Around 75 newly restored films, several of which have not been shown in the US before, will be screened in New York this month as part of the Museum of Modern Art’s 13th annual International Festival of Film Preservation (4-25 November). The museum, which boasts a 30,000-strong collection of films, has long been a champion of cinema. Its To Save and Project event presents an eclectic mix of long-lost silent comedies, early hand-coloured films, classics by legendary directors such as Federico Fellini, cult favourites and a collection of rare films by and/or starring Orson Welles to commemorate the centennial of his birth. Here are some of the highlights.
Varieté (1925)
Directed by Ewald André Dupont
In this Weimar classic, the Swiss-born, German-Austrian actor Emil Jannings plays a down-on-his-luck former trapeze artist whose fortunes change when he meets an orphaned dancer (who becomes his mistress) and they take their act to Berlin. Things take a murderous turn, however, when Jannings’s character learns that his new love is having an affair with another trapeze artist. Filmarchiv Austria and the Wilhelm Murnau Stiftung Foundation digitally restored the film.
Carnival of Souls (1962)
Directed by Herk Harvey
Imagine that the car you are travelling in plunges into a river and you are the sole survivor. Now imagine that you are being terrorised by a ghoulish figure known simply as The Man, who makes you question whether you actually survived the crash. This is the predicament in which the actress Candace Hilligoss finds herself in this eerie cult classic, which has been restored from the original camera negative by the Los Angeles-based Academy Film Archive.
Shampoo (1975)
Directed by Hal Ashby
Sony Pictures Entertainment has digitally restored this award-winning US satire, starring Warren Beatty, Goldie Hawn, Julie Christie, Lee Grant and Jack Warden, to mark the film’s 40th anniversary. It is set on the eve of the 1968 presidential election that ultimately sees Richard Nixon head to the White House, and stars Beatty as a womanising hairdresser who becomes entangled with lovers past and present and doesn’t get the girl in the end.
Monsieur Don’t Care (1924)
Directed by Scott Pembroke and Joe Rock
Who could possibly resist Stan Laurel (one half of the comedy sensation Laurel and Hardy) dressed like this and mixing with characters named Madame Bumpador and the Duke of Charlotte Russe? Laurel reprises his role as Rhubarb Vaselino in this spoof of Rudolph Valentino’s film Monsieur Beaucaire, in which the dashing Italian actor plays a nobleman who masquerades as a barber. The Bologna-based L’Immagine Ritrovata laboratory did the restoration work.
Journey into Fear (1943)
Directed by Norman Foster under the supervision of Orson Welles
Several minutes of footage seen only in the European release have been incorporated into a new version of this adaptation of a spy thriller by the British author Eric Ambler. Orson Welles produced, starred in and worked closely with the director Norman Foster on this film. Journey into Fear is among the films by Welles that are being shown during the festival to mark the 100th anniversary of his birth.
• To Save and Project, Museum of Modern Art, New York, until 25 November