For more information and reservations, please contact auditorio@proa.org / +54 11 4104-1001

Press:

Download Press kit in English (pdf)

Ariel Magnus. Página 12 / Radar. 15.04.2012
Alejandro Lingenti. La Nación. 21.04.2012
Federico Lisica. Página 12. 21.04.2012
Juan Pablo Russo. Escribiendo Cine. April 2012
Quintín. Perfil / Cultura. 07.05.2012

Patience (After Sebald)
United Kingdom, 2011, 82 minutes
Filmed and Directed by Grant Gee
Edited by Jerry Chater, Grant Gee
Produced by Gareth Evans, Di Robson, Sarah Caddy

Featuring Tacita Dean / William Firebrace / Dan Gretton / Barbara Hui / Arthur Lubow / Robert Macfarlane / Christopher MacLehose / Jeremy Millar / Katie Mitchell / Rick Moody / Andrew Motion / Chris Petit / Adam Phillips / Iain Sinclair / Bill Swainson / Lise Patt / Marina Warner / Christopher Woodward

Synopsis
A richly textured essay film on landscape, art, history, life and loss, Patience (After Sebald) offers a unique exploration of the work of internationally acclaimed writer W.G. Max Sebald (1944 – 2001) via a walk through East Anglia tracking his most  influential book, The Rings of Saturn.
The much anticipated new feature by  the Grierson Award-winning Director of Joy Division, Patience… is the first film about Sebald internationally, marking ten years since the writer’s untimely death, and with contributions from major writers, artists and film-makers.

Notes towards a film. By Grant Gee
W.G. Sebald has, in the ten years since his sudden death in a car crash (14.12.2001), begun to exert an almost uncanny influence over contemporary art and writing. He’s become one of those rarest of writers: the adjectival author, in the shortest possible time. ‘Sebaldian’ has entered the language. I wanted to find out why this is, and trace his influence through the zeitgeist.

Both my previous major long-form works – Radiohead’s Meeting People Is Easy and Joy Division – as well as the recent short film The Western Lands, examined iconic contemporary artists in the context of the landscapes they inhabited, respectively the ‘non-places’ of international touring, the post-industrial wreckage of late 1970s Manchester and the lethal cliff faces of the Orkney Islands. These artists could not be understood fully without an understanding of the landscapes and locations they occupied. The dialogue between personality and place is thus central to my own artistic investigations.

Rarely has the idea and importance of place been more prominent in culture and thought than it is at the moment. There are many reasons for this, not least the effect of globalization, with its spread of ‘sameness’ and the subsequent alienation and lack of belonging people feel. As things are erased, so they become even more significant.

This destruction of ‘place’ is a kind of catastrophe in our imaginative lives. It doesn’t have to take the form of explicit environmental or topographic change. Perhaps even more pernicious is the long-term psychological effect. Sebald’s body of work is profoundly aware of this and offers the richest statement I have come across about the importance of attention to place and the histories it holds and has made.

Properly to honour the associative nature of the book and the themes discussed, the ‘essay film’, a ‘genre’ employed to great effect by the likes of Chris Marker, Harun Farocki, Patrick Keiller and Chris Petit, seems a very helpful and productive means to explore such material. Such a form allows for multiple tones and textures, essential when considering Sebald and place. It is also a personal form, not governed by pre-ordained structures and templates. I am extremely glad to have had the opportunity to work with this approach, and hope in a small way to have done justice, on film, to the remarkable work of this most important and influential writer.

