as alive as ever. HUGO, Scorsese’s first 3D film, is a stylistic triumph based on a children’s book, as well as an ode to the very early days of cinema. To accompany the festival screening of HUGO, Regained will be presenting Méliès’ LE VOYAGE DANS LA LUNE, the first ever science fiction film (from 1902!), in the recently restored colour version. This will be preceded by Serge Bromberg’s documentary LE VOYAGE EXTRAORDINAIRE, which documents the difficult and expensive process of restoring Méliès’ film. In addition, under the title RETOUR DE FLAMME, Bromberg will be opening up his box of tricks for us with a live presentation of a series of unique cartoons illustrating how the 3D-effect has been stimulating animators’ imaginations for decades. The French archive master will also be throwing new light onto a number of other original Méliès films.

Peter Kubelka
Regained will be devoting particular attention to exemplary filmmaker and theoretician Peter Kubelka (Vienna, 1934) with the world première of Martina Kudlácek’s FRAGMENTS OF KUBELKA, an epic documentary that introduces his complex worldview in a very subtle way, along with screenings of seven of Kubelka’s short films from the period 1955-2003. Peter Kubelka will be attending the festival.

Pablo Ferro
In the lushly designed, largely animated documentary PABLO (USA, 2012, world première), Richard Goldgewicht (who is originally from Brazil) creates a lively portrait of the revered titles designer, artist and bohemian Pablo Ferro. Ferro created the iconic title sequences for such films as DR. STRANGELOVE, BULLIT, THE THOMAS CROWN AFFAIR, STOP MAKING SENSE and MEN IN BLACK.

Jean Epstein
James June Schneider’s documentary JEAN EPSTEIN, YOUNG OCEANS OF CINEMA is a portrait of French film theoretician and avant-garde director Epstein (1897-1953), focussing on the period in which he was making films in Brittany. Epstein was inspired by the sea, creating lyrical films such as LE TEMPESTAIRE (1947), which will be screened after the documentary.

In memoriam Raúl Ruiz and Bart Vegter
The Regained programme will be devoting attention to the recently deceased filmmakers Raúl Ruiz and Bart Vegter. Ruiz’s films frequently screened at the IFFR, and this year we will be screening his very first film (LA MALETA, a short film from 1963) and one of his last works, BALLET ACQUATIQUE (2011). Regained will be screening a compilation of Vegter’s work, interspersed with works by fellow artists.

Exhibitions and installations
CARNIVAL, the feature debut of multimedia artist Madhuja Mukherjee, has been selected for the Bright Future programme section. Her interactive video installation CRUMBLED PAPERS, FRAGMENTS OF CINEMA – inspired by glass plate negatives of Indian film stars from the 1930s, can be seen in the Nieuwe Oogst venue (Rotterdam).
In Witte de With (Rotterdam), the exhibition CELLULOID BRUSHES can be seen: a collection of fifty films and posters, for which contemporary artists were asked to design new posters for biographical films.
BABELDOM is a science fiction documentary in which a futuristic city is assembled using found footage material on architecture, science and technology (in the Netherlands Architecture Institute, Rotterdam).
Every day between 18:00 and 19:00 hours, POUR EN FINIR AVEC LE CINEMA can be seen on the video wall in the Rotterdam Schouwburg. French draughtsman Blutch draws his inspiration, as well as quotes and images for this perverse, stimulating and funny autobiographical cartoon from film history.


The IFFR’s festival program consists of three main sections: Bright Future - idiosyncratic and adventurous new work by novice makers, including the Tiger Awards Competitions -, Spectrum - new and recent work by experienced film makers and artists who provide, in the opinion of the IFFR, an essential contribution to international film culture -, and Signals, a series of thematic programs and retrospectives offering insight in topical as well as timeless ideas within cinema.

Thursday January 19 the full IFFR 2012 lineup will be published as a supplement to Dutch national newspaper de Volkskrant and online on www.filmfestivalrotterdam.com.

(End of press release)

Press information:
IFFR Press Office, Bert-Jan Zoet/Nancy van Oorschot, [email protected], +31 10 8909090