It has to shine, as much if not more than on the Croisette, in Cannes. Light as prosecco bubbles, such was the atmosphere, Wednesday, August 28, during the opening of the 81e edition of the Venice Film Festival, which runs until September 7. Its artistic director, Alberto Barbera, has pulled out all the stops with a star-studded lineup. Twenty-one films are competing for the Golden Lion, which will be presented by the president of the jury, Isabelle Huppert. Beyond the statuette in the shape of a winged beast, the big ships are aiming for the Oscars, and Venice is the launching pad.
This is the case, in particular, of the second part of the Warner franchise, Joker. Madness for twoby Todd Phillips, with Joaquin Phoenix and Lady Gaga. In 2019, the Mostra boss created a surprise by selecting the first opus, Jokerby the same director, which had earned Joaquin Phoenix the Oscar for best actor. It was clearly a good strategy, then repeat.
Angelina Jolie as Maria Callas
Angelina Jolie, for her part, plays the title role in Mariaby Chilean Pablo Larrain, about the last days of the singer Maria Callas (1923-1977). Daniel Craig, after playing secret agent 007, is the star of Queeran adaptation of the eponymous book by William S. Burroughs (1985). In this film directed by Luca Guadagnino, the director of Call Me by Your Name (2017), the very British actor, naturalized American, plays a forty-something hanging around gay bars who falls in love with a young man (Drew Starkey, revealed in the series Outer Banks). Craig is also refining his new image wild as the face of the Spanish brand Loewe: images of him in worn jeans, undone belt and unruly locks of hair cover the walls of Venice Marco Polo airport.
The Venetian edition also marks the return of Nicole Kidman, in Babygirlby Dutch Halina Reijn, presented as an erotic thriller with Spaniard Antonio Banderas. In another genre, Tilda Swinton and Julianne Moore are reunited in the drama The Room Next Doorthe first feature film shot in English by the Spaniard Pedro Almodovar. To complete this “Milky Way” of stars, Cate Blanchett, on the poster of the series Disclaimerby Alfonso Cuaron, presented in Venice, electrified festival-goers in a sculptural lamé dress on Wednesday evening.
Still in competition, three feature films will defend the colours of France, with their headliners: Three friendsby Emmanuel Mouret, with Camille Cottin, India Hair, Damien Bonnard and Vincent Macaigne; Their children after themby Zoran and Ludovic Boukherma, with Paul Kircher, Gilles Lellouche and Ludivine Sagnier; finally, Play with firea political film by Delphine and Muriel Coulin, with Vincent Lindon, Benjamin Voisin and Stefan Crepon, the story of a father who sees one of his sons getting closer to far-right groups.
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