Eighty editions of the Venice Film Festival were accompanied by historical and unpublished interviews, a rich repertoire of archival images and the voice of the narrator – the voice of Carla Bruni. The Lion’s Share documentary by Batista Echegaray and Giuseppe Buchi, produced by Canal Plus and Rai Com under the editorial supervision of Rai Cultura, traces the decisive stages and important moments of the world’s oldest film festival, which, since its birth in 1932, has never ceased to be a mirror of its time and an integral part of the history of Italian culture. Even today, at the end of August, Mostra del Cinema remains the “highlight” of the meeting for Italian and international actors and directors competing on the Lido with their best films for the iconic Golden Lion.
Divided into three moments, the documentary proposes to start with “Venice of Glamor”, which features Sophia Loren, Virna Lisi, Gina Lollobrigida, Brigitte Bardot, all the way to Penélope Cruz, Monica Bellucci and Cate Blanchett, who made several runway appearances in Venice. and winner of the Volpi Cup in 2007 and 2022. Instead, the second chapter focuses on the exhibition’s turbulent eras and its most intense moments, beginning with the screening of the disturbing film “Doctor Volpi”. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, from the first edition of 1932, during the years of the New Trouble, celebrated in Venice like nowhere else in the world. In the third part, “Venice the Discoverer”, the exhibition as a showcase for new talents: Pedro Almodovar, Emir Kusturica, Wim Wenders, Akira Kurosawa, Jane Champion are among the long list of artists who open up on the Lido and find their initiation.
In The Lion’s Share, the voices of actors and great directors such as Penélope Cruz, Tilda Swinton, Fellini, Antonioni, Guadagnino – to name but a few – are mixed with black and white and color images of red carpets, parties on the beach of large hotels, crowds enthusiastic fans waiting for the stars. And then again a series of protests and scandals, like the one that was caused by the screening of “The Passion of the Christ” by Scorsese in 1988.
“They run to Mostra to experience heightened emotions that persist throughout the film: someone loves, someone hates, someone then quarrels. says the voice-over of Carla Bruni. “After all, there is nothing more important than cinema.”
The Lion’s Share will be presented at the Venice Film Festival as a world premiere on Saturday, September 2.
