Hollywood royalty showed up for Italy’s glitzy film showcase on Wednesday, when a sizable lineup of star-studded movies will compete with protests from Gaza to win public support.
The 82nd edition of the longest-running festival features top directors Jim Jarmusch and Kathryn Bigelow all starring on the sandy Lido across the Venice lagoon, including George Clooney and Julia Roberts, two of the biggest names at the event.
The opening ceremony on Wednesday night featured German director Werner Herzog receiving a Lifetime Achievement award for his canon of more than 70 films, which was Francis Ford Coppola bestowing with the film.
Herzog’s most recent documentary, “Ghost Elephants,” about a lost herd in Angola, will be shown on Thursday. He claimed he always looked for the “sublime” in his movies.
The first major in-competition film made on Wednesday was Italian director Paolo Sorrentino’s “La Grazia,” which centers on an Italian president who is battling doubts over whether to pass a bill allowing euthanasia.
According to Sorrentino, “being based on doubt and then allowing that doubt to develop into a decision is something that is becoming more and more uncommon.”
The secondary Orizzonti section was inaugurated by the movie “Mother,” which depicts Mother Teresa as a sometimes ruthless figure who struggles to reconcile her views on motherhood and abortion.
Clooney, who was seen leaving a water taxi in Venice with his wife Amal on Tuesday, was the subject of a quick turn for attention.
He will appear in the premiere of the Oscar-winning comedy “Jay Kelly” on Netflix on Thursday, where he plays a prominent Hollywood actor who struggles to identify.
Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce’s engagement announcements are also available.
The sci-fi comedy “Bugonia” from Greek director Yorgos Lanthimos, in which Emma Stone is portrayed as a pharmaceutical executive kidnapped by aliens, is premiering on the same night.
Roberts will make his first appearance in the Italian film “After the Hunt” from Italy’s Luca Guadagnino on Friday.
Winners of the festival’s prestigious Golden Bear top prize frequently advance to Oscar-winning films like “Nomadland” or “Joker” in the past.
Pro-Palestinian protest
World events predominated their day one press conference, despite the festival and Alexander Payne, the jury president for this year’s “Sideways,” being eager to concentrate on the list of films that would make their world premieres in 11 days.
In front of the festival’s main building, protesters chanted “Free Palestine,” while a group of Italian film professionals urged attendees to directly condemn Israel’s invasion and siege of Gaza.
Selected local political and human rights organizations have called for a protest on Saturday in Venice to condemn Israel and the Gaza war.
Director Alberto Barbera addressed reporters, stating that the festival had already declared “huge sadness and suffering in regard to what is happening in Gaza and Palestine.” However, he forbade actors from returning invitations to Israel-friendly actors.
Hundreds of movie stars signed a petition at the Cannes film festival in May to express their disgust with Israel’s nearly two-year bombardment of Gaza.
The Voice of Hind Rajab, a film about the war that was chosen for the festival’s main competition, is based on the tragic death of Palestinian girl Hind Rajab, who was killed by Israeli forces last year.
‘Frankenstein’
The Venice premieres of Oscar Isaac’s Oscar Isaac-starring big-budget remake of “Frankenstein” and Idris Elba’s political thriller “A House of Dynamite” are just two examples of the flurry of new ones.
In one of the most creative casting decisions, British actor Jude Law will play Vladimir Putin in Olivier Assayas’ “The Wizard of the Kremlin,” while actor Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson will play mixed martial arts champion Mark Kerr in the highly acclaimed “The Smashing Machine” from Benny Safdie.
Source: Channels TV
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