“Recently, I watched Luchino Visconti’s Death in Venice again: there’s something about Venice that goes very well with the film and the cinematic atmosphere.” The film-celebrating debut is the debut of director Damien Chazelle, President of the Jury of the 80th Venice International Film Festival, who introduced the film festival’s categories during the opening press conference this morning at the Palazzo del Cinema. festival, competition entries and colleagues with whom he will share his experience, including two directors Jonas Carpignano and Alice Diop, emphasizing the value of cinema as an art and a profession for all professionals. who inhabit this macrocosm: “Today is the 101st day of the writers’ strike in Hollywood, the 48th day for the actors,” Chazelle repeated, addressing his reflections to colleagues who participated in the Hollywood strike; “Every work of art is important, we must put art above content. It’s important that as we celebrate the arts at this festival, we also remember this strike and the hard times Hollywood is going through.” Despite the absence of actors in studio-related films, Barbera confirmed the presence of many other stars of independent productions, including names of the stature such as Jessica Chastain and Adam Driver, as well as the cast of Priscilla, Sofia Coppola’s highly anticipated Priscilla Presley biopic. Besides regretting the absence of some stars, the official Venice 80 competition kicks off with a bang and a celebration of Italian cinema: this morning is busy showing Comandante, a film by Edoardo De Angelis about the heroic Salvatore Todaro. commander of the submarine “Capellini” in the Regia Marina, who in October 1940, after the sinking of a hostile Belgian merchant ship, decides to disobey the order given to him and rescue 26 Belgian shipwrecked people sentenced to drowning in the middle of the ocean. to disembark them at the nearest safe port, as required by the law of the sea. “A story of courage and great humanity,” the director commented at a press conference, “a story that can tell about the strength and self-sacrifice of a group of sailors who differ from each other in origin, customs and ideas, but united by human compassion. that even in the most difficult conditions it can only defeat any conflict.
Another hero of the day is 91-year-old Liliana Cavani, who will receive the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement in the afternoon: “I am very happy and grateful to the Venice Biennale for this wonderful surprise,” she stated: in accepting the offer. Liliana Cavani, out of competition this year with The Order of Time, has already competed at the Venice Film Festival in 1965 with Philippe Pétain: The Trial in Vichy, The Lion of San Marco for the documentary and then several times with Francesco d ‘Assisi. (1966), Galileo (1968), Cannibals (1969), among others, up to Ripley’s Game (2002) and Clarissa (2012).
Maria Letizia Cilea
Martina Bazzanella