Boats, pasta and amore may provide the backdrop to the Venice festival but it is cinema that matters most. This year more than ever. A look at the films – and yes, the backdrop – as Venezia 72 gets ready to start. Elisabeth Sereda previews this year’s edition of the festival on the lagoon.
The Venice Film Festival lineup looks great on paper. Greater than last May’s Cannes, which also looked good on paper and then failed to deliver for the most part. Just like Cannes, Venice kicks off with a major U.S.-studio movie: Everest, starring among others Josh Brolin, Jake Gyllenhaal, Sam Worthington, Keira Knightley, Robin Wright and Emily Watson. Directed by Baltasar Kormakur (The Deep, 2 Guns) it will keep the opening night audience at the edge of their seats and probably freezing since it chronicles the infamous 1996 climbing expedition that killed several team members in a severe snowstorm.
The big films shown in Venice really matter, and the simple reason is timing. Reviewers get to see The Danish Girl starring Golden Globe- and Oscar-winner Eddie Redmayne and directed by Tom Hooper, Black Mass, the Whitey Bulger story with Johnny Depp, Beasts of No Nation (with Idris Elba, directed by Cary Fukunaga), Charlie Kaufman’s Anomalisa and the documentaries Janis and Rabin, The Last Days days before TIFF, the Toronto Film Festival. More so, Venice kicks off the award season – shortly before Telluride and Toronto: last year’s opening movie Birdman ended up winning the Academy Award for best picture. The previous year Gravity made an early splash here. Speaking of Michael Keaton: he stars in Spotlight another film that will be shown in Venice ahead of its Toronto premiere. Festival director Alberto Barbera dismisses competition with TIFF, maintaining that Toronto unlike Venice is not a competitive festival. As excited as he is about this year’s lineup, 14 out of 21 directors in the main competition have never been to the festival before, his own country’s offerings do not make him very happy: “We saw 178 Italian movies, and four-fifths of them were unwatchable,” he told Variety. Only four Italian titles were chosen for the competition, among them Luca Guadagnino’s A Bigger Splash, a psychological drama with Matthias Schoenaerts and Tilda Swinton. Blood of My Blood by Marco Bellocchio, a period vampire drama. And first-time director Piero Messina’s L’attesa (The Wait), starring Juliette Binoche.
There may not be as many female filmmakers as one would wish and hope for, but there are still more than ever and their works cover everything from dramas to documentaries to short films. They come from Brazil, Israel, Australia, the U.S. and the UK. They are established directors like Amy Berg, Sue Brooks and Laurie Anderson and they are newcomers or almost-newcomers like Yaelle Kayam, Hadar Morag and Anita Rocha Da Silveira. Their films will be screened in all different sections of the festival from the main competition to Horizons (the festival’s edgier side competition) to documentary and shorts.
Mexican director Arturo Ripstein will receive a Biennale award on opening night. And the Golden Lion for lifetime achievement will be given to legendary French director Bertrand Tavernier. This year Alfonso Cuarón heads the main jury, consisting of directors, writers and actors: Emmanuelle Carrere, Nuri Bilge Ceylan, Pawel Pawlikowski, Francesco Munzi, Elizabeth Banks, Hou Hsiao-hsien, Lynne Ramsey and Diane Kruger. The Horizons section is headed by Jonathan Demme. Venezia 72 marks Barbera’s last time as director in his four-year-contract, unless Italian politicians (who historically have a big hand in determining the festival’s leadership) decide to keep a much-needed continuity going.
What is always thankfully missing from Venice are the hordes of businessmen (not all of them legit) that crowd the streets of Cannes and Berlin. And the hundreds of sponsor tents, parties and banners everywhere. Venice is not a market festival. Deals are made before or after or in quiet hotel rooms. Everything takes place within one kilometer on the Lido, with very few after-parties taking place in the old city or on neighboring islands, making it very convenient to see as many films as possible and being distracted only by the beautiful buildings and canals, not by car and pedestrian traffic that makes it hazardous to cross the street.
And sure, there will be parties: the opening night celebration will once again take place in a clear tent on the beach in front of the Hotel Excelsior. It is the biggest party since most of the others follow the premieres and are attended by the filmmakers and their guests. Pasta, vino and dolce will be enjoyed in intimate settings. And that in itself is the charm that makes Venice not just the oldest but also the most legendary and highly enjoyable film festival of all.
Elisabeth Sereda