The Museo Nazionale del Cinema at the 83rd Venice International Film Festival

The 19 restorations selected this year include major works from the history of cinema, ranging from Ernst Lubitsch’s To Be or Not to Be to Roberto Rossellini's Viaggio in Italia, from Ettore Scola's Brutti, sporchi e cattivi to John Cassavetes's Minnie and Moskowitz, as well as Roman Polanski's Cul de sac and Andrzej Wajda's Ashes and Diamonds. The programme will also feature Luis Buñuel’s 1954 Mexican film La ilusión viaja en tranvía (Illusion Travels by Streetcar), restored in 4K by the Film Archive of the Museo Nazionale del Cinema in collaboration with Fundación Televisa and Cineteca Nacional México.

The restoration was produced from the original camera negative and optical sound negative, digitised at the Cineteca Nacional México restoration laboratory. Image restoration, colour grading, audio restoration and conforming were carried out by the Museo Nazionale del Cinema’s laboratory.

Its selection for Venice Classics is an important recognition of the Museum’s work to preserve and promote the cinematic heritage. It also offers audiences an opportunity to rediscover one of Buñuel’s lesser-seen works, in which a farcical tone brings to the fore many of the themes closest to the director: religion, Surrealism, social criticism and freedom of the imagination.