Venice Film Festival Line-Up

[Sabin]

Winners:

MAIN COMPETITION
Golden Lion: “Happening” (dir. Audrey Diwan)
Silver Lion Grand Jury Prize: “The Hand of God,” Paolo Sorrentino
Silver Lion for Best Director: Jane Campion, “The Power of the Dog”
Best Actor: John Arcilla, “On the Job: Missing 8”
Best Actress: Penélope Cruz, “Parallel Mothers”
Best Screenplay: “The Lost Daughter” (Maggie Gyllenhaal)
Special Jury Prize: “Il Buco” (dir. Michelangelo Frammartino)
Best Young Actor: Filippo Scotti, “The Hand of God”

[Big Magilla]

The Campion film has been chosen as the centerpiece film at the NY Film Festival -- a position of honor most years (Marriage Story and Roma the last two), so it appears the cinematic powers-that-be like the film.

I read a brief summary of the film (not the one Magilla posted -- I stopped a sentence or two into that one; it seemed spoiler-ific), and it DOES sound like The Piano...or, rather, like They Knew What They Wanted/The Most Happy Fella, which I always thought The Piano was ripping off more than most critics acknowledged.

No spoiler. It's just the set-up as described in Netflix's marketing campaign.

It seems to me to be more like Hud than The Piano.

[Mister Tee]

The Campion film has been chosen as the centerpiece film at the NY Film Festival -- a position of honor most years (Marriage Story and Roma the last two), so it appears the cinematic powers-that-be like the film.

I read a brief summary of the film (not the one Magilla posted -- I stopped a sentence or two into that one; it seemed spoiler-ific), and it DOES sound like The Piano...or, rather, like They Knew What They Wanted/The Most Happy Fella, which I always thought The Piano was ripping off more than most critics acknowledged.

[anonymous1980]

“On the Job: The Missing 8,” Erik Matti

Interesting. This is actually a sequel to his previous film, On the Job. I wonder if people will be able to get this without seeing the original film first.

[Big Magilla]

The Power of the Dog is the film I am most looking forward to.

It's based on a 1967 novel by Thomas Savage whose influences were John Steinbeck, Robert Benchley, and Dorothy Parker. The brief description of it at the top of its IMDb. page is quite idiotic. It reads: "A pair of brothers who own a large ranch in Montana are pitted against each other when one of them gets married."

A better description is further down the page:

Plot Summary
Severe, pale-eyed, handsome, Phil Burbank is brutally beguiling. All of Phil's romance, power and fragility is trapped in the past and in the land: He can castrate a bull calf with two swift slashes of his knife; he swims naked in the river, smearing his body with mud. He is a cowboy as raw as his hides. The year is 1925. The Burbank brothers are wealthy ranchers in Montana. At the Red Mill restaurant on their way to market, the brothers meet Rose, the widowed proprietress, and her impressionable son Peter. Phil behaves so cruelly he drives them both to tears, revelling in their hurt and rousing his fellow cowhands to laughter - all except his brother George, who comforts Rose then returns to marry her. As Phil swings between fury and cunning, his taunting of Rose takes an eerie form - he hovers at the edges of her vision, whistling a tune she can no longer play. His mockery of her son is more overt, amplified by the cheering of Phil's cowhand disciples. Then Phil appears to take the boy under his wing. Is this latest gesture a softening that leaves Phil exposed, or a plot twisting further into menace?

Written by Netflix.

Benedict Cumberbatch is Phil. Jesse Plemons is George. Kirsten Dunst is Rose. Kodi Smit-McPhee is Peter. The supporting cast includes Thomasin McKenzie, Frances Conroy, Adam Beach, and Keith Carradine.

[Sabin]

Mister Tee wrote
From this, I wonder:

Is this a major Pedro film?

Is Dune or Power of the Dog something special? (Like Sabin, I'm dubious about Ridley Scott.)

To both of these points:

RE: PEDRO ALMODOVAR
I was talking to a friend of mine yesterday about Pedro Almodovar and the likelihood of this. We obviously haven't seen the movie yet but it's entirely possible that Pedro Almodovar has a second late-career renaissance. Or rather, latches onto a zeitgeist again. The first was obviously the 5-7 year window between All About My Mother and Volver, where he was probably the filmmaker most deserving and due for the Palme time and time again, not to mention his Oscar nominations and wins. But then between 2006 and 2019, he sort of... fell out of fashion a bit. This happens. But starting with Pain and Glory's reception, he might already be back.

RE: JANE CAMPION
I didn't realize this but she's only made four features since The Piano. Yes, Top of the Lake is apparently quite good, but since The Piano (produced when I was in middle school), its' only been The Portrait of a Lady, Holy Smoke, In the Cut, and Bright Star. I can't imagine anyone imagined her subsequent output would look anything like that. And the film sounds like a total retread of The Piano which... maybe isn't a bad move?

RE: DUNE
... I mean... who knows? On the one hand, it's fucking Dune. But on the other hand, we're in a substantially nerdier era where something like Dune could potentially breakthrough. And there's no denying that Denis Villeneuve is on a roll. His movies pull in nominations. Arrival obviously grabbed nominations for Best Picture, Director, and Writing, but Blade Runner 2049 did pretty well also, nominated for five Oscars and winning two. If he has a better story (and his writers are better this time) who knows? Maybe it's not so far-fetched.

