80th Venice International Film Festival opens

On August 30, the jubilee, 80th Venice International Film Festival opens. About its rich and difficult history and the expectations associated with it tells Elena Plakhova.

The number 80 is indisputable evidence that the festival in Venice is the oldest in the world. It is the only one of all that arose before the Second World War – as part of the Biennale of Contemporary Art. But the year of its foundation – 1932 – argues with this round number and suggests that the festival is actually even older. He could have become the 92nd in a row. However, its history knows “missed” years when the festival was not held for various reasons: pauses occurred not only in the military 1940s, but even in the peaceful 1970s.

In the first phase of its life, the Venetian Mostra (as the Italians call the country’s main film festival) was under the patronage of Mussolini and was a hostage to his policies; then Leni Riefenstahl’s Triumph of the Will was awarded here, but also Soviet films, such as Nikolai Eck’s A Start to Life. Then came the triumphs of Italian neo-realism and the French new wave, the discovery of Japanese and new German cinema. After the socio-cultural crisis of 1968, the festival lost ground and for several years was held without competition. The awards then, if they were presented, were unofficial; this was recalled the other day in connection with the death of Gleb Panfilov, whose painting “The Beginning” participated in the Venice Film Festival in 1971, but even specialists find it difficult to say what the exact name of the prize was.

But it is indisputable that Venice throughout its history turned out to be more favorable to Soviet, and then Russian cinema than Cannes or even Berlin. The main prize “Golden Lion” was awarded here to “Ivan’s Childhood” by Andrei Tarkovsky, “Urga” by Nikita Mikhalkov, “Return” by Andrei Zvyagintsev and “Faust” by Alexander Sokurov. Awards with a lower rank were noted, and more than once, films by Andrei Konchalovsky, Alexei Fedorchenko, Alexei German Jr. and other directors. This year, however, there are no Russian films at all, except for the author’s version of Andrei Rublev. It will be shown in the program “Venetian Classics”; it will also feature “Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors” by Sergei Parajanov – a manifesto of Ukrainian poetic cinema. By the way, Parajanov was an honored guest of the Venice Festival, which he visited shortly before his death.

The strike of Hollywood actors has led to operational changes in this year’s festival program, but even in a reduced form it looks – at least outwardly – quite solid.

Fashionable directors such as the Greek Yorgos Lanthimos, the Japanese Ryusuke Hamaguchi and the Mexican Michel Franco attract attention in the competition. The first, which has long since crossed over to English-language cinema, explores female sexuality in the Victorian era in the surreal film The Poor Unfortunates with Emma Stone and Willem Dafoe. The second one in the film “Evil Doesn’t Exist” touches upon environmental issues in the post-industrial world, but certainly finds a place for discussions about love, art and fate. As for Michel Franco’s “Memory”, little is known about it yet, except that Jessica Chastain and Peter Sarsgaard play in this picture.

The Chilean Pablo Larrain, a master of non-standard biopics, dedicated his black comedy The Count to Augusto Pinochet, portraying him in the guise of an immortal vampire. The biography genre is represented in its purest form in the competition by Bradley Cooper’s Maestro, about the composer and conductor Leonard Bernstein and his relationship with his wife, Felicia Montealegre. Another confirmation of the biographical syndrome is provided by the film “Priscilla”: the myth of Elvis Presley is seen through the female optics of Priscilla Presley herself, whose bestseller formed the basis of the project, and director Sofia Coppola. A series of “hagiographic” canvases completes “Ferrari” by Michael Mann – about the famous racer and founder of the cult brand; Enzo Ferrari plays Adam Driver, his wife Penelope Cruz.

The somewhat monotonous impression that can be created from the dominance of biographies has a chance to dispel films of other genres – Bertrand Bonello’s fantastic thriller “Premonition”, Luc Besson’s action-packed “Dogman” and David Fincher’s comic-book noir “Killer”, if we talk about the competition. And outside of it, the audience promises to be amused by “Daaaaali!”, Quentin Dupieux’s hooligan grotesque about Salvador Dali, played by a whole team of different actors.

Finally, Venice provides its out-of-competition site to two “sacred cows” who have become victims of desacralization – Woody Allen and Roman Polanski. Allen, 87, filmed The Great Irony in Paris with a group of French actors. 90-year-old Polanski will show “The Palace” – a film where he played an international film orgy of millionaires and party-goers who gathered in a Swiss VIP hotel to celebrate the millennium. They are played by actors from different countries and generations – John Cleese, Luca Barbareschi, Fanny Ardant, Oliver Mazucci, Mickey Rourke. Among them are Russians Anton Pampushny and Alexander Petrov in the role of a shaven-headed bandit, as well as Ilya Volokh in the image of the Russian ambassador. And Ksenia Rappoport was noted for her participation in Liliana Cavani’s film “Timeline”. Unlike these veterans of world filmmaking, William Friedkin did not live long to see the premiere of his film The Caine Mutiny Tribunal, an updated drama of American military history, which will also be screened in Venice out of competition.