Biography

Grant Gee is a prolific cinematographer and film-maker, best known for directing definitive studies of music and musicians. He has been Grammy-nominated twice, for Meeting People Is Easy – about Radiohead – in 2000 and Demon Days – about Gorillaz – in 2006.
His recent feature length work Joy Division premiered at the 2007 Toronto International Film Festival in 2007 and won the Sound and Vision award for ‘Best Music Film 2007’ at the CPH:DOX festival in Copenhagen, and the Audience Awards for Best Film at the Gdansk film festival 2008 and ‘In-Edit’ festival in Barcelona 2008. It also won the prestigious Grierson Award 2008 for Best Cinema Documentary.
He also films and directs short, artists’ moving image works including City Symphony, 400 Anarchists and Mr. Fred Zentner’s. These have been shown internationally by the British Council, onedotzero and others. The most recent, The Western Lands, about climber and writer Jim Perrin’s climb of The Old Man of Hoy won best short film awards at the Banff and Vancouver film festivals.
He also shot, edited and made motion graphics for the acclaimed feature documentary Scott Walker: 30 Century Man, for director Stephen Kijak in 2006.
Gee was born in 1964 in Plymouth. He studied Geography at the Universities of Oxford and Illinois. He has worked in film / video since 1990. He lives in Brighton with his wife and son.

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With the support of Tenaris – Organización Techint

As part of Ciudades Paralelas –a project of public spaces interventions that will be developed in several venues in Berlin, Buenos Aires, Varsovia and Zurich- Fundación Proa presents a film, two concerts and a debate on the subject of the city. This series of events place Proa at the center of festival related activities.

The documentary Hacerme feriante (Becoming a Stallholder, 2010, 92’), Julián d’Angiolillo’ s first film on the Salada fair and alternative city economy, will screen on Sunday November 28. That same day, Ulises Conti presents his new record “Posters privados” (“Private posters”) at a piano concert and stories on different views of the city.

On Sunday December 5, the eight artists that participate in Ciudades Paralelas will present the conclusions of the festival in a debate moderated by Alan Pauls. Closure will be in charge of Pablo Dacal who will perform live at Proa’ s terrace.

Program
Sunday November 28
6PM FILM | Hacerme feriante (Becoming a Stallholder, 2010, 92’), by Julián d’Angiolillo +info
8PM MUSIC | Concert by Ulises Conti + info

Sunday December 5
6PM DEBATE | Ciudades paralelas. Diarios de trabajo (Ciudades Paralelas. Work journals). With Lola Arias, Christian García, Ant Hampton, Dominic Huber, Stefan Kaegi, Ligna, Gerardo Naumann, Mariano Pensotti. Moderador: Alan Pauls + info
8PM MUSIC | Concert by Pablo Dacal at the terrace + info

Ciudades Paralelas is a project of intervention on public spaces, curated by Lola Arias and Stefan Kaegi. They summoned international artists to create an observatory of urban situations in eight different spots around the city. Hotel rooms, libraries, shopping malls, train stations and factories are the locations chosen by the artists to produce their work. This festival previewed in Berlin in September earlier this year, and will be relocated to Varsovia and Zurich in 2011. In words of its curators, “Ciudades Paralelas is itinerant laboratory for experimentation that subverts the ways of seeing and using the city”.

+ on Ciudades Paralelas: www.ciudadesparalelas.com

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FILM | Sunday November 28 6PM
Hacerme feriante
(Becoming a Stallholder) Argentina, 2010, 92’. Dir. Julián d’Angiolillo

"Hacerme feriante". Argentina, 2010, 92’. Dir. Julián d’Angiolillo

Julián d’Angiolillo’ s first film gives the tour of the largest fair in Argentina, where everything is available at prices considerably lower than in the “real” world. The documentary exposes the growth of informal economy, legal limits and the use of public spaces. “Hacerme feriante” (Becoming a Stallholder) was included in BAFICI’ s Argentinean Competence in 2010.

Sinopsis
La Salada are a series of fairs specialized in textile in Buenos Aires’ city, on the ruins of the popular private beaches. Twice a week, in the early morning, the fair activates the economy through an immeasurable amount of domestic scale workshops that provide products for wholesalers coming from all over the country. The stallholders ingeniously built a multitudinous system for everyone who cannot find in the city, what the Salada fair has to offer, establishing its own rules and making the government come to them – instead of the other way around-. Given town council’ s judicial pressure to clean contamination in the Riachuelo (where the most precarious fair is located), an unsuspected negotiation between the State and the stallholders begins suddenly in order to transform the territory once more.

