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.
Brazil, 1971. In a country under the tight grip of military dictatorship, Eunice Paiva’s life, along with that of her five children, changes dramatically following the disappearance of her husband, former Brazilian Labor Party deputy Rubens Paiva. Adapted from the memoir...
Jasmine has a husband who loves her, three beloved sons, and her own business – a hair salon on the main street of Torre Annunziata, near Naples. It seems like nothing is missing in her life, yet after her father’s death, she is haunted by a recurring dream of a blonde gir...
The already strained relationship between Martha (Swinton) and her daughter shatters due to a misunderstanding that will permanently separate the two women. Ingrid (Moore), a bestselling author, witnesses this painful family feud. During a stay in a house surrounded by nature ...
The Deetz family returns to the house in Winter River, the setting of the first chapter of the story from 1988. Lydia has become a mother and is dealing with the troubled adolescence of her daughter Astrid. When the girl inadvertently discovers the infamous model of the town i...
Peter Brook first brought the Indian epic poem Mahābhārata to the stage and later to the big screen. The original cinematic adaptation was nine hours long, which was eventually reduced to six and then to three hours to facilitate its theatrical release and DVD format. The pr...
According to Luciana de Leoni d’Asparedo, a Naples-based astrology expert, the position of the stars at a person’s birth determines their destiny. This leads her to advise her clients to visit specific places on their birthday to align with the ideal stellar conste...
Sergei and Natalia, along with their daughters Katja and Alina, flee their homeland, desperately seeking a safe refuge where they can build a new future. When their asylum request in Sweden is denied, their dream shatters, and little Katja falls victim to resignation syndrome,...
Klára, recently divorced from her husband, decides to move out of the city. Helping her with the move is her friend Ági. The two make seven car trips, each time traveling the same route back and forth, but every journey is different from the others.
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Inspired by the book The Silent Brotherhood by Kevin Flynn and Gary Gerhardt, the film tells the true story of a group that terrorized the Pacific Northwest in the early 1980s with a series of increasingly violent and frequent crimes. Law enforcement and the FBI are i...
A secure situation, away from the chaos and unpredictability of daily life, shielded from everything and everyone: the protagonist is a long-term patient who finds in the hospital routine a personal comfort zone, where resignation and apathy become freedom. The arrival of a ne...
Inspired by Antonio Scurati’s novel of the same name, the series tells the story of a man (M., Mussolini) who has managed to rise from his own ashes multiple times, characterized by a political intuition that faced no obstacles at the time. Through his biography, the ser...
Romania, December 20, 1989. The country is on the brink of revolution, and while New Year’s Eve shows celebrate Ceaușescu, young people take to the streets to protest against the regime. Amid one of the most widely televised revolutions in history, the director focuses ...
The new documentary by Kevin Macdonald and Sam Rice-Edwards focuses on John Lennon’s final concert after the Beatles’ breakup, held at Madison Square Garden in 1972, with Yoko Ono’s participation. The film offers an intimate look into the life of one of histor...
The Day the Clown Cried, a film about the Holocaust that is as famous as it is mysterious, is the legendary unfinished work of Jerry Lewis, never brought to the big screen. Today, it is the focus of a documentary by Michael Lurie and Eric Friedler, which presents previously un...
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.
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