Seven-Word Reviews solicits contributors to assess or describe a film using a total of seven words, jotting them down on anything at hand. The series is inspired by cinema's status as the seventh art, and the internet's increasing emphasis on critical brevity.
For this edition, critics, programmers, and other film professionals at the 40th Il Cinema Ritrovato in Bologna were asked to share their reviews. The eclectic choices showcase the diversity of the sprawling program, including new restorations, rare revivals, and highlights from retrospectives on directors Ritwik Ghatak, Mitchell Leisen, Gunvor Nelson, and Luchino Visconti, and star Barbara Stanwyck.
LOU BURKART
Trailer for Dante's Paradise (Radu Jude, 2026)
CELLULOID LIBERATION FRONT
Before the Revolution (Bernardo Bertolucci, 1964)
FLAVIA DIMA
Ball of Fire (Howard Hawks, 1941)
BRYONY DIXON
Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (F.W. Murnau, 1927)
EDO CHOI
Pakeezah (Kamal Amrohi, 1972)
CECILIA ERMINI
My Name Is Oona (Gunvor Nelson, 1969), Forty Guns (Samuel Fuller, 1957), Lumber Jack-Rabbit (Chuck Jones, 1954), Warsaw Bridge (Pere Portabella, 1989)
SALLY FOLKARD
Curse of Frankenstein (Terence Fisher, 1957)
LILI FOURMESTRAUX
The Devils (Ken Russell, 1971), Weighed but Found Wanting (Lino Brocka, 1974), My Name Ain't Suzie (Angela Chan, 1985)
ALEXANDER HORWATH
Now You Tell One (Charles Bowers, 1926)
MARGOT HERVEE
The Damned (Luchino Visconti, 1969)
PAMELA HUTCHINSON
Mirages de Paris (Fyodor Otsep, 1933)
DANIEL KASMAN
Eight Girls in a Boat (Richard Wallace, 1934), Cradle Song (Mitchell Leisen, 1933), Report to Mother (John Abraham, 1986), Nagarik (Ritwik Ghatak, 1952/1977), Tol'able David (Henry King, 1921)
JESSICA KIANG
Weighed but Found Wanting (Lino Brocka, 1974), Whistle Down the Wind (Bryan Forbes, 1961), House of Strangers (Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 1949)
MATILDE KLEIN & ALEX KLEIN
The Mystery of the Old Castle (Witold Giersz, 1956)
AMOS LEVIN
El Puente (Juan Antonio Bardem, 1977)
CHIARA MARAÑÓN
No Man of Her Own (Mitchell Leisen, 1950)
IRENE MUSUMECI
La dérive (Paula Delsol, 1964), The Devils (Ken Russell, 1971), Sanshiro Sugata (Akira Kurosawa, 1943), Brighton Beach (Carol Stein & Susan Wittenberg, 1981), A Spring for the Thirsty (Yuri Ilyenko, 1965), The Cycle (Dariush Mehrjui, 1976), Frame Line (Gunvor Nelson, 1983), Light Years (Gunvor Nelson, 1987), Field Study #2 (Gunvor Nelson, 1988), Young Frankenstein (Mel Brooks, 1974), The Stranger (Orson Welles, 1946)
K.J. RELTH-MILLER
The Long Memory (Robert Hamer, 1953), Lady in the Dark (Mitchell Leisen, 1944)
JOSH SIEGEL
Trailer for Dante's Paradise (Radu Jude, 2026)
REGINA SCHLAGNITWEIT
The Fight (William Greaves, 1974)
GIRISH SHAMBU
Mirages de Paris (Fyodor Otsep, 1933)
ELEANOR THORNLEY
My Name Ain't Suzie (Angela Chan, 1985)
JASON WOOD
Vagabond (Agnès Varda, 1985)
EMILY WRIGHT
Baby Face (Alfred E. Green, 1933)
