The Paper's reporter Cheng Xiaojun
On September 1, local time, the 78th Venice Film Festival was officially unveiled.
Compared with the previous star-studded Cannes Film Festival, Venice is expected to welcome more Hollywood stars this year, with Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, Christine Stewart, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Benedict Cumberbatch, Kristen Dunster, Olivia Coleman, Dakota Johnson, Anya Taylor Joy and Jessica Chastain already scheduled their meetings with the media.
The world premiere of "Dune" will also gather all the starring cast including Timothy Chalamet, Zandaya, Oscar Isaac, Rebecca Ferguson, Josh Brolin, Jason Momma and so on.
There are no taboos, new and old are on the same page
In the past few years, under the leadership of artistic director Alberto Barbera, the Venice Film Festival has successfully transformed itself into the premiere of Hollywood films that aspire to the Oscars, including "Gravity", "Birdman", "Focus", "Philharmonic City", "The Shape of Water", "Rome", "Joker" and many other Oscar-winning films, which were first unveiled in front of the world, all of which were in the water city of Venice.
Alberto Barbera, Artistic Director of the Venice Film Festival, Visual China
"Everyone knows that the Venice Film Festival is the opening whistle of the annual awards season." Andrea Scrosati, chief operating officer of Frerantle Films, who produces Italian director Paolo Sorrentino's new film The Hand of God, said in an interview with Variety, "People who aspire to win the grand prize know that this is the right place to start." And all this is thanks to Alberto. "'Hand of God', an original work funded by streaming giant Netflix, was shortlisted for the main competition unit of this year's Golden Lion Awards in Venice.
Hand of God poster
Unlike the Cannes Film Festival, which strictly refuses to enter the competition of streaming media such as Netflix due to pressure from the domestic cinema industry, Venice has opened its doors to these upstarts in these industries. New Zealand director Jane Campion's Power of the Dog, like God's Hand, was produced by Netflix. If it weren't for the fact that Cannes and Netflix hadn't yet reached a settlement, the two films would have most likely premiered at Cannes this year. As a result, this has provided more high-profile new works for the unrestrained and inclusive Venice Film Festival.
"The Power of Dogs" director Jane Campion Visual China Picture
"Alberto is very knowledgeable and knows what kind of commercial films are suitable for the Venice Film Festival, but at the same time he knows art films very well and has a very broad vision." Barbara Salabe of Warner Film Italy also admires the festival leader.
Two years ago, it was the discerning Barbera who took a fancy to Warner's Joker, and tried to make such a Hollywood production with a comic book adaptation background and the villain character in the superhero movie as the protagonist premiere in Venice, and finally won the highest honor, the Golden Lion Award. This year, Warner brought the blockbuster work "Dune", although it did not participate in the award competition, but still hoped to use this platform to win more attention for it, in order to have better results in the following awards season.
"Dune" director Villeneuve Visual China picture
Of course, in Barbera's own view, the Venice Film Festival is not just a role in making a wedding dress for the Oscars. In an interview with the media, he pointed out that nearly half of all the entries this year were from young creators who had never participated in the main competition section of the three major European film festivals. "What we want to tell the world is that this is not only a showcase for the new works of long-established big-name directors, but also maintains the characteristics of our usual discovery of new creators." Barbera said.
The limitations of the epidemic and the breakthrough of the audience
Affected by the epidemic, compared with the normal Venice Film Festival, this year naturally has more restrictions: the number of spectators can only maintain half of the past, social distancing must be maintained in the form of plum blossom seats, and masks must be worn throughout the viewing process; the red carpet ceremony is also closed to fans as last year, only for photojournalists to shoot.
But fortunately, when the health pass policy has been implemented in the European Union for a long time, the various guests do not have a problem with each other, and the vaccine vaccination certificate of the United Kingdom and the United States has now been recognized by Italy, as long as it is successfully verified, it can harvest a "green pass" and travel unimpeded throughout the film festival.
