The picture shows a man on a bicycle and a woman leaning against him. They are standing in the woods and are wearing white clothes.

© CCC Filmkunst GmbH 

Il giardino dei Finzi Contini

Film Restored
Talk
Film
Sat 24.10.26, 14:30

Si̇nema Transtopia

In the late 1930s, the Jewish Finzi-Contini family are members of the aristocracy in the Italian city of Ferrara. The adult children, Alberto and Micòl, pass the time with their circle of friends playing tennis and partying, oblivious to the alarming political events unfolding around them. Among their group is Giorgio, who comes from a poorer Jewish family and has fallen unrequitedly in love with Micòl. At the same time, the family becomes increasingly caught up in the mechanisms of the fascist politics which are threatening their lives. The film adaptation of Giorgio Bassani’s 1962 novel won the Golden Bear at the Berlinale in 1971 and the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film in 1972. CCC, the long-standing production company founded by Artur Brauner, is celebrating its 80th anniversary in 2026; the company has archived a large collection of its films with the Deutsche Kinemathek.

'The Garden of the Finzi-Continis', IT/FRG 1970, director: Vittorio De Sica, 93 min, German version
Introduction: Johannes Praetorius-Rhein (films scholar and sociologist)
In German
Save event
Tickets € 10
When Sat 24.10.26, 14:30
Where
Available online and at the box office from October
Buy tickets

Event details and guests

Film Info

W: Ugo Pirro, Vittoria Bonicelli, Vittorio De Sica after the novel ‘The Garden of the Finzi-Continis’ by Giorgio Bassani
C: Ennio Guarnieri
E: Adriana Novelli
M: Manuel De Sica
A: Lino Capolicchio, Dominique Sanda, Fabio Testi, Romolo Valli, Helmut Berger
P: Documento Film, CCC Filmkunst GmbH
Prod: Gianni Hecht Lucari, Arthur Cohn, Artur Brauner
WP: December 1970 

Original format: 35mm, color
Screening print: 4K DCP, 93 min, CCC Filmkunst

Restoration Information

The 4K restoration was undertaken at Omnimago based on the scan of the original negative material from Italy supplemented by corresponding film material from German TV station archives to address some small sound errors in the original scan. A new color grade was also required to recreate the look of the film. The digitization was funded by the German Film Heritage Program (FFE).

Johannes Praetorius-Rhein

is a film historian and curator based in Frankfurt am Main. He is currently preparing his doctoral dissertation on the film producer Artur Brauner and his early films about the Holocaust for publication. As part of the German-British research project “Relocating Filmstrips, Remapping Europe”, Praetorius-Rhein is investigating the history of filmstrips as a largely forgotten projection medium. Previously, he developed and managed the database for the DFG-funded “Jewish Film Heritage” project at the Film University Babelsberg Konrad Wolf. Praetorius-Rhein has also co-curated several film-historical exhibitions including “Out of and in Focus” at the Jewish Museum Frankfurt and the multilingual online exhibition, “Frames of Reconstruction”.

Previous
Next

About Film Restored

In 2026, the Deutsche Kinemathek’s film heritage festival explores risk in cinema. We are examining the perils facing film producers and distributors; looking at the challenges encountered in archives and during restoration work; and showing films about characters who have everything at stake. These are layers of risk that often overlap and are mutually reinforcing.

→ More about the festival

Further events

Thursday 22.10.

  • Film Restored
    • Talk
    • Film

    Vaterland

    Si̇nema Transtopia