Digital restoration is increasingly making available some of the rich history of film once again for cinema exhibition. The past few months have seen the re-release of classics by some of the great European directors. This month we bring together new old films by Michaelangelo Antonioni, Francesco Rosi, Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger, Fritz Lang and Eric Rohmer for you to enjoy where they were originally intended to be seen - in the cinema.

Here, our Cinema Curator Mark Cosgrove reflects on the recent upsurge in digital restoration:

Are we are living in a golden era of film? I very much think so. Every week sees a reissue of a classic film either for the cinema or for dvd/blu-ray. In the past few months 2001: A Space Odyssey, Au Revoir Les Enfants and Bladerunner have been back up on cinema screens and playing to sell out audiences here at Watershed. On the home entertainment front you can get yourself a blu-ray copy of Anthony Mann’s Man Of The West complete with extras including an erudite critical analyses, Wings of Desire with discussion by director Wim Wenders and co-star Peter Falk or a box set of Roberto Rossellini’s great neorealist war trilogy.

We should think ourselves lucky that this great art form can so readily be digitised and made available. I know there are immense issues relating to archiving and the enormous scale and challenge of transferring the history of 35mm to digital but for just now let’s just relish what we have in front of us: new restored digital prints of Francesco Rosi’s ground breaking Salvatore Giuliano, Antonioni’s influentially gnomic Zabriskie Point and Powell & Pressburger’s glorious melding of opera and film in The Tales of Hoffman to name but a few, never mind forthcoming re-issues of Fellini’s 8 1/2, Welles’ Touch of Evil and John Huston’s The Misfits.

In an analogue world this access would have been rare and most often consigned to London rep houses or the occasional television outing. However in the digital world we can more easily access the rich history of film and, most importantly, experience them where they were originally intended to be seen: in the cinema.

Tickets: £5.50 full / £4.00 concessions and get £1.00 off all meal orders £7.00 or over in the Café/Bar on the same day with your ticket. See our full range of menus here.

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