74 Venice International Film Festival

As the Venice Film Festival closes, the Toronto Film Festival begins – and it was mainly men on the carpet, though Priyanka Chopra added a splash of pizzazz while Lady Gaga made heads turn.

What begins as an old-fashioned family melodrama turns into a more complex existential meditation on the way we live now in Robert Guédiguian’s La Villa  (The House by the Sea). Unlike most Hollywood family sagas, the story doesn’t center on the inevitable conflicts between parents and children – the classic generation rift – but on three late middle-aged siblings, when they reunite at the place where they grew up.

The star power of Penelope Cruz and Javier Bardem dominates this celebration of the 74th Venice Film Festival. Much of this gallery features this pair of talented actors because much of the red carpet was filled with gowns that, although trending, simply show too much décolletage or underwear.

Jim Carrey, Jennifer Lawrence, Penelope Cruz, Michelle Pfeiffer – just a few of the megawatt talent on the red carpet at the Venice Film Festival. Click for more of Jennifer and to see how the men do casual.

Black re-emerged. The cast of Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri seemed to have agreed that denim was the way to go.

Intense, funny, tragic and cathartic are the words that may best describe Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, a story of desperation, revenge, and determination featuring a fierce Frances McDormand as a divorced Missouri mother who pursues justice for her murdered daughter with the steely resolve of Rosie the Riveter (if, that is, she was also Clint Eastwood’s daughter). A case of augmented dramatic reality, which skirts the edges of flat-out comedy, social critique, the film certainly minces no words in putting forth its rollicking narrative which somehow perfectly fits the times.

Intense, funny, tragic and cathartic are the words that may best describe Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, a story of desperation, revenge, and determination featuring a fierce Frances McDormand as a divorced Missouri mother who pursues justice for her murdered daughter with steely resolve. She is supported by a stellar cast including Sam Rockwell and Woody Harrelson, and directed by Martin McDonagh.

Some of our greatest actresses graced the red carpet in black and white, while newcomers continued the palette of pastels.

Matt Damon is among those pulling double duty on the Lido this year. Just like Javier Bardem, who will be seen in both mother! and Loving Pablo – and, in the character role department, Udo Kier (Downsizing and Brawl in Cell Block 99), Damon is starring in two films: George Clooney’s Suburbicon and Alexander Payne’s Downsizing.

When George and Amal Clooney bring the glamour of yesteryear back to entertainment, everyone brings their A game. The pastels of Cannes continued.