They tried to erase Andrei Zvyagintsev from the history of the Venice Film Festival

Early dementia, woman with fetal consciousness, Senegalese actor noted in Italy

The main award of the 80th Venice Film Festival, the Golden Lion of St. Mark, was awarded by the jury led by Damien Chazelle (“La La Land”) to the film “The Unfortunate Poor” by Greek director Yorgos Lanthimos. His heroine, played by the fearless Emma Stone, had her unborn daughter’s brain transplanted to save her life.

Lanthimos, known for the films Dogtooth, The Lobster, The Killing of a Sacred Deer, and The Favorite, filmed the novel by Scottish writer Alasdair Gray, giving it a contemporary sound. Pregnant and unhappy, Bella (Emma Stone) throws herself into the Thames, but is saved by the efforts of experiment-obsessed Professor Godwin (Willem Dafoe). He will transplant the brain of her embryo into the drowned woman, and it turns out that living without a brain is not so bad. This saves you from many doubts and mental anguish. Bella gradually socializes, ends up in a brothel, learns the ideas of socialism, reads Marx, and becomes a doctor. Lanthimos not only created another and shocking version of Pygmalion and Eliza Doolittle, but made it a reflection of the modern world, no matter how phantasmagoric it may seem.

The “Silver Lion” for directing was awarded to one of the most prominent Italian directors, Matteo Garrone, who presented the film “I Am Captain” about young Senegalese emigrants reaching Europe, enduring a million sufferings along the way. Non-professional actor from Senegal Seydou Sarra, whom Garrone settled in his mother’s house, was awarded the Marcello Mastroianni Prize, which encourages emerging artists. He will send the prize money to his mother. The main acting awards – the Volpi Cups – went to the phenomenal Peter Sarsgaard for the role of a 50-year-old man suffering from dementia in Michel Franco’s “Memory” (deprived of the right to any full life, including by his relatives, he will fall in love with a woman and prove that he has not yet written off) and the pretty Cailee Spaeny, who played young Priscilla Presley in the film adaptation of her book “Elvis and Me” by Sofia Coppola. The actress is very touching, but the story itself is empty – about the absolutely lifeless Elvis Presley and the Barbie doll.

The jury awarded the Grand Prix to Japanese director and Oscar winner Ryusuke Hamaguchi for the film “Take the Wheel of My Car.” He was also awarded by the association of international film critics FIPRESCI. In his film “Evil Does Not Exist,” which stood alone in an interesting but devoid of logic program, residents of a small village are trying to resist construction that will lead to the destruction of forests and deer, and water pollution. All this is told so casually, but metaphorically, and Nature itself comes to the aid of ordinary people in the face of environmental disaster.

September marks 50 years since President Allende was overthrown in a coup in Chile and replaced by Augusto Pinochet. The jury awarded Pablo Larraín and Guillermo Calderon for the best screenplay for the film “The Count,” where Pinochet appeared as a vampire sucking the blood of his people. Agnieszka Holland (a Polish woman living in Prague, now heading the European Film Academy) received a special prize and attacks from Polish politicians for “Green Border,” filmed hot on the heels of the events on the Belarusian-Polish border, where many migrants from Syria and Afghanistan have accumulated, wanting to get to Europe. They will receive a harsh reception at the border, but there are people ready to help the unfortunate refugees fleeing poverty and war. The theme of migrants is also touched upon in another interesting competition film, “Holly” by the Belgian Fien Troch, which was lost in the abundant festival flow. It’s about a girl with psychic abilities who helps migrants and volunteers. While she is trying to somehow heal a baby whose mother is sitting on the street, an aggressive migrant takes advantage of her own weakness. He will show you how to help. Do not iron, but give your shoes and clothes to those in need.

The current festival was not so rich in stars because of the Hollywood strike. But the children of the heroes of the biopics came – Piero Ferrari, the son and daughter of Leonard Bernstein, real people who starred in films, like a doctor and children from Kharkov. The festival is jubilee, but formally there was little reminiscent of this. True, they showed a documentary film dedicated to the date, from which the exceptional episode of twenty years ago was completely dropped, when at the 60th festival, for the first time in its history, two Golden Lions for the best film and for debut were received for “Return” by then unknown debutant Andrei Zvyagintsev. It is said that this is not directly related to cancellation culture. They simply could not forgive him and the jury for the fact that that year the film “Hello, Night” by the Italian master Marco Bellocchio, which was produced by the same company that produced the film for the anniversary, did not win.