Los Olvidados by Luis Buñuel
Cannes Classics, the section of the French film festival dedicated to heritage cinema, unveiled today its lineup for its upcoming edition, which includes three restored films by Spanish-born Mexican director Luis Buñuel: Los Olvidados / The Young and the Damned (1950), Nazarín (1958), and L'Âge d'or / The Golden Age (1930).
Los Olvidados, presented by the World Cinema Project, was restored by The Film Foundation’s World Cinema Project at L’Immagine Ritrovata in collaboration with Fundación Televisa, Cineteca Nacional Mexico, and Filmoteca de la UNAM, with restoration funding provided by The Material World Foundation.
Winner of the award for best director at the 1951 Cannes Film Festival, Los Olvidados follows the lives of a group of children in the “lost cities” and poor districts of Mexico City. After running away from a reformatory school, Jaibo meets with a gang of street boys to plan several assaults. Pedro, one of the gang members who is always searching for his mother’s love and care, gives shelter to Ojitos, a farm boy abandoned in the street. The destinies of the main characters come dramatically together when Jaibo, in front of Pedro, murders the guy who supposedly betrayed him.
Winner of the International Prize at the 1959 Cannes Film Festival, Nazarín is presented by Cineteca Nacional Mexico in a 3K Scan and 3K digital restoration from the original 35mm image negative (preserved by Televisa) and prints positive materials from Cineteca Nacional. Restoration made and financed by Cineteca Nacional Mexico and was mastered in 2K for digital projection. The film starring Spanish actor Francisco Rabal follows a pious priest who takes in mentally ill Beatriz and her prostitute sister, Andara. At odds with the other members of his clergy, he decides to go on a religious journey with the two women, but manages to accidentally alienate or ruin almost everyone he meets. As Nazarín attempts to bring goodwill and faith to a decaying society, he's met with scorn, suspicion and persecution.
L'Âge d'or is presented by La Cinemathèque française. Its 4K restoration was done by la Cinemathèque française and le Centre Pompidou, MNAM-CCI/Experimental cinema’s department, at Hiventy Laboratory for the image and at L.E. Diapason’s studio for the sound, using the original nitrate negative, original sound and safety elements.
Additionally, the French festival announced that Mexican filmmaker Alfonso Cuarón, director of Roma, will present the remastered version of Stanley Kubrick’s horror classic The Shining.
The 72nd edition of the Cannes Film Festival will take place May 14 - 25 in France.
