The Masters of Cinema Series

Luchino Visconti and Anna Magnani

We released two titles in September. First up was Luchino Visconti’s memorable 1951 film Bellissima starring the volcanic Anna Magnani. This gorgeous new high-definition restoration is gobsmacking and comes with A PROPOSITO DI BELLISSIMA (a 32-minute Italian documentary about the film); a video interview with co-screenwriter and assistant director Francesco Rosi; original theatrical trailer, and a 32-page illustrated booklet containing writing by Geoffrey Nowell-Smith and interviews with Luchino Visconti.

The second September title was Masahiro Shinoda’s 1971 film Silence which is adapted from the renowned novel by Shusaku Endo, and explores the violent cultural conflict amid the arrival of Jesuit missionaries in seventeenth-century Japan.

A new October update will be here shortly, but in the meantime you can peruse our October and November releases here: Peter Watkins’ Edvard Munch; the two René Laloux films: Les Maitres du temps, and Gandahar; F. W. Murnau’s Nosferatu and Tabu. The Sansho Dayu / Gion Bayashi page will go live later this month.