PSFK Feature: Venice Round Up

Bryan Thompson reports his impressions of the trends in film from Venice Film Festival.

61. mostra internazionale d’arte cinematografica di venezia

FINALLY! I used this exasperated expression twice near the end of the final day of viewings at this year’s venice film festival. First of all because it was finally over and secondly because there was finally a film that makes you go – mmmmmm. My favorite film of the festival (and i did miss a few that were supposed to be good) it was one of the films that was not in competition; actually it wasn’t even a feature film but one-third of a trilogy. Eros, three short films by Wong Kar Wai, Steven Soderbergh and Michelangelo Antonioni. The first, The Hand by Wong Kar Wai, demonstrates the writer-director’s wonderful growing talent to stylistically unfold in beautiful layers, the complexity of emotions that develop between two people. But if you get the chance to see Eros, see the The Hand and Soderberghs Equilibrium, but spare yourself the misery of seeing Antonioni’s final episode.

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Otherwise the festival was relatively uneventful. There seemed to be lots of stars but overwhelmingly bland films this year. It appears that the new festival director Marcus Mueller was going for a bit of star quality to mark his debut in Venice. In addition to the “as-Hollywood-as-you-can-be” opener, Steven Spielberg’s Terminal, the first few days of the festival saw appearances by Tom Cruise, Meryl Streep, Denzel Washington, Al Pacino, Johnny Depp, Kate Winslet, John Travolta, Scarlett Johanssen and Nicole Kidman.

But the films this year had a certain zzzzzzz quality, especially given the super poor organisation of the festival that resulted in things falling behind schedule by hours most nights (try watching 2-hour film starting at 2:30 a.m.). There were the ones that rose to the top. Mike Leigh’s Vera Drake and Alesandro Amenabar’s Mar Adentro were two bright spots this year (and clear favorites for the top prizes). But as excellent as they were, they gave a strongly polished feel to this years festival, markedly different from the edge that films such as Kitano’s Zatoichi, Inarritu’s 21 Grams or winner Zvyaginstev’s The Return gave to last year’s festival. Even Dumont’s amazingly bad entrant last year, 29 Palms, gave audiences and critics something to talk about. And Bellochio’s “spoiled-kid” exit when he learned he wouldn’t win last year gave us all something to laugh about (the fact is that his film last year, Buongiorno, Notte was good).

The biggest disappointments this year were Spike Lee’s She Hate Me and Jonathan Glazer’s competition film Birth. Even Nicole Kidman’s presence and skills were unable to save Glazer’s film from the absurdity of it’s premise. As for Spike, one day he’ll make another great one (I’m a believer). I am, however, doubtful that another of my heroes will ever return to his old form; Wim Wender’s competition entry, Land of Plenty, is so far removed from his greats Paris, Texas and Wings of Desire, that even my faith isn’t that strong.

And without getting into the debate of the overall quality of Italian cinema today, I’ll just say that of the three Italian films I saw, only Amelio’s Le Chiavi di Casa proved that there is hope. Hopeless, however, is trying to understand how a film such as Placido’s Ovunque Sei can receive as long an ovation as it did. The “support-your-local-filmmaker” crowd must learn to recognize a bad film when they see one; you don’t have to boo, but be polite, get up, clap a couple of times and leave!

Enough for now, I have the Italian sunshine to enjoy on a beach far removed from Venice’s star-studded Lido.

till next time!

Bryan