New York-based Rialto Pictures has acquired US theatrical, videoand DVD rights to seven classic titles from the StudioCanal library vaultsincluding works by Jean-Luc Godard, Vittorio De Sica, Alain Resnais andJean-Pierre Melville.

A theatrical run of the restored films will kick off withGodard's romantic comedy A Woman Is A Womanat New York's Film Forum and San Francisco's Castro Theatre on May 16, movingto the Los Angeles Nuart on Jul 4.

Rialto co-presidents Bruce Goldstein and Adrienne Halpern andStudioCanal's Michel Schmidt, executive vice president of distribution andmarketing, made the announcement yesterday.

Other films included in the deal are: De Sica's comedy Gold OfNaples (1954); Resnais' seminalmystery-romance Last Year At Marienbad (1961); Jacques Becker's tthriller Touchez-Pas Au Grisbi (1953); Alberto Lattuada's crime caperMafioso (1962); and Melville's thriller Le Doulos (1961) and drama Leon Morin (1961).

Touchez-Pas Au Grisbiis scheduled for theatrical release in early September.

Rialto will strike new 35mm prints and new subtitles for eachtitle and devise fresh advertising campaigns.

StudioCanal will restore all the negatives under the supervisionof its chief film and video restoration officer Brigitte Dutray in Paris.

A Woman Is A Womanwas Godard's first film in colour and Scope. A lighthearted homage to theHollywood musical, it stars his wife of the time Anna Karina as a stripperhell-bent on motherhood.

This is thethird Godard re-release handled by Rialto, following its hugely successful run with Contempt in 1997 and Band Of Outsiders in 2001.