Carlotta, Artcraft Pictures Team on French Classic Film Deal — SkimNews
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- Carlotta Films signed a deal with U.S. restoration company Artcraft Pictures to distribute its collection of Hollywood silent and early sound-era classics across all rights in France, including theatrical and home entertainment release.
- The partnership launches at Lyon's Lumière Film Festival with a newly restored print of Clara Bow's 1927 romantic comedy 'It,' directed by Clarence G. Badger, which screens Oct. 17 at the Auditorium with organ accompaniment by Italian musician Gabriele Agrimonti.
- Additional titles in the slate include Herbert Brenon's 'Beau Geste' (1926) with Ronald Colman, Cecil B. DeMille's 'The Affairs of Anatol' (1921) with Gloria Swanson, William C. deMille's 'Miss Lulu Bett,' and Lionel Barrymore's sound-era 'His Glorious Night' (1929) starring John Gilbert.
- Artcraft Pictures was founded by James Mockoski, a longtime archivist who worked with Francis Ford Coppola's American Zoetrope, and Robert A. Harris, whose restorations include David Lean's 'Lawrence of Arabia,' George Cukor's 'My Fair Lady,' and Hitchcock's 'Vertigo.'
- The company takes its name from the original Artcraft Pictures, a 1916 distribution banner that became part of Paramount Pictures and was associated with Mary Pickford during the silent era.
- Carlotta plans French theatrical and Blu-ray releases with individual dates yet to be announced; the distributor has spent close to three decades releasing classic cinema in France, with a catalogue already spanning Murnau's 'Sunrise' and Pabst's 'Pandora's Box.'
- Artcraft is separately collaborating with the San Francisco Silent Film Festival on Paramount silent-era restorations that began in 2025; a restored 'Beau Geste' was presented at Telluride earlier this year.
Why it matters: The choice of 'It' as the launch title for a French distribution deal is a marketing read on Clara Bow's renewed visibility — Taylor Swift named a song after her on 'The Tortured Poets Department,' and Bow also inspired Margot Robbie's character in Damien Chazelle's 'Babylon' — giving Carlotta a contemporary hook for a silent-era restoration.
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