2024-08-30 14:43:31
Last year’s Venice festival was the 80th anniversary, but due to the Hollywood strike, it had to do without stars. This year’s one, which started on Wednesday evening, will be even more brilliant. Actor Willem Dafoe, actresses Cate Blanchett, Monica Bellucci, Winona Ryder, Sigourney Weaver and Jenna Ortega, director Tim Burton and singer Patti Smith walked the red carpet.
This was followed by a ceremonial ceremony, at which the 74-year-old Sigourney Weaver, known from the sci-fi series Alien or Avatar, received the Golden Lion for lifetime achievement. “I sure do, I’m amazed and so grateful,” she said, earning a standing ovation. Subsequently, the audience in the hall experienced the world premiere of the new film Beetlejuice Beetlejuice by director Tim Burton.
The eleven-day event traditionally heralds the annual awards season. Films that premiered at the Venice Film Festival in the last three years later received 77 nominations for the American Academy Awards, 14 of which they converted. This adds to the attractiveness of the show, as well as the presence of the biggest acting stars. Brad Pitt, George Clooney, Joaquin Phoenix, Daniel Craig, Adrien Brody or actresses Angelina Jolie, Nicole Kidman, Tilda Swinton and singer Lady Gaga should also arrive this year.
“After the long strike last year, everyone is really looking forward to Venice this year. I think we’ve never had such a packed red carpet,” says the artistic director of the festival, Alberto Barbera. Last year, only a minimum of stars came, as the actors heeded the call of the Hollywood unions and refused to personally promote the films or series in which they star in solidarity with the strikers.
This year, on the other hand, the interest was so enormous that some paid for their own travel and accommodation. “If I understand it correctly, the production did not have the capacity to invite everyone. Nevertheless, many talents arranged their own plane ticket and hotel,” adds Barbera.
Burton’s return
Among the most anticipated films on offer at the festival are the comic Joker: Folie à Deux by director Todd Phillips, in which Joaquin Phoenix and Lady Gaga played the main roles, as well as the biographical film about the opera singer Maria Callas, already portrayed by Angelina Jolie, or the drama Queer. Based on the novel by William Burroughs, it was filmed by Luca Guadagnino and starring Daniel Craig.
Actress Sigourney Weaver will receive the Golden Lion for lifetime achievement. | Photo: Reuters
Alberto Barbera has already seen the film and advises that Craig’s gay character has some spicy erotic scenes on screen. However, according to the artistic director, other pictures selected for this year also contain a lot of sex. “It’s as if it was forbidden to show sex on screen for the last ten to fifteen years. I don’t understand it. Maybe some kind of self-censorship worked. In any case, now sex is coming back to movies,” states Barbera.
As the opening film, the organizers chose Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, the sequel to Tim Burton’s 1988 horror comedy about a couple of ghosts whose huge house is moved into by fashionable New Yorkers. The new film was shot again by Burton with the original actors Michael Keaton, Catherine O’Hara and Winona Ryder, who are joined by Willem Dafoe and actresses Monica Bellucci and Jenna Ortega. Czech cinemas will start screening the film next week.
“I’ve been a bit disillusioned with the film industry for the last few years. This film has re-energized me and allowed me to get back to the things I like to do and the people I like to work with,” said the 66-year-old Burton, who is currently exhibiting in Prague. “I didn’t make this sequel for money, but purely for personal reasons. I was looking for something that really mattered to me,” he added.
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice premieres out of competition, as does Wolfs, an action thriller directed by Jon Watts and starring Brad Pitt and George Clooney, or Broken Rage, a new feature from Japanese cinema veteran Takeshi Kitano.
Beetlejuice Czech cinemas will start screening Beetlejuice on September 5. | Video: Vertical Entertainment
The Venice festival has long presented big-budget Hollywood hits and art films, as well as inviting established actors alongside up-and-comers. This year, more than half of the films in competition were made by directors who are coming here for the first time.
“Of course, we will host many amazing creators here and present some of the most anticipated films of the season. But we also expect a lot of discoveries and fresh faces from all over the world. Venice is a mirror of world cinema,” believes Alberto Barbera.
The AFP agency draws attention to another factor, thanks to which Venice has attracted at least as much attention as the May festival in Cannes, France, in recent years. While he continues to not invite representatives of video stores, companies such as Netflix and HBO bring their news to Venice. For example, the black-and-white art film Roma, shot by Alfonso Cuarón, or Maestro, last year’s portrait of the conductor Leonard Bernstein, premiered here.
This year, viewers will see for the first time the new TV series Disclaime with actress Cate Blanchett in the lead role. It was filmed by the Apple TV+ platform.
Actress Cate Blanchett at the opening of the Venice Film Festival on Wednesday. | Photo: ČTK / AP
Czech footprint
The competition jury is chaired by French actress Isabelle Huppert. She pointed out before the opening that cinematography has had several difficult years and worldwide cinema ticket sales have still not returned to the level before the coronavirus pandemic.
“We all care that cinematography prospers as much as possible. In recent years, on the contrary, it has weakened,” thinks the seventy-one-year-old star, whose family runs two small art cinemas in Paris. By participating in this year’s festival, Isabelle Huppert wants to help reverse the trend. “Festivals, which function as small ecosystems, confirm how important film is to us,” he believes.
Director and jury member Agnieszka Holland. | Photo: Reuters
Chinese actress Zhang Ziyi and Polish director Agnieszka Holland also sit on the jury.
21 films will compete for the main prize, the Golden Lion, including, for example, the first film by respected Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar shot in English. The organizers chose from more than 4,000 applications, the winners will be announced next Saturday evening. “I would be quite surprised if the new Pedro Almodóvar, Queer by Luca Guadagnino or Joker: Folie à Deux do not make it to the next Oscar ceremony,” concludes Alberto Barbera.
In the secondary sections Orizzonti and Orizzonti Extra, the film After Party by the debuting Czech director and screenwriter Vojtěch Strakatý or the documentary film about the Neapolitan astrologer Luciana, shot by Slovakian Peter Kerekes, will also be presented.
The Czech film tells about the carefree life of the young Jindřiška, which changes radically when the executors come to confiscate the family’s house because of their father’s debts.
The short film Fragile Home by Ondřej Moravec and Victoria Lopuchinová is on the program in the Venice Immersive section, presenting images that mix digital and real physical elements. Using a combination of these techniques, the film transports the audience into the living room of a Ukrainian family that must decide whether to stay or leave a home threatened by war.
Outside of the competition section, a seven-part miniseries directed by Thomas Vinterberg, winner of the Oscar for the film Booze, will have its premiere in Venice. It’s called Families Like Ours and it was filmed in Hradec Králové, Hýskov, Bílina, Kladno, Modletice, Prague or the surrounding area. In incentives, the Czech Republic paid out more than 15 million crowns to creators.