For this year’s Ritrovato Round-Up we are joined by the witty, incisive and all-around fabulous Pamela Hutchinson, editor of the Silent London website, author of two marvellous BFI Classic monographs (The Red Shoes, Pandora’s Box), producer of the Weekly Film Bulletin for Sight and Sound and one of the jurors for Ritrovato’s DVD Awards since 2018.

In the discussion that follows we touch on all the strands of the festival, praise Cecilia Cenciarelli for her programming, Mariann Lewinsky for her illuminating introductions and Ehsan Khoshbakht for his superb programme notes on Lewis Milestone. We touch on the Willi Forst and Nordic Noir programmes, so popular José couldn’t get into any of them. We have a lively debate on Molly Haskell’s Hepburn programme, agree on our love of Naruse, discuss how Comencini’s Delitto de amore  highlights issues of class and made us want to see more Comencini films and delight in the early cinema and silent cinema strands. Sumitra Peries’ Gehenu Lamai (The Girls) is a film we all adored. We touch on memorable experiences, such as watching Coline Serrau introduce Trois hommes et un couffin at the Piazza Maggiore, or the incredible response to Chaplin’s The Gold Rush, the impact of Silvana Mangano in Bitter Rice, the intensity of the colour in Duel in the Sun, or the spontaneous applause for Shirley MacLaine in Artists and Models.

All this and much more can be listened to in the podcast below:

The podcast may also be listened to here (above):

The podcast may also be listened to on: Spotify here: https://open.spotify.com/show/2zWZ7Egdy6xPCwHPHlOOaT

and on itunes here: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/first-impressions-thinking-aloud-about-film/id1548559546

If you can’t get enough of Pam discussing Hepburn, she goes into much greater depth here for the BBC 4’s History’s Heroes series: Katharine Hepburn: Queen of the Screen

The Laczic sisters have also done a wonderful podcast on the festival here:

José Arroyo