On opening press conference out of 80. The Venice International Film Festival, chaired by director Alberto Barbera, was visited by part of the international jury responsible for awarding prizes to competitive works.
American Damien Chazelle, Oscar winner for La La Land (a film presented here at the Lido in 2016), as chairman of the jury, impresses those present with a dark and very deep look. Sitting next to him are Jonas Carpignano and Alice Diop, who are respectively Presidents of the Orizzonti Jury and the Luigi De Laurentiis Prize of the Venice Opera.
Chazelle begins by remembering that his presence is physical, but his heart is also at a very difficult time when film workers go abroad. Remind those present that we are on Strike Day No. 101. He expects the exhibition to be a complete pleasure (probably without entering the competition as a director) and an open mind for works about which he says he has little information. To those who ask him if he is tempted to make a film in the lagoon, he replies that he has just seen Death in Venice, a dark film that certainly indicates that the city seems almost unreal. Fairy tale atmosphere a place where you have to take a boat to go to the cinema or do anything else, it enchants it because, being surreal at times, it is very suitable for celebrating cinema.
Alice Diop instead, he is here a year after winning the Silver Lion with his Holy Omer and says he feels great joy and gratitude, but also a sense of responsibility. The award received here changed her life, inviting her to international cinema. She cares a lot about being alone black woman in this environment.
Alberto Barbera, taking the floor, is proud that there are many more first entries among the competing films and that the audience is now mostly young. Remember how it is stage of adaptation for the film industry, where competitors play in different areas. He doesn’t mention the platform, except when asked who will be the stars on the red carpet, given the defection from a strike in Hollywood that “bans” union members from promoting movies in theaters.
The Artistic Director replies that at the moment the stars and the entire cast of at least three films produced by the streaming giants are excluded with certainty: therefore, Emma Stone and the rest of the cast of Yorgos Lanthimos’ film “The Poor Man” – the actors of the film “Killer” will be missed” by David Fincher (hence , no Michael Fassbender and Tilda Swinton), all of the cast of Bradley Cooper’s Maestro (including the director), and so on the cast of Wes Anderson’s The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar (which will instead win the Cartier Filmmaker’s Hail Award).
Barbera then assured that many films independent production, already sold and guaranteed at the box office, thanks to a retreat provided by SAG-AFTRA (Screen Actors Union of the USA), they can have translators at the festival who personally support the films in which they are the main characters. So guaranteed Adam Driver for the film “Ferrari” (but not Penelope Cruz, absent for personal reasons). There will also be Jessica Chastain in Remembrance directed by Michel Franco and the cast of Priscilla. Sofia Coppolaas well as Caleb Landry Jones, starring in Luc Besson’s Dogman, and, finally, the beautiful Lea Léa Seydoux in the sci-fi drama La bête (aka The Beast) directed by Bertrand Bonello.
In short, the opening ceremony, where we wanted to ensure that the impact American getaway things were not as bad as initially feared when it became clear that he had lost the opening film listed as first choice, The Pretenders by Luca Guadagnino.