On Julián d’Angiolillo
He has a Bachelor in Visual Arts from IUNA and in Drama from EAD. He published “Cabinas” (National prize and Rozenmacher special mention on drama) and the essay “La desplazada. Biogeografía del Parque Rivadavia”.  He made the videos “Condominio”, “El Arco del Triunfo Entrópico”, “Colección Overlock” y “Suite Matanzas”. He designed the visual composition of “Suerte Satélite” at the city’s Planetarium and the video installation “Dirección de paseos”, in the exhibition devoted to Carlos Thays. He received a video residency from the Cité des Arts of París and the Elena Poggi award from the Asociación Argentina de Críticos de Arte. He took part in the project “Post It City – Ciudades Ocasionales”.

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MUSIC | Sunday November 28, 8PM
La ciudad portátil (Portable city). Concert by Ulises Conti

Ulises Conti presents his new album “Posters privados” (Private posters), a series of eight piano pieces where the experimentation is not in the content, as in his previous work, but in the way of simply addressing classical language. He works under the premise of doing music with the fewer amount of elements possible, seeking to escape the stereotypical characteristics of a clean performance and avoid academic gestures. The end result seems to be the image of a performer playing in an empty room, where we can come in and spy on him, opening a side door, unnoticed.

On Ulises Conti
He is a composer and sound artist. From Metamúsica, his productive platform, he develops diverse projects trying to provide and solve stages generally related to music in an interdisciplinary context: soundtracks, theatre plays, dance performances, sound installations; with an international scope, atypical for Argentinean composers of his generation. He presented diverse projects in Buenos Aires and diverse prestigious stages around the world. His music is edited in different national and international catalogues. + info: www.ulisesconti.com.ar / www.myspace.com/ulisesconti

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DEBATE | Sunday December 5, 6PM
Ciudades paralelas. Diarios de trabajo
(Work Journals) With Lola Arias, Christian García, Ant Hampton, Dominic Huber, Stefan Kaegi, Ligna, Gerardo Naumann y Mariano Pensotti.
Moderator: Alan Pauls

The eight artist who participate in the festival present their work journals and discuss different strategies of urban intervention, under the moderation of writer Alan Pauls.

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MUSIC | Sunday December 5, 8PM
Canciones sobre la ciudad (Songs about the city). Concert by Pablo Dacal at the terrace.

The festival’ s closure will be in charge of Pablo Dacal. The musician will perform at Proa’ s terrace. He will present a song repertory on the multiple of views of the city.

On Pablo Dacal
He is a singer songwriter, a referent for other contemporary local musicians. He shared the stage with great artist of his generation such as Fito Páez, Daniel Melingo and Fernando Cabrera, among others. Front man for the Orquesta de Salón, he edited “13 greatest hits” (2005) and “La Era del Sonido” (2008); and, with the Voladores trio, the albums “Disco de Bolsillo” (2006) and “Cartón Pintado” (2009). En 2009, he also edited “Viajantes”, the debut record of his band, with Manuel Onós, Juan Jacinto and Alfonso Barbieri. He played several concerts in Buenos Aires and other cities in Argentina, Uruguay, Colombia, Spain, France and Germany. He is currently finishing his new record “El Progreso”, produced by Ezequiel Cutaia and to be edited in the next year. + info: www.musicadesalon.com.ar / www.myspace.com/salonerias

