screening > Smog (1962) directed by Franco Rossi

Event date: From April 07 2024, 20:30 To April 07 2024, 00:00 (Local time)
For a fee: No

The new restoration of Smog (1962) directed by Franco Rossi, makes its L.A. debut at the annual UCLA Film & Television Archive Festival of Preservation at the Billy Wilder Theater (Hammer Museum). Introduction by Luca Celada, HFPA and Francesca Santovetti, professor of Italian Studies at the New England Conservancy of Music.

In Smog, an Italian attorney (Enrico Maria Salerno) has time to kill on a layover in L.A. and happens upon a community of expatriate Italians who provide him an impromptu tour of the city. To capture mid-century Los Angeles, Rossi shot at 80 different locations, filming in and around some of the city’s most iconic architectural landmarks, including the Theme Building at LAX, the Stahl House by Pierre Koenig, the Triponent House by Bernard Judge, the oil fields of Baldwin Hills and the Pacific Coast Highway. The film is a fascinating mid-century time capsule and an outsider’s view of the ever-evolving California city.

Smog was restored by the Fondazione Cineteca di Bologna and the UCLA Film & Television Archive in collaboration with Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., with funding provided by the Golden Globe Foundation.

Smog. 1962. Italy. Directed by Franco Rossi. Screenplay by Franco Rossi, Pier Maria Pasinetti, Gian Domenico Giagni, Franco Brusati, Pasquale Festa Campanile, Massimo Franciosa, Ugo Guerra. With Enrico Maria Salerno, Annie Girardot, Renato Salvatori. In Italian with English subtitles, 101′

INFORMATION

April 7 2024 | 8:30 pm
📍 UCLA Billy Wilder Theater

Admission is free. No advance reservations. Seats are available on a first come, first served basis.

Hammer Museum members will have reserved seating available at the box office.
The box office opens one hour before the first program of the day.

MORE INFORMATION

Insights

The UCLA Film & Television Archive organized a film poster design contest inviting UCLA Arts students to show their unique interpretations of the newly restored film “Smog” (dir. Franco Rossi, Italy, 1962). Every audience member in attendance at the April 7 screening will receive a poster of the winning design by Art Major student Yifei Wu.
In her words "In the 1960s, when spaghetti westerns were hitting the movie market, Smog emerged as an understated and distinctive movie that exhibited modernism and examined modernity. The movie’s narrative and cinematography are ‘lightweight,’ but its message of loneliness and alienation is heavy. Especially the scene when the protagonist finds himself trapped at the desolate Triponent House. Thus I designed this poster with minimal visual language that outlines the iconic architecture but simultaneously tried to condense the bewilderment of the ‘outsider.’"

The second prize went to Design Media Arts Major Katherine Wang who explains “My poster design is heavily influenced by the central thematic idea of an outsider navigating a new environment and encountering unfamiliar customs. Hence, this is reflected in the sense of mystery created by the blurred background and the vastness of the setting compared to the central figure. The expansive and seemingly limitless backdrop suggests the liberated and full-of-potential lifestyle of mid-century Los Angeles, contrasting with Ciocchetti’s [the protagonist] background. In the artistic process, I manipulated and expanded a snapshot from the film, playing with typography and opacities to enhance the sense of mystery.”

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screening > Smog (1962) directed by Franco Rossi

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