thursday, 29 august 2024

There’s no Planet B

by Riccardo Triolo

In Competition, the life, the art, the loves of Maria Callas in Pablo Larraín’s biopic Maria, starring Angelina Jolie as the divine soprano portrayed in the last few years of her life. Counterpoint: the collective tragedy of Mexican children separated from their family on the American border by the Trump administration, documented in Separated by Errol Morris. The bitter life of refugees is the theme of Quiet Life by Alexandros Avranas, showing what Resignation syndrome is.
Two further features in today’s programme are a very dark take on the Olympics: the first is September 5 by Tim Fehlbaum the story of the live TV feed of the 1972 Olympics in Munich; the second is Riefenstahl, the story of Nazi propagandist director Leni Riefenstahl’s impeccable filming of the Berlin Olympics. And while many will enjoy Alfonso Cuarón’s high-strung series Disclaimer starring Cate Blanchett and Kevin Kline, we will go see Planet B by Aude Lea Rapin, the dystopic sci-fi flick opening the International Film Critics’ Week.

All the photocalls' Daily pick

MARIA

by Pablo Larraín

After Jackie (2016), about Jackie Kennedy, and Spencer (2021), dedicated to Princess Diana, the Chi...

READ

SEPARATED

by Errol Morris

Based on the book Separated: Inside an American Tragedy, which earned author Jacob Soboroff the Walter Cronk...

READ

QUIET LIFE

by Alexandros Avranas

Sergei and Natalia, along with their daughters Katja and Alina, flee their homeland, desperately seeking a safe refug...

READ

SEPTEMBER 5

by Tim Fehlbaum

On the dawn of September 5, 1972, a commando of Palestinian terrorists from the Black September organization stormed ...

READ

RIEFENSTAHL

by Andres Veiel

Leni Riefenstahl, the Reich’s leading filmmaker, celebrated in her films the Nazi ideals of bodily p...

READ

KILL THE JOCKEY

by Luis Ortega

Remo is an exceptionally talented jockey whose career has been derailed by severe addiction problems. He races under ...

READ

DISCLAIMER (ep. 1-4)

by Alfonso Cuarón

Based on the 2015 novel by Renée Knight, the series follows the story of acclaimed television journalist Catherine R...

READ

DISCLAIMER (ep. 5-7)

by Alfonso Cuarón

Based on the 2015 novel by Renée Knight, the series follows the story of acclaimed television journalist Catherine R...

READ

PLANET B

by Aude Léa Rapin

France, 2039. In a dystopian world not too different from our own, a group of activists persecuted by the state vanis...

READ

MARIA

by Pablo Larraín

After Jackie (2016), about Jackie Kennedy, and Spencer (2021), dedicated to Princess Diana, the Chi...

READ

SEPARATED

by Errol Morris

Based on the book Separated: Inside an American Tragedy, which earned author Jacob Soboroff the Walter Cronk...

READ

QUIET LIFE

by Alexandros Avranas

Sergei and Natalia, along with their daughters Katja and Alina, flee their homeland, desperately seeking a safe refug...

READ

SEPTEMBER 5

by Tim Fehlbaum

On the dawn of September 5, 1972, a commando of Palestinian terrorists from the Black September organization stormed ...

READ

RIEFENSTAHL

by Andres Veiel

Leni Riefenstahl, the Reich’s leading filmmaker, celebrated in her films the Nazi ideals of bodily p...

READ

KILL THE JOCKEY

by Luis Ortega

Remo is an exceptionally talented jockey whose career has been derailed by severe addiction problems. He races under ...

READ

DISCLAIMER (ep. 1-4)

by Alfonso Cuarón

Based on the 2015 novel by Renée Knight, the series follows the story of acclaimed television journalist Catherine R...

READ

DISCLAIMER (ep. 5-7)

by Alfonso Cuarón

Based on the 2015 novel by Renée Knight, the series follows the story of acclaimed television journalist Catherine R...

READ

PLANET B

by Aude Léa Rapin

France, 2039. In a dystopian world not too different from our own, a group of activists persecuted by the state vanis...