Admission: $ 10
auditorio@proa.org
More information >>

Program:
2.00 pm:
Come Cretinetti paga i debiti. André Deed. 1910, 6′
Come fu che l’ingordigia rovino il natale di Cretinetti. André Deed. 1910, 11 ‘
Amor Pedestre. Marcel Fabre. 1914, 8′
Das Stahltier. Willy Zielke. 1935, 15′
L’Uomo meccanico . André Deed
. 1921, 25′
Pacific 231 . Jean Mitry
. 1949, 12 ‘

3.30 pm:
Velocità (Vitesse). Tina Cordero, Guido Martina, Pippo Oriani. 1930, 16′
Ballet mécanique. Fernand Léger, Dudley Murphy
. 1923,18′
Jeux des reflets et de la vitesse. Henri Chomette. 1933, 7′
Thais. Anton Giulio Bragaglia. 1916, 35 ‘

5.00 pm:
Come Cretinetti paga i debiti. André Deed. 1910, 6′
Come fu che l’ingordigia rovino il natale di Cretinetti. André Deed. 1910, 11 ‘
Amor Pedestre. Marcel Fabre. 1914, 8′
Das Stahltier. Willy Zielke. 1935, 15′
L’Uomo meccanico . André Deed
. 1921, 25′
Pacific 231 . Jean Mitry
. 1949, 12 ‘

6.30 pm:
Velocità (Vitesse). Tina Cordero, Guido Martina, Pippo Oriani. 1930, 16′
Ballet mécanique. Fernand Léger, Dudley Murphy
. 1923,18′
Jeux des reflets et de la vitesse. Henri Chomette. 1933, 7′
Thais. Anton Giulio Bragaglia. 1916, 35 ‘

Films synopsis

Amor Pedestre (Love afoot), 1914. Dir. Marcel Fabre. 10′
Illustrates the story of an accidental love triangle from a peculiar point of view: the feet. During his morning walk, Robinet (main character played by Fabre himself) encounters a young girl and decides to court her. Despite her rejecting him, Robinet slips a note on his shoe imploring to meet him later on. Back home, the note slips out of her shoe and is found by her angry husband who decides to show up at the date to meet Robinet.

Ballet mécanique (Mechanic ballet), 1923. Dir. Fernand Léger and Dudley Murphy. 14 ‘
Is a caleidoscope of images paired up with an electric soundtrack. The film accounts for a constantly moving world dominated by mechanic and repetitive images combined with moments of solitude spent in a garden. A young girl swings in a garden; another girl smiles. The takes alternate rotating cylinders, turbines, and kitchen objects arranged in a concentric form. Over and over again, a woman climbs a flight of stairs carrying a bag over her shoulder. An art-deco figure appears, dancing.

Come Cretinetti paga i debiti (How Foolshead pays his debts), 1909. Dir. André Deed. 6’
Interpreted by director André Deed, Cretinetti (Foolshead) is the main character in a series of entertaining futurist short films; in which this buffoon sets himself to destroy everything that steps in his way. This time, Cretinetti is a compulsive debtor, persecuted by collectors that invade his apartment floor forcing him to pay his debts. The film focuses on Foolshead’ s adventures when he tries unsuccessfully to get rid of them and escape the law.

Come fu che l’ingordigia rovinò il Natale a Cretinetti (Foolshead’s Christmas), 1910. Dir. André Deed. 11’
In this take of André Deed’s comic saga, Cretinetti gets in trouble when he tries to post his Christmas party invitations in the mail. Because of him taking so long, a furious crowd waiting in line behind him calls the police to kick him out. Cretinetti purchases a tree to attack a public building and clumsily sets it on fire. He walks back to his house with the blazing tree where his family and friends await.

Das Stahltier (The Steel animal), 1935. Dir. Willy Otto Zielke. 15’
The railway workers wait outside for the factory doors to open and for another workday to begin. Inside, engineer Klaassen staid overnight working on some drafts for a new locomotive. As a result of the team’s hard work, the project comes together and Klaasen gets a promotion. Before leaving for his job, he meets up with his co-workers and has second thoughts regarding his decision. Their conversation revolves around the stories of the evolution of the railway industry and its pioneers.

