2023-08-29 22:08:43
The announcement of the strike of actors and actresses that has completely shaken Hollywood caught Alberto Barbera, director of the Venice Film Festival, a few days after announcing its official section. A selection in which the highlights are usually the Hollywood productions that begin their Oscar career here; and those of Netflix, vetoed in Cannes as long as they do not ensure their passage through theaters, and who also want the statuette that continues to resist them. They are films that are good for Venice for several reasons. They are usually renowned directors, they will be talked about in the coming months… and they are full of stars.
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Venice lives on the power of its red carpet, and a strike like this could shatter one of its assets. In fact, as soon as the hiatus was announced, it didn’t take long for Amazon and Warner Bros. to withdraw their film. Challengers, that inaugurated the Official Section and that had Zendaya as the main protagonist. From both companies they did not want to leave Guadagnino in charge of the presentation and preferred to delay the premiere and cancel a position of honor that in the end fell, in a plan B that sounded desperate, in the Italian film Commander.
When Barbera announced the official section, he confessed that they had been hard days but he thanked the US producers for having kept their bets. In the end, except Challengers, his entire arsenal has been maintained. Netflix will arrive with its big bets for the Oscars, The Killer o Maestro; and Yorgos Lanthimos will present his long-awaited Poor creatures. The difference is that its interpreters will not be seen promoting the films or going through the red carpet. Michael Fassbender, star of David Fincher’s new film, where he gives life to a guilty serial killer, will not be there; neither to Bradley Cooper ―who directs and stars in the biopic about Leonard Bernstein― neither Carey Mulligan nor Emma Stone, the actress on whom the Greek director’s version of Frankenstein falls.
There will be exceptions. The films that have obtained the permission of the unions will be able to bring their interpreters, and that will be the case of Adam Driver, who will accompany Michael Mann in the coming-out of Ferrari, the longed for biopic of the car builder of the director of Heat; or Jessica Chastain, who will attend to present Memory, film by the Mexican Michel Franco. They will be the least and the most will be acclaimed.
The absence of stars will cause two strange situations in a festival. The first, that the technical teams will be the ones who give interviews and attend the press conferences. They are the ones who will ‘sell’ the film to the journalists, together with the directors, instead of their actresses and actors. The second is that, somehow, this will cause only the movies to be talked about. Without stars there will be no situations like the one experienced last year with the premiere of Don’t Worry Darling, when Florence Pugh’s absence had everyone speculating for days; or when in the ovation to the film after the official screening there was that spit jogate that had millions of people speculating on whether Harry Styles had spit on his partner Chris Pine live. A situation that caused little to be said about the quality of the film and of course nothing about the rest of the titles that were presented in the days that a scandal as stupid as fleeting lasted.
The absence of the stars will also redouble the focus on the directors. Beyond the Hollywood films there will be Pablo Larraín, Ryusuke Hamaguchi ―the director of Drive My Car with a film that no one knew existed― or the Frenchman Bertrand Bonello, with one of the most anticipated, The beast, a version of a story by Henry James turned into science fiction. Also five women who will fight to become the fourth consecutive director to win the precious Golden Lion: among them Sofia Coppola with her look at Priscilla Presley; Agnieszka Holland or Ava DuVernay, the first African-American woman to compete in the Mostra.
Among all the names, those of three men stand out. Two of them are not even in the official section, but their mere presence ensures an earthquake. They are Roman Polanski and Woody Allen. Venice defends Polanski again and will premiere out of competition The Palace, his satire on the rich set in the previous year 2000. Polanski cannot set foot in Italy, since he would be arrested and extradited to the US. His sentence for raping a minor in 1977 continues to weigh on the director. A case in which he himself pleaded guilty. He has asked the victim for forgiveness and she has declared that she grants it to him but Polanski left the US to avoid having to serve the sentence, for which he is looking for and capturing her.
The second is Woody Allen, another noted author. The director will premiere Stroke of luck, what may be his last film, which was shot in France. Me Too once again shed light on allegations of abuse made by his adoptive daughter Dylan. A case for which, at the time, he was found not guilty, but which continues to weigh on his career: after the revolution caused by the Weinstein case, Hollywood stopped producing his films and some of the actresses who worked with him, publicly repented.
The third in contention is Luc Besson, accused of rape by several women and declared innocent a few months ago by a French court. Director of Leon (the professional) will premiere his thriller of action Dogman. This will compete for the Golden Lion. The presence of Allen, Besson and the projection of Polanski’s film will undoubtedly be three of the most tense moments of this edition, although Alberto Barbera has defended the programming and has already He has clearly positioned himself in favor of separating the work and the author: “I am a festival director, not a judge”.
There will also be Spanish cinema. Juan Antonio Bayona will have the honor ―and the responsibility― of closing the Official Section with The Snow Society, closing film with which he materializes his dream of making his film version of that tragedy in the Andes that already inspired the film They live and for the one who has spent years interviewing survivors of that event. In Giornati degli Autori you can see Especially at night, Víctor Iriarte’s debut with Ana Torrent and Lola Dueñas who will later compete in Seminci. To close the participation of Spanish cinema, a short, the fathermade by the granddaughter of the poet Rafael Alberti and a look at historical memory and his mother, that Aitana whose name comes from the last mountains that the poet and his wife, María Teresa León, saw before going into exile.
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