As for the guests who have not yet been vaccinated or whose vaccination certificate is not recognized by the EU (according to Barbera, these people account for about one-tenth of the total guests), they still need to undergo nucleic acid testing every 48 hours and need to pay 15 euros at their own expense. A corner of their film festival documents will also be cut off to facilitate identification by security guards and other staff to require them to cooperate in providing nucleic acid test results.
It is reported that the total number of guests and media reporters who applied to participate in the Venice Film Festival this year will reach more than 9,000, 30% more than in 2020, although it is still only about two-thirds of the normal level of the pre-epidemic era, but it is encouraging enough for the global film industry that is still in the process of recovery. In this regard, Italy's current policy of not segregating entry for business reasons has also helped a lot.
Just a few days before the festival's opening, nearly 30,000 movie tickets sold to general audiences have been sold out. "Because we can only sit in half the seats, we have increased the number of screenings and screening venues, and we have chartered an outdoor ice rink on Lido Island and converted it into an open-air cinema, so that everyone can see the movie they want." Barbera introduced.
In fact, in order to further narrow the distance between the film festival and the general audience, this year's Venice also added a new unit called "Horizon Extra" in addition to the original horizon unit, and the eight entries are from the hands of the newcomers, who will score and award the general audience who have watched these films. They can see all eight or any of them and go to the festival website to rate them.
"I'm looking forward to seeing the final vote," Barbera said, "and we've always stressed that there should be a constant dialogue between the film and the audience so that the film on the big screen can have its future." We want to find a way to get the audience out of their living room, so let them also participate in the venice film festival awards. ”
"The epidemic is only a moment, the movie is eternal"
At 8:00 a.m. local time on September 1, the opening film "Parallel Mothers" was screened in the media, but according to the people present, until the film began to be screened, many ticket holders were blocked outside the screening hall, because the health examination procedures were quite cumbersome and slow.
As a result, the latecomers missed the content of the first few minutes of the film, and there were also those who complained that the viewing effect was greatly reduced because there were still people entering the scene after the lights went out, and even their seats were occupied by others - in response to the epidemic, Venice also adopted the practice of marking the online three days in advance this year, and it is reasonable to say that everyone needs to be seated in the right number.
"Parallel Mother" starred Penelope Cruz Visual China picture
That night, the world premiere of "Parallel Mothers" officially debuted, and director Almodóvar and lead actor Penelope Cruz both attended. After the film was screened, including Italian Prime Minister Sergio Mattarella, the audience stood up and applauded for five minutes, which at one point made Cruz wet with excitement. The film is the seventh collaboration between the two, starting with 1997's "Alive and Fragrant", to "About My Mother", "Broken Hug", "Flight Attendant Lover", "Return", "Pain and Glory", and then to this year's "Parallel Mother".
South Korean director Bong Joon-ho, who chairs the jury of this year's main competition, said enthusiastically at the brief opening ceremony: "I believe that the epidemic is only a moment, and the film is eternal. I believe that the history of cinema and the cinema itself are not so easy to crush. ”
Director Bong Joon-ho Visual China Picture
Subsequently, new Zealand director Jane Campion presented this year's lifetime achievement award to the famous Italian comedian Roberto Benigni, who gave a funny acceptance speech in Italian on the stage, thanking the head of the Venice Film Festival, Barbera, and the Italian prime minister, saying that the prime minister brought luck to the Italian people and let the men's football team win the European Championship, so he hoped that he could stay for at least one more year. So that the Italian men's football team can continue to work hard to win the World Cup, and thanks to the late and living directors he has worked with: Bernardo Bertolucci, Federico Fellini, Marco Ferreri, Jim Jarmusch, Woody Allen, Blake Edwards...
Roberto Bernini Visual China Figure
Finally, the 68-year-old Bernini especially thanked his wife and actor Nicoletta Braschi, who has lived with him for forty years, and said that he was willing to split the Golden Lion in two and share it with his wife, "The tail part belongs to me, and the rest is yours, especially the pair of wings on the lion's body, which must be dedicated to you." Because, if I say I can soar freely, I am thanking you dearly."
Editor-in-charge: Cheng Yu
Proofreader: Yan Zhang