Luc Besson made a wild shooting in the kennel: the actors were horrified

Competitive screening of the 80th Venice Film Festival was opened by “Dogmen” by Luc Besson and “Ferrari” by Michael Mann. The first film is a dubious journey in the footsteps of its predecessors, perhaps without realizing it, and the result is a Joker of dubious freshness. The second is a long-term construction with an interesting story and cars flying like bullets that take the lives of random and non-random people, an expressive movie with an unobvious protagonist in the face of Adam Driver.

Luc Besson, known for the films “The Fifth Element”, “Leon”, “The Blue Abyss”, “Taxi”, tacitly written off not only in circulation, but descended from the first round, having exhausted the potential to do something other than a commercial product, wrote the script of his new film, which became the cause of many troubles. The main role was played by an excellent actor and musician Caleb Landry Jones, who is familiar to many from the film “Three Billboards on the Border of Ebbing, Missouri” by Martin McDonagh, one of the jury members of the current Venice festival. At a press conference, he bit his nails and was clearly nervous from not the most pleasant questions.

His hero is the direct heir to the Joker. They humiliated a person for many years, killed everything bright in him, and now he imagines himself a superhero, began to avenge the grief that he swallowed in childhood, thanks to two monsters – his own father and brother. The boy grew up in a kennel, where his relatives threw him, and the dogs became his only joy, family, children, as he calls them. Dogs and old magazines found among the rubbish formed a child, and then a sweet young lady who instilled a love for Shakespeare. Together they acted out his plays (then the new Joker will read Romeo and Juliet to the dogs). The boy put on makeup, reincarnated, and as an adult, he constantly continued to play. He has a face whitened like that of the Joker, only not of a tragic clown, but of famous women – Edith Piaf and Marlene Dietrich. In their image, the new Joker appeared on the cabaret stage after unsuccessful attempts to find at least some work. The eternal outcast lives according to his own law, but only not saving the world, as he thinks, but bringing him fatal evil. Dogs help to survive by climbing into other people’s houses, bringing a catch from there – pearl beads, expensive glasses. They are ready to bite the drug lord, clinging to the most vulnerable causal place. A stranger in a dog’s den is better not to meddle. At the entrance he will be met by a dog resembling a sphinx, and then a whole flock of dogs of various colors will appear.

Luc Besson had to deal with hundreds of dogs on this project, and it took courage for the actors to adapt to the unfamiliar world of a whole pack. The spectacle turned out to be strange, redundant, but still unpredictable. Every time you do not know what will be around the corner, where the unbridled fantasy of Luc Besson will lead. It is curious that the directors seem to lack space. They jostle in the same clearing, repeating not only other people’s thoughts, but even names. “Dogman” has already been, and it was filmed not so long ago by Matteo Garrone, the premiere took place in Cannes. The images of his dogs are still before my eyes. But Besson (and not only him) sometimes does not realize that someone has already said his word before them.

Michael Mann, who is 80 years old, is one of those rare cases where age is not a problem and you can still make fresh and energetic films. Ferrari has a long and bizarre history. Mann has been developing it for over 20 years, negotiating with various actors, among whom was Christian Bale, who played in 2019’s Ford v Ferrari by James Mangold, where the same Michael Mann became an executive producer. In this picture, which never made it to the Oscars, although it was done beautifully, it is also about the developers of sports cars and racers who are ready to risk their lives in the name of limitless speeds and unprecedented results. Later, Hugh Jackman appeared, but he also did not play Ferrari, and something went wrong with him in time, after which Adam Driver appeared. That’s who it was definitely hard to imagine as the founder of the famous company, the Italian designer and once race car driver Enzo Ferrari. You won’t immediately recognize him in a short-haired man with gray hair.

Biopics rarely succeed, but this is perhaps the exception to the rule. Many before this film, probably, did not know the name of the creator of the famous sports car brand, that he had a busy life, not only professional, but also personal. His demon, who seems to always be behind his back, was his wife, played by Penelope Cruz. The couple lost their son when he was 24 years old, and now each of them lives their own separate lives, although they are not formally divorced, which was almost impossible in Italy. Ferrari has a new family, his son is growing up, and his ex-wife was left alone with her grief, she can’t start another life from scratch, and she doesn’t let her ex-husband do it. But now the only son of Ferrari, born from his mistress, owns the assets of the famous brand. The desire to achieve the impossible, the achievement of unprecedented speeds bring one loss after another – young and beautiful racers die. The victims of accidents, some box thrown on the track, are the spectators who came to watch the races – nine people, including five children. But this does not cancel the awards, laurel wreaths and cups that the winners receive. Mann managed to subtly combine all this – the transience of life, the futility of fame, the need to constantly move forward, only to the stars, only to victory.