Janus Films recently struck new 35mm prints of Federico Fellini’s Amarcord (1973) and these are currently making the rounds nation-wide. Here in Colorado we had our screening last week and I’m still basking in its memory, which is an apt tribute to a film whose title (if not entirely invented) supposedly means “I remember” in Romagnese dialect. (Or, put another way, in the dialect of Rimini – the small coastal town in Italy on the Adriatic Sea where Fellini was born on January 20th, 1920.) Amarcord is a semi-biographical (or completely fantastical) look back at Fellini’s youth through the prism of his imagination. It takes on an epic quality because in tackling a specific place, time, and people, it tells us the story of a tribe. And because it’s Fellini’s tribe, their story is peppered with moments of visual splendor that can still make an audience gasp with wonder.  READ MORE

I program an art-house calendar film series in Boulder. The auditorium we screen films in has 400 seats and our projection booth is outfitted with two Century SA projectors from 1983. Aside for the occasional specialty event that requires digital projection, all our shows are reel-to-reel 35mm gigs operated by a Union Projectionist (John Templeton, the head projectionist, has over 35 years in the business). While we have many success stories, we also have our fair share of experiences that still make me cringe to think about. Here are just a few: READ MORE

Italian director Dino Risi died on June 7, but he did not receive the blitz of attention that other prominent filmmakers did upon their passing. There were many obituaries from newspapers and magazines available on  the Internet, but none of those appreciation-style articles that circulated when Sydney Pollack, Anthony Minghella, or even Carlo Ponti died (“Remembering Sydney Pollack”; “Honoring Anthony Minghella”; “The Man Sophia Loved.”). I would guess that his name was not recognizable enough to warrant that level of attention, and his films are not widely available on DVD or even VHS, making access to his work difficult.

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