Technicolor Foundation restored Marriage Italian Style (1964)

50 years after its first release,  Marriage Italian Style was restored by Cineteca di Bologna, Technicolor Foundation for Cinema and MEMORY Cinéma, in collaboration with Surf Film who hold the producer’s rights.

No two restoration projects are the same. Each is a unique adventure related to the history of the film, its set and its exploitation.

Film restoration does not only mean restoring the film’s original sheen, patching up the cruel effects of time, and creating a negative for conservation over time, it also means breathing fresh life into the work and assessing the full breadth of the author’s production in order to entice audiences. These were the goals the project team set themselves when they embarked on the film’s restoration.

So, the team set out on the trail of Matrimonio All’italiana, filmed in 1964 during the heyday of the Commedia all’italiana and after neo-realism, and how it came to feature two great stars of cinema - Sophia Loren and Marcello Mastroianni – as well as extraordinary supporting roles like Aldo Puglisi, Tecla Scarano and Marilu Tolo.

The restoration was carried out at the Cineteca di Bologna and proved to be a difficult and fascinating adventure. Fifty years after the release of Matrimonio All’italiana, Vittorio De Sica naturally was no longer with us to reflect on the film and its restoration. So the restoration team had to go back in time to identify the original edit, learn about the light and grain of the period, find the right sound and pinpoint certain imperfections. Ennio Guarnieri who had previously worked with De Sica accepted to supervise the color grading sessions, key for a restoration.

Matrimonio all’italiana can now resume its journey around the world. First stop: Cannes.