The Locarno Film Festival is rightly known for its retrospectives, and this year is no exception. But instead of an individual director or star, this edition is dedicated to a studio: Columbia Pictures with "The Lady with the Torch" in honor of the studio's centenary.
Curator Ehsan Khoshbakht and his obsession with Columbia Films – Retrospective 2024
Featuring 44 films, ranging from familiar titles like Orson Welles’s “The Lady from Shanghai” (1947) and Fritz Lang’s “The Big Heat” (1953) to more obscure gems like Frank Borzage’s “Man’s Castle” (1933) and Earl McEvoy’s “The Killer that Stalked New York” (1950), curator Ehsan Khoshbakht has created what he calls an “unofficial history” of the studio in its heyday, when controversial president Harry Cohn dragged Columbia from poverty to Academy success.
Variety spoke with Khoshbakht (also co-director of the Cinema Ritrovato Festival in Bologna) about the retrospective.
Variation: What role does the retrospective play in Locarno?