READ

friday, 6 september 2024

End credits

Curtains are about to set on the Venice Film Festival. The upcoming TV series M – Il figlio del secolo by Joe Wright is maybe one of the most anticipated premieres in town. Starring as Benito Mussolini an amazing Luca Marinelli. Closing the Competition are two final chapters of as many trilogies. The first is Love (after Sex and Dream) by Norwegian Dag Johan Haugerud – a film on changing sexual mores, and on male homosexuality in particular. The second is an elegy: Youth: Homecoming by Chinese documentarist Wang Bing, a film on the crushed dreams of exploited textile workers...

LEGGI

thursday, 5 september 2024

Reality

Reality barges in in a million different shapes. Let’s start with an out of competition feature, an ‘unauthorized’ documentary by Russian-Canadian filmmaker Anastasia Trofimova. Her Russians at War about the current war in Ukraine seeks to steer clear of propaganda on either side, focusing instead on Russian soldiers’ bewilderment and disillusionment. From neighbouring Georgia comes filmmaker Dea Kulumbegashvili, who participates in the main Competition with her film April, the story of an abortionist midwife who defies law for humanitarian reasons. Iddu by Fabio Grassadonia and Antonio Piazza, starring an unrecognizable Elio Germano...

LEGGI

wednesday, 4 september 2024

Empathy

Here comes the day of the Joker. Todd Phillips is looking for strike two with Joker: Folie à deux, starring Joaquin Phoenix and a spectacular Lady Gaga. Will the sequel earn Phillips his second Golden Lion? Coming up against it in the main Competition is Diva Futura by Italian-Texan actress and filmmaker Giulia Louise Steigerwalt: the story of the famous porn talent scout Riccardo Schicchi, played by Pietro Castellitto. There’s one actor that we can tell wouldn’t mind bringing home a Lion, we are talking of Vincent Lindon, who plays the part of a widowed father in The Quiet Son by sister-and-sister filmmaking duo Delphine Coulin and Muriel Coulin...

LEGGI

tuesday, 3 september 2024

Breaking… worse

Former Agent 007 Daniel Craig in queer version – desperate and addicted in Luca Guadagnino’s Queer – is one of the most anticipated performances in Competition. The film faces off Harvest by Greek filmmaker Athina Rachel Tsangari, adapted from Jim Crace’s novel of the same name and starring Caleb Landry Jones. Out of Competition, the montage documentary 2073 by Asif Kapadia imagines what the world will look like in fifty years. Spoiler: not well at all. Belgian filmmaker Fabrice Du Welz worked on the infamous case of Belgian serial rapist and killer Marc Dutroux, who inflamed the country...

LEGGI

monday, 2 september 2024

Masters

Peter Weir, one of the most consistent innovators in Australian cinema, and Claude Lelouch, a legend of French cinema. Today, they are both honored with significant awards: the first with a Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement, and we will see again his maritime epic Master & Commander (2003) starring Russell Crowe; the second receives the Cartier Glory to the Filmmaker Award and presents his brand-new Finalement, starring...

LEGGI

sunday, 1 september 2024

Face to face

Brad Pitt faces off with George Clooney in Wolfs (Out of Competition) by Jon Watts, the director of the most vibrant Spider-Man reboots from Marvel. The two stars, playing rival hitmen hired for the same job, reunite after Soderbergh’s Ocean’s trilogy and the Coen brothers’ Burn After Reading. More stars are in Competition in a story that contrasts the dizzying heights and drastic lows of a promising European architect who moves to...

LEGGI

saturday, 31 august 2024

Why wars?

What if Einstein and Freud explained to us the reason for war? Amos Gitai’s Why was born in the aftermath of the Hamas attack and Israeli counter-attack. Gianni Amelio’s Battleground (Competition) is also a war story, the story of two soldiers of opposite visions and a shared love for Anna on the backdrop of...

LEGGI

friday, 30 august 2024

Masks off

Yes, masks off, today, our third day at the Venice Film Festival. The first mask to go is that of roles and genres – says Halina Reijn, who once teased Gen Z with inflammatory horror Bodies Bodies Bodies, and this year is in the main competition with Babygirl, a spark-filled lovers’ story starring Nicole Kidman and Harris Dickinson. Second mask to go (we’re still in love territory) is the one that gives that reassuring allure of stability, the one that keeps us pushing through even when nothing seems to go right...

LEGGI

thursday, 29 august 2024