Film entities Cinecitta Luce, Bologna-based CSC- Cineteca Nazionale and France’s Coproduction Office have joined together to digitally restore ten Roberto Rossellini films in an initiative called The Rossellini Project.

The classic films will be restored at Bologna’s Immagini Ritrovata lab. The series will begin with a restoration of the comedy The Machine That Kills Bad People, which was seen in the Cannes Classics sidebar. The next title will be documentary India, which will get a Venice Film Festival 2011 screening.

The restoration project, which will take two years to complete, will also include Rossellini’s 1945 war classic, Rome Open City and his trio of films: Stromboli (1949) Europa ’51 (1952) and Voyage in Italy (1953).

The Rossellini project will make it possible for new copies to be made (digital and 35mm) for each of the 10 titles and to finally see the heart of the Rossellini project restored”, confirmed Gian Luca Farinelli from Cineteca di Bologna.

The restored films will be available for DVD releases and special festival screenings.