As in Roberto Benigni’s film, Life is Beautiful (1997), there is joy in Venice, at the Lido, where opened, Wednesday 1er September, the 78e edition of the Mostra. We literally feel in a bubble, despite the pandemic and international events, with the takeover of power by the Taliban in Afghanistan – a meeting is also scheduled at La Mostra, Saturday, September 4, with some Afghan filmmakers who will come. testify to the situation.
Roberto Benigni received a Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement
In fact, Roberto Benigni was the guest of the opening night of the festival, where he received, from the hands of Jane Campion, a Golden Lion for his entire career. Underlining the perpetual joy of the actor and filmmaker, against all odds, the director of The piano lesson, Palme d’Or at Cannes in 1993, made the audience laugh by comparing Benigni to “An exploding bottle of prosecco”. In 2020, the festival was held in the absence of international stars and the Golden Lion was awarded to one of the few American films present, Nomadland, by Chloé Zhao. But neither the director nor the actress Frances McDormand had been able to make the trip.
This year, the Mostra directed by Alberto Barbera offers films from 59 countries, and its general delegate, Alberto Barbera, has continued to extol in the media the ” high quality “ works, in this delicate period for the production of films. The jury for the feature films competition is chaired by Korean filmmaker Bong Joon-ho, winner of the Palme d’Or at Cannes in 2019 with Parasites.
The parade of stars was therefore back on the red carpet of the Palazzo del cinema. Isabelle Huppert, long hair and flesh-colored dress, came to defend The promises, by Thomas Kruithof (parallel section Orizzonti), where she plays a very committed mayor, at the end of her political career, in a poor town in 93, Seine-Saint-Denis. “Isabelle! Isabelle! “, shouted the photographers, then “Pedro! Pedro! “… Pedro Almodovar got out of the official car, surrounded by Penélope Cruz and Milena Smit, the two actresses of his latest film, Parallel mothers, in competition and in contention for the Golden Lion. A drama about motherhood, the search for origins and the political history of Spain, where nevertheless a light atmosphere floats. Penélope Cruz camps there a woman close to forty, Janis, photographer, who becomes pregnant following a relationship with a married man, archaeologist (Israel Elejalde). The latter must also help him find the burial place of his great-grandfather, who disappeared during the civil war in order to‘bury in the village where he was born … In the maternity room, Janis befriends a very young woman who has also come to give birth alone. The film is due in theaters on 1er December.
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