2023-11-10 19:30:02
by Aldo Grasso
A bold wish: why doesn’t the thematic channel dedicate one evening a week (as it does on Mondays with the Western) to the masterpieces of the past?
I watched with great enjoyment on Rai Movie Testimone d’impeachment (Witness for the Prosecution), a 1957 film directed by Billy Wilder, based on a story by Agatha Christie: Leonard Vole (Tyrone Power) accused of the murder of a rich widow but his wife Christine (Marlene Dietrich) refuses to testify in his defense. Leonard then turns to a famous and elderly lawyer, Wilfrid Robarts (Charles Laughton), whose intuitions seem to be able to exonerate the man… The film is also available in the original language with subtitles (RaiPlay).
As I looked at it, a desire arose in me. I hope it is not confused with a desire for the past: that film, I swear, is disconcertingly modern. Here’s the bold wish: why doesn’t Rai Movie dedicate one evening a week (as it does on Mondays with the Western) to black and white masterpieces? Maybe with a small frame, some sort of presentation, something that serves as context, something small. I think of the films of Ernst Lubitsch (1892-1947), of the refinement of his comedies which would be of great use for reflections on the genre, from We Want to Live (I mention the films with Italian titles) to Ninotchka, to Mancia Competente. I think of Mario Camerini (Mr. Max, A Romantic Adventure, Department Stores).
I think of classics such as Casablanca by Michael Curtiz, with Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman, 1942, It Happened One Night by Frank Capra, with Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert, 1934 (one of the most refined erotic scenes in the history of cinema, the fall of the walls of Jericho), Roman Holiday by William Wyler, with Gregory Peck and Audrey Hepburn, 1953, Citizen Kane by Orson Welles, 1941, Some Like It Hot by Billy Wilder, with Marilyn Monroe, Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis, 1959… I could go on for days : Every rereading of a classic is a reading of discovery like the first (Italo Calvino).
I imagine that there are rights issues (not insurmountable for films from the 1930s or 1940s), that black and white is seen as antique or that current cinema fears comparison. I do not know. It might even seem like a gesture of courage: a public confrontation with the plaintive cinema of today and the cinema of those who really knew how to make it.
November 10, 2023 (modified November 10, 2023 | 6:29 pm)
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