Kindred Souls

How did the world’s oldest film festival and the best of international cinema become an ideal communication platform for Lexus?
The place is special because cinema is special. There are many elements that cinema and Lexus have in common: first, anyone who benefits from this art knows how it can excite and create overwhelming passions, which is precisely what we also do with our brand and for those who get to know our cars for the first time, perhaps thanks to this incredible event. The Venice Film Festival is one of the oldest film festivals and its magic and imaginative strength create a common and transversal ground to attract a diverse audience both in age and origin. We are the Italian face of Lexus, and we pride ourselves in being here to support the festival. It is an Italian, European and global festival, as global as the brand Lexus is.

History, elegance, passion, art, design, innovation, sustainability and future are concepts that easily apply to both the VFF and Lexus. Which trait best sums up your collaboration and which one is most peculiar to Lexus?
Cinema and the Venice Film Festival have peculiarities and elements of success that Lexus, despite the apparent distance between our worlds, shares in full: quality, absolute attention to detail, master craftsmanship behind the final product, continuous innovation and experimentation, and a passion for the latest technologies. In addition to these essential elements, the brand blends perfectly the traditional Japanese concept of Omotenashi. Omotenashi is what we are all about, it defines the ability to welcome our customers, to make them feel at home, to interpret their wishes and to show them gratitude. We are inspired by this philosophy in everything we do. Our cars are designed to fully satisfy the perceptive needs of each.

The 2023 red carpet is Lexus’ chance to present a new revolutionary SUV, a star among stars. Tell us more about your new car and what place it has in modern automaking?
We are very proud of this new model and of the ideal place for it to stand out: the red carpet! This is the perfect opportunity to present in Italy this compact SUV built upon our global compact car platform. The model name is LBX, Lexus Breaktrough Crossover. It is a car that breaks away from the classic Lexus style while picking up its legacy to carry it forward. This evolution embodies the founding values of Lexus in a smaller packaging, designed specifically for Europe and Italy. LBX will be marketed to a younger clientele and is particularly attentive to environmental issues. President of the Biennale, Roberto Cicutto, and by VFF Director Alberto Barbera, worked hard to make an exhibition that is increasingly attentive to the environment and is carbon-neutral; Lexus places environmental sustainability at the first place among its goals. We have been working for the 2050 environment challenge since 2005 and set a goal for ourselves: we will be, as a company and brand, carbon-neutral in all phases of the industrial process, from design to production to the end of life of the product. It is a programmed and very clear action plan: in 2030 in Europe, North America and China we will have 100% full electric vehicles, and the same will happen globally five years later—only, we will have already sold one million models by then.

What other models make up the official car team of the Festival?
We brought thirty-five cars total. In addition to the top model Lexus LBX, there are iconic models such as the RX Hybrid Turbo, NX Plug-in Hybrid, UX Premium Hybrid, RZ Full Electric, ES Premium Hybrid. As mentioned, we have been working for years on a more innovative approach to the environmental neutrality of our cars. We have been on this path since 2005 with electrified power trains, and kept true to our goal of reducing carbon emissions. Over time and with as technological progressed, we managed to expand the range with new plug-in powertrains, capable of an autonomy of over 70 kilometres in full electric mode. Some of our newer models are already fully battery-powered, such as the RZ full electric and UX full electric.

Cars and cinema have always been an inseparable pair. Which iconic films may represent the Lexus world? And what are your personal favourite?
The most iconic films for the brand are those where there has been a direct collaboration between Lexus and the productions themselves, such as Steven Spielberg’s Minority Report, or the more recent Moonfall (2022) by Roland Emmerich, or Wakanda Forever by Ryan Coogler, the sequel to Black Panther. Lexus cars, for many of these titles, have basically been co-protagonists. I personally am a huge fan of Harry Potter, a passion that comes from my two children who, especially during the first month of the pandemic, found it very soothing to watch the whole saga. The magic of cinema literally took us to another world, a world of imagination. Eight films of about two hours each that my boys and I watched together from the first to the last episode for eight consecutive days. There are films that mean a lot to me, I am indeed a lover of Italian cinema. However, if I have to pick a film that has particularly struck me in recent years, the choice would certainly fall on award-winning La La Land by Damien Chazelle, who is now jury president of the Main Competition at the Venice Film Festival.