Jeux des reflets et de la vitesse (Games on reflection and speed), 1933. Dir. Henri Chomette. 6’
Captures the impressions on the city of Paris; experimenting with light and movement through the camera lens.

L’Uomo meccanico (The mechanic man), 1921. Dir. André Deed. 24′
This film is a parody of serials; more precisely of one: “Master Mystery”, a thriller premiered a year before. Driven by an evil but beautiful women, the mechanic man tears down doors and walls obsessed with destroying everything that sets in its way. Saltarello, a marginal but loveable character that spends his time escaping the police, fights him. Scenes like the one where the robot persecutes a car or the duel between two robots which ends with dancing, have a very kitsch sense of humour.

Pacific 231 , 1949. Dir. Jean Mitry. 12′
Pacific 231 is both the name of the leading role locomotive and the critic and cinema theorist Jean Mitry’s short film. If the engine is the star of the action, the Swiss French composer Arthur Honegger’s music play is the protagonist of the soundtrack. This particular conjunction of cinema, music and machine produces a masterpiece, given the passion for engines that the director and composer share.

Thaïs, 1916. Dir. Anton Giulio Bragaglia. 54′
Narrates the adventures of Bianca, a “femme fatale” that plays and uses his admirers to satisfy her whims and selfish purposes. The highlight of the film is the final scene: a tragic finale where the heroine is punished for her wrongdoings.

Velocità (Velocity), 1930. Dir. Tina Cordero, Guido Martina, Pippo Oriani. 12 ‘
Captures the city dynamism combining rotating views, whirling machines, articulated mannequins and the homage to several 20th century artists such as Boccioni, Mondrian, Léger and Kandinsky. All these elements are brought together by futurist painter Oriani and the collaboration of writers Cordero and Martina.

Sunday 23th May, 5.00pm

Ballet mécanique, 1923. Dir. F. Léger y D. Murphy. 18′
Jeux des reflets et de la vitesse, 1933. Dir. H. Chomette. 7′
Thaïs, 1916. Dir. Anton Giulio Bragaglia. 35′

Films synopsis

Ballet mécanique (Mechanic ballet), 1923. Dir. Fernand Léger and Dudley Murphy. 18′
Is a caleidoscope of images paired up with an electric soundtrack. The film accounts for a constantly moving world dominated by mechanic and repetitive images combined with moments of solitude spent in a garden. A young girl swings in a garden; another girl smiles. The takes alternate rotating cylinders, turbines, and kitchen objects arranged in a concentric form. Over and over again, a woman climbs a flight of stairs carrying a bag over her shoulder. An art-deco figure appears, dancing.

Jeux des reflets et de la vitesse (Games on reflection and speed), 1933. Dir. Henri Chomette. 7’
Captures the impressions on the city of Paris; experimenting with light and movement through the camera lens.

Thaïs, 1916. Dir. Anton Giulio Bragaglia. 35′
Narrates the adventures of Bianca, a “femme fatale” that plays and uses his admirers to satisfy her whims and selfish purposes. The highlight of the film is the final scene: a tragic finale where the heroine is punished for her wrongdoings.

Admission: $ 6
auditorio@proa.org
More information >>

Sunday 16th May, 5.00pm

Pacific 231, 1949. Dir. Jean Mitry. 12′
Velocità, 1930. Dir. T. Cordero, G. Martina, P. Oriani. 35′
L’Uomo meccanico, 1921. Dir. André Deed. 25′

Films synopsis

Pacific 231, 1949. Dir. Jean Mitry. 12′
Pacific 231 is both the name of the leading role locomotive and the critic and cinema theorist Jean Mitry’s short film. If the engine is the star of the action, the Swiss French composer Arthur Honegger’s music play is the protagonist of the soundtrack. This particular conjunction of cinema, music and machine produces a masterpiece, given the passion for engines that the director and composer share.

