Anni difficili (1948)
Difficult Years / The Little Man
Director: Luigi Zampa - Story: from Il vecchio con gli stivali (1944), Vitaliano Brancati -Screenplay: Sergio Amidei, Vitaliano Brancati, Franco Evangelisti, Enrico Fulchigioni -Director of photography: Carlo Montuori - Music: Franco Casavola - Film editor: Eraldo Da Roma (Eraldo Judiconi) – Production design: Ivo Battelli - Costume design: Giuliana Bagni - Cameraman: Mario Montuosi - Production: Briguglio Film – Country: Italy - Running time: 115’
Cast: Umberto Spadaro (Aldo Piscitello), Massimo Girotti (Giovanni), Ave Ninchi (Rosina), Milly Vitale (Maria), Odette Bedogni [then Delia Scala] (Elena), Ernesto Almirante (the granfather), Enzo Biliotti (the owner)
The film:
“I hope the comedy of manners is not viewed as an indictment against Italians, rather as a shared confession, because I too played a part in that comedy... Laughing at one’s own faults is the finest virtue of a civilized people; and that is not all: the clearest sign of the civilization of a people is the fact that they do not leave the priority of exposing their own defects to others.”
Vitaliano Brancati, Almanacco del cinema italiano, 1948
The film restoration:
The restoration of Gli anni difficili by Luigi Zampa was based on a nitrate positive print from the era that is conserved at the Fondazione Cineteca Italiana and on a safety dupe that is conserved at London’s British Film Institute.
The restoration was effected digitally, without duplicating any material in a photochemical way, because the prints were in such good condition that it was possible to scan them at 2K resolution. After the digital cleaning, which eliminated scratches and spotting, color correction was carried out using the positive print in Milan as a reference. The film was recorded on black and white Kodak 2234 film stock.
The digital restoration of the audio was based on the print in Milan and on a safety positive print that is conserved at the Swiss Film Library in Lausanne. Both soundtracks were variable density and the peculiarities of the productions of the time were respected, such as the dubbing, the dynamics of the soundtrack and the mixing.
The restoration was conducted by Museo Nazionale del Cinema di Torino, Fondazione Cineteca di Bologna and Fondazione Cineteca Italiana and it was presented as a preview at the 65th Venice Film Festival.
The restoration was carried out in 2008 by L’Immagine Ritrovata laboratory in Bologna.
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