[Mister Tee]

Of late, the first few days of Venice have been the launch of the best picture race -- Moonlight, La La Land and Arrival just about the whole slate in 2016; The Shape of Water and Three Billboards in '17; Roma and The Favourite '18; Joker and Marriage Story '19.

From this, I wonder:

Is this a major Pedro film?

Is Dune or Power of the Dog something special? (Like Sabin, I'm dubious about Ridley Scott.)

Or...are we still ankle-deep in the pandemic, and is this year doomed to be another lackluster one simply because of a thin field?

ON EDIT: This, of course, only references films clearly seen as mainstream. There are some fine non-American directors represented here; any one of them could have a breakthrough, and could in retrospect be seen as the stellar attraction of the festival.

[Sabin]

Takeaways:
- In retrospect, it's a little surprising that Maggie Gyllenhaal took this long to direct a moment. She's still with Sarsgaard though.
- Venice has become a hot spot for Best Picture heavies. Not sure I see one here. Refuse to get my hopes up about a new Ridley Scott film.


Opening Night
“Parallel Mothers,” Pedro Almodóvar (in competition)

Competition/Venezia 78
“Mona Lisa and the Blood Moon,” Ana Lily Amirpour
“Un Autre Monde,” Stephanie Brize
“The Power of the Dog,” Jane Campion
“America Latina,” Damiano D’Innocenzo and Fabio D’Innocenzo
“L’Evenement,” Audrey Diwan
“Official Competition,” Gaston Duprat and Mariana Cohn
“Il Buco,” Michelangelo Frammartino
“Sundown,” Michel Franco
“Illusions Perdues,” Xavier Giannoli
“The Lost Daughter,” Maggie Gyllenhaal
“Spencer,” Pablo Larrain
“Freaks Out,” Gabrielle Mainetti
“Qui Rido Io,” Mario Martone
“On the Job: The Missing 8,” Erik Matti
“Leave No Traces,” Jan P. Matuszynski
“Captain Volkonogov Escaped,” Natasha Merkulova and Aleksey Chupov
“The Card Counter,” Paul Schrader
“The Hand of God,” Paolo Sorrentino
“Reflection,” Valentyn Vasyanovych
“La Caja,” Lorenzo Vigas

Out of Competition (Fiction)
“Il Bambino Nascosto,” Roberto Ando (closing film of the festival)
“Les Choses Humaines,” Yvan Attal
“Ariaferma,” Leonardo di Costanzo
“Halloween Kills,” David Gordon Green
“La Scoula Cattolica,” Stefano Mordini
“Old Henry,” Potsy Ponciroli
“The Last Duel,” Ridley Scott
“Dune,” Denis Villeneuve
“Last Night in Soho,” Edgar Wright
“Scenes From a Marriage” (Episodes 1-5), Hagai Levi

Out of Competition (Non Fiction)
“Life of Crime 1984-2020,” Jon Alpert
“Tranchees,” Loup Bureau
“Viaggio Nel Crepuscolo,” Augusto Contento
“Republic of Silence,” Diana el Jeiroudi
“Hallelujah: Leonard Cohen, A Journey, A Song,” Daniel Geller and Dayna Goldfine
“Deandre#Deandre Storia Di Un Impiegato,” Roberta Lena
“Django and Django,” Luca Rea
“Ezio Bosso. Le Cose Che Restano,” Giorgio Verdelli

Out of Competition (Special Screenings)
“Le 7 Giornate di Bergamo,” Simona Ventura
“Il Cinema Al Tempo del Covid,” Andrea Segre

Out of Competition (Short Films)
“Plastic Semiotic,” Radu Jude
“The Night,” Tsai Ming-Liang
“Sad Film,” Vasili (Pseudonym)

Horizons/Orizzonti
“Les Promesses,” Thomas Kruithof
“Atlantide,” Yuri Ancarani
“Miracle,” Bogdan George Apetri
“Pilgrims,” Laurynas Bareisa
“Il Paradiso Del Pavone,” Laura Bispuri
“The Falls,” Chung Mong-Hong
“El Hoyo en la Cerca,” Joaquin Del Paso
“Amira,” Mohamed Diab
“A Plein Temps,” Eric Gravel
“107 Mothers,” Peter Kerekes
“Vera Dreams of the Sea,” Kaltrina Krasniqi
“White Building,” Kavich Neang
“Anatomy of Time,” Jakrawal Nilthamrong
“El Otro Tom,” Rodrigo Pla and Laura Santullo
“El Gran Movimiento,” Kiro Russo
“Once Upon a Time in Calcutta,” Aditya Vikram Sengupta
“Rhino,” Oleg Sentsov
“True Things,” Harry Wootliff
“Inu-Oh,” Yuasa Masaaki

Horizons/Orizzonti Extra
“Land of Dreams,” Sherin Neshat and Shoja Azari
“Costa Brava,” Mounia Akl
“Mama, I’m Home,” Vladimir Bitokov
“Ma Nuit,” Antoinette Boulat
“La Ragazza Ha Volato,” Wilma Labate
“7 Prisoners,” Alexandre Moratto
“The Blind Man Who Did Not Want to See Titanic,” Teemu Nikki
“La Macchina Delle Immagini di Alfredo C.,” Roland Sejko