Velocità, 1930. Dir. Tina Cordero, Guido Martina, Pippo Oriani. 35‘
Captures the city dynamism combining rotating views, whirling machines, articulated mannequins and the homage to several 20th century artists such as Boccioni, Mondrian, Léger and Kandinsky. All these elements are brought together by futurist painter Oriani and the collaboration of writers Cordero and Martina.

L’Uomo meccanico (The mechanic man), 1921. Dir. André Deed. 25′
This film is a parody of serials; more precisely of one: “Master Mystery”, a thriller premiered a year before. Driven by an evil but beautiful women, the mechanic man tears down doors and walls obsessed with destroying everything that sets in its way. Saltarello, a marginal but loveable character that spends his time escaping the police, fights him. Scenes like the one where the robot persecutes a car or the duel between two robots which ends with dancing, have a very kitsch sense of humour.

Admission: $ 6
auditorio@proa.org
More information >>

Accompanying The Universe of Futurism. 1909-1936 exhibition, Proa presents a Futurist Cinema series, that shows the diversity of disciplines experimented by the avant-garde Italian movement, to be held every Sunday from May, 9th at Proa’s auditorium.

auditorio@proa.org / info@proa.org
Admission: $6

May
Sunday 9, 5.00 pm
Come Cretinetti paga i debiti, 1910. Dir. André Deed. 6′
Come fu che l’ingordigia rovinò il Natale a Cretinetti. 1910.
Dir. André Deed. 6′
Amor Pedestre, 1914. Dir. Marcel Fabre. 10′
Das Stahltier, 1935. Dir. Willy Otto Zielke. 15′
L’Uomo meccanico, 1921. Dir. André Deed. 24′

Sunday 16, 5.00 pm
Pacific 231, 1949. Dir. Jean Mitry. 12′
Velocità, 1930. Dir. T. Cordero, G. Martina, P. Oriani. 12′
L’Uomo meccanico, 1921. Dir. André Deed. 24′

Sunday 23, 5.00 pm
Ballet mécanique, 1923. Dir. F. Léger y D. Murphy. 14′
Jeux des reflets et de la vitesse, 1933. Dir. H. Chomette. 6′
Thaïs, 1916. Dir. Anton Giulio Bragaglia. 54′

Sunday 30, 2.00 – 8.00 pm
Futurist Cinema Marathon

The Futurist Cinema

The Futurist Cinema Manifest, signed in 1916, proclaims the movement’s rejection towards both narrative and theatrical language: “The cinema is an autonomous art. The cinema must therefore never copy the stage. The cinema, being essentially visual, must above all fulfil the evolution of painting; detach itself from reality, from photography, from the graceful and solemn. It must become anti-graceful, deforming, impressionistic, synthetic, dynamic, free-wording.”

The series will include an extraordinary selection of films from the first decades of the 20th century.  They reveal the futurist artists´s will to disrupt and experiment through diverse disciplines. One of its most distinguished directors, Anton Giulio Bragaglia – also author of the book The New Argentinean theatre – will be present with one of the most relevant works in Cinema history: Thaïs (1916). André Deed (director of buffoon Cretinetti’ s saga) and Marcel Fabre’s Amor Pedestre (1914) will offer a unique outlook on the birth of experimental cinema. The programme will also include a synthesis on the post-war period with films such as Velocità (1930), Pacific 231 (1949) and Das Stahltier (1935), which deal with the exalting views of the modern city, industrial labour and the machine.

Films synopsis

Amor Pedestre (Love afoot), 1914. Dir. Marcel Fabre. 10′
Illustrates the story of an accidental love triangle from a peculiar point of view: the feet. During his morning walk, Robinet (main character played by Fabre himself) encounters a young girl and decides to court her. Despite her rejecting him, Robinet slips a note on his shoe imploring to meet him later on. Back home, the note slips out of her shoe and is found by her angry husband who decides to show up at the date to meet Robinet.

