Past Film/Video | Classics | Series & Festivals

Smog

(Franco Rossi, 1962)

New Restoration

A man in a suit is walking in a corridor, one wall has lots of holes that are creating shadows on the opposite wall.

The first Italian film to be shot entirely in Los Angeles, Smog stunned viewers back home with abundant shots of the city’s modernist, almost futuristic architecture.

Almost completely forgotten and impossible to see until its recent restoration, Smog follows a young Italian lawyer (Enrico Maria Salerno) stuck in LA on 48-hour layover between Rome and Mexico City. Exploring the hazy urban landscape, he encounters one Italian expat after another—a chronic schemer played by Renato Salvatori, Annie Girardot’s wealthy businesswoman—who lead him on a meandering trip around the city, where the midcentury look and lifestyle presented a sharp contrast to postwar Italy. In Italian with English subtitles. (101 mins., 4K DCP)

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Smog, courtesy of Warner Bros.

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Restored in 4K in 2022 by Cineteca di Bologna and UCLA Film & Television Archive in collaboration with Warner Bros. Studio Operations and with the support of Hollywood Foreign Press Association. Restoration carried out at L’Immagine Ritrovata and Warner Bros. Post Production Service – Picture laboratories.

FILM/VIDEO PROGRAMS MADE POSSIBLE BY 
National Endowment for the Arts 
Ohio Humanities

ADDITIONAL SUPPORT PROVIDED BY 
Rohauer Collection Foundation

WEXNER CENTER PROGRAMS MADE POSSIBLE BY 
Ohio Department of Development

Greater Columbus Arts Council

The Wexner Family 
Institute of Museum and Library Services

Ohio Arts Council, with support from the National Endowment for the Arts 
CampusParc 
Ohio State’s Global Arts + Humanities Discovery Theme 
The Columbus Foundation 
Nationwide Foundation 
Vorys, Sater, Seymour, and Pease

ADDITIONAL SUPPORT PROVIDED BY 
Mike and Paige Crane 
Axium Packaging 
Nancy Kramer 
Ohio State Energy Partners 
Ohio History Fund/Ohio History Connection 
Larry and Donna James 
Bruce and Joy Soll 
Rebecca Perry Damsen and Ben Towle 
Jones Day 
Alex and Renée Shumate

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Past Film/Video

Smog