Waiting for the Lions

The best of Venice 81 according to Venews correspondents
by Loris Casadei, Roberto Pugliese, F.D.S., Riccardo Triolo, Andrea Zennaro
  • friday, 6 september 2024

3 aesthetic, emotional, irreducibly individual choices, of our 5 special correspondents on the planet cinema in 11 lived ravenously days . 81 times Venice through still images outside of any reward logic, “only” to release into freedom the best that we take away from this extraordinary feast of images in progress.

CHOSEN BY…. Loris Casadei

Vittoria by Alessandro Cassigoli and Casey Kauffman (ORIZZONTI EXTRA)
How a story set in Naples manages to break away from conventional patterns to tell a story of great humanity. Finally a real family with values.

The Room Next Door by Pedro Almodóvar (COMPETITION)
Unsurpassable performances by Tilda Swinton and Julianne Moore, who carry the film throughout, managing to never reveal boredom: effectively a two-person dialogue.

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice by Tim Burton (OUT OF COMPETITION)
A Hollywood film was needed. Banish sadness, moral thoughts, the wars that kill our brothers, the situation of the Planet. Two hours of escape and laughter.

 

CHOSEN BY…. F.D.S.

The Mahabharata by Peter Brook (VENEZIA CLASSICS)
Because when Krishna reveals to Arjuna how to achieve the wisdom of detachment from things we were moved with the same intensity as in 1989 at the film’s premiere.

Wishing on a Star by Peter Kerekes (ORIZZONTI)
Clearly the funniest film of the Festival.

Quiet Life by Alexandros Avranas (ORIZZONTI)
Throughout the film we thought it was fiction, only to discover that resignation syndrome really exists in children of families who have had to abandon their homes due to war, poverty or self-protection. Shocking.

 

CHOSEN BY…. Roberto Pugliese

The Order by Justin Kurzel (COMPETITION)
Perfect political thriller, immersed in a dark and threatening atmosphere, with fast-paced rhythms, to talk about racist and neo-nazi poisons and threats in the America of yesterday and today.

Nonostante by Valerio Mastandrea (ORIZZONTI)
Surprising and brilliant directorial debut by one of our best actors, a fantastic reflection on the themes of death and memory in an originally supernatural key.

M. Il figlio del secolo by Joe Wright (OUT OF COMPETITION – SERIE)
Scurati’s bestseller comes to life in a flamboyant, visionary staging, with sometimes unsustainable rhythms, in a timely, necessary and very current reconstruction of the rise of fascism.

A Simple Silence
Quintero returns to Venice Immersive with the last chapter of the trilogy
The Gossips’ Chronicles
Perspectives, worlds, circuits yet to be invented for the immersive arts
All I Know About Teacher Li
Teacher Li's revolution in Zhuzmo's new VR work

CHOSEN BY…. Riccardo Triolo

A Simple Silence by Craig Quintero (VENICE IMMERSIVE – COMPETITION)
Between theater and video art, Quintero has filmed a trilogy that leverages the potential of 360° video with the expressive maturity of someone who, coming from theatre, knows how to play with space and redefine the role of the spectator.

The Gossips’ Chronicles by Corinne Mazzoli (BIENNALE COLLEGE CINEMA IMMERSIVE – OUT OF COMPETITION)
When site-specific becomes an indispensable trend in immersive digital arts and contributes to the maturation of its language. Unsettling sound and vision, ironic interaction with real space, technical mastery.

All I Know About Teacher Li by Zhuzmo (VENICE IMMERSIVE – COMPETITION)
Interactive investigation, well-thought-out use of mixed reality, transmedia activism. All the ingredients are there to relaunch the political potential of XR against the silence imposed on traditional media.

 

CHOSEN BY…. Andrea Zennaro

One to One: John & Yoko by Kevin Macdonald, Sam Rice-Edwards (OUT OF COMPETITION)
John’s most political and antagonistic phase in the seminal and disturbed New York of the early 1970s. At his side Yoko, the lifeblood of Lennon’s concentric artistic growth in his last decade of life. The power of music against the violence and horrors of the world: a frenzied battle waged with the weapons of the arts by an unrepeatable pair of contemporary artists.

Ainda estou aqui (I’m Still Here) by Walter Salles (COMPETITION)
An intimate journey into the affections of a family affected by dictatorial repression, which contains, with extraordinary emotional intensity, all the pain of an oppressed people.

From Darkness to Light by Michael Lurie, Eric Friedler (VENEZIA CLASSICS – DOC)
An exquisite research work to discover a lost film, now entered into legend, by a great showman who put his entire career on the line to bring it to completion.

Immagine in evidenza: The Room Next Door, Pedro Almodovar, 2024
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