Ballet mécanique (Mechanic ballet), 1923. Dir. Fernand Léger and Dudley Murphy. 14 ‘
Is a caleidoscope of images paired up with an electric soundtrack. The film accounts for a constantly moving world dominated by mechanic and repetitive images combined with moments of solitude spent in a garden. A young girl swings in a garden; another girl smiles. The takes alternate rotating cylinders, turbines, and kitchen objects arranged in a concentric form. Over and over again, a woman climbs a flight of stairs carrying a bag over her shoulder. An art-deco figure appears, dancing.

Come Cretinetti paga i debiti (How Foolshead pays his debts), 1909. Dir. André Deed. 6’
Interpreted by director André Deed, Cretinetti (Foolshead) is the main character in a series of entertaining futurist short films; in which this buffoon sets himself to destroy everything that steps in his way. This time, Cretinetti is a compulsive debtor, persecuted by collectors that invade his apartment floor forcing him to pay his debts. The film focuses on Foolshead’ s adventures when he tries unsuccessfully to get rid of them and escape the law.

Come fu che l’ingordigia rovinò il Natale a Cretinetti (Foolshead’s Christmas), 1910. Dir. André Deed. 11’
In this take of André Deed’s comic saga, Cretinetti gets in trouble when he tries to post his Christmas party invitations in the mail. Because of him taking so long, a furious crowd waiting in line behind him calls the police to kick him out. Cretinetti purchases a tree to attack a public building and clumsily sets it on fire. He walks back to his house with the blazing tree where his family and friends await.

Das Stahltier (The Steel animal), 1935. Dir. Willy Otto Zielke. 15’
The railway workers wait outside for the factory doors to open and for another workday to begin. Inside, engineer Klaassen staid overnight working on some drafts for a new locomotive. As a result of the team’s hard work, the project comes together and Klaasen gets a promotion. Before leaving for his job, he meets up with his co-workers and has second thoughts regarding his decision. Their conversation revolves around the stories of the evolution of the railway industry and its pioneers.

Jeux des reflets et de la vitesse (Games on reflection and speed), 1933. Dir. Henri Chomette. 6’
Captures the impressions on the city of Paris; experimenting with light and movement through the camera lens.

L’Uomo meccanico (The mechanic man), 1921. Dir. André Deed. 24′
This film is a parody of serials; more precisely of one: “Master Mystery”, a thriller premiered a year before. Driven by an evil but beautiful women, the mechanic man tears down doors and walls obsessed with destroying everything that sets in its way. Saltarello, a marginal but loveable character that spends his time escaping the police, fights him. Scenes like the one where the robot persecutes a car or the duel between two robots which ends with dancing, have a very kitsch sense of humour.

Pacific 231 , 1949. Dir. Jean Mitry. 12′
Pacific 231 is both the name of the leading role locomotive and the critic and cinema theorist Jean Mitry’s short film. If the engine is the star of the action, the Swiss French composer Arthur Honegger’s music play is the protagonist of the soundtrack. This particular conjunction of cinema, music and machine produces a masterpiece, given the passion for engines that the director and composer share.

Thaïs, 1916. Dir. Anton Giulio Bragaglia. 54′
Narrates the adventures of Bianca, a “femme fatale” that plays and uses his admirers to satisfy her whims and selfish purposes. The highlight of the film is the final scene: a tragic finale where the heroine is punished for her wrongdoings.

Velocità (Velocity), 1930. Dir. Tina Cordero, Guido Martina, Pippo Oriani. 12 ‘
Captures the city dynamism combining rotating views, whirling machines, articulated mannequins and the homage to several 20th century artists such as Boccioni, Mondrian, Léger and Kandinsky. All these elements are brought together by futurist painter Oriani and the collaboration of writers Cordero and Martina.

Complete programe. Click on the image to see it on real size.