It was about time to re-establish some sweet autumn rituals and what’s better than a witty, stylish, glamorous comedy from the Thirties and Forties served with quality coffee on a Sunday morning? La Cineteca di Bologna has re-launched its trademark Sundays Matinées in collaboration with Forno Brisa (started 3 years ago, they had been interrupted like everything else with the beginning of the lockdown), and this month the theme is Vogliamo ridere!.
Ernst Lubitsch’s The shop around the corner, with Margaret Sullavan and James Stewart (1940)
Literally you can translate it with “We want to laugh!”, which is already good enough, but it is also a pun on the Italian title for Lubitsch’s movie from 1942 To be or not to be, distributed in Italy as Vogliamo vivere! (“we want to live”). And Lubitsch is one of the four directors the program pays homage to, with the screening of his iconic The shop around the corner (that little gem with Margaret Sullavan and James Stewart that also served as inspiration for Nora Ephron’s 1999 You got mail) on October 18th.
George Cukor’s The Philadelphia story, with Katherine Hepburn, Cary Grant and James Stewart (1940)
The other movies are Leo McCarey’s The awful truth (1937) on October 5th, George Cuckor’s The Philadelphia story (1940) on October 11th, and Preston Sturges’s Unfaithfully Your closing the cycle (and the golden age of Hollywood’s sophisticated comedy) on October 25th.
Preston Sturges’s Unfaithfully yours, with Linda Darnell and Rex Harrison
The matinée’s format is still the same: specialty coffee and cornetto from Forno Brisa served in the Cineteca’s library and the screening at 10.30. I don’t know about you, but I am a sucker for all shades of comedy, from screwball to “sophisticated”, of the Thirties and Forties of the past century, that golden era of lush interiors and shiny gowns, but also of social critique in disguise and of sexual innuendos masked as witty dialogues. Not to mention that was the era of actors of the like of Cary Grant and Kathrine Hepburn, and kings of elegant humour like Cukor and Lubitsch. Needless to say, I have already reserved my place for the first of the four movies this Sunday and plan to watch or re-watch the other three, hoping for others to come, because we do need to laugh, don’t we?
Leo McCarey’s The awful truth, with Irene Dunne and Cary Grant
You can browse the program or buy your ticket here.
Flaneur in Bologna 