57th Venice Film Festival Is Loaded With Programmes And Competitions

On August 30, 2000 the 57th edition of the Mostra Internazionale dell’Arte Cinematografica (better known as the Venice Film Festival) gets underway in the gorgeous Lido district of the La Serenissima. And unlike the previous year where Italian films were lacklustre at best, the recent offerings from the host country seem much more promising.

Whereas in 1999 program director Alberto Barbera apologized for the critically weak Italo presence in the competition aspect of the Fest, he’s facing no such conundrum this time around. Guido Chiesa’s Il partigiano Johnny (starring Stefano Dionisi, Claudio Amendola, Andrea Prodan, and Fabrizio Gifuni), Marco Tullio Giordana’s I cento passi (with Luigi Lo Cascio, Luigi Maria Burruano, Lucia Sardo, and Tony Sperandeo), Carlo Mazzacurati’s La lingua del Santo (starring Antonio Albanese, Fabrizio Bentivoglio, Isabella Ferrari, and Marco Paolini), and Gabriele Salvatores’ Denti (with Sergio Rubini, Anouk Grinberg, Tom Novembre and Anita Caprioli) will be competing for the Leone D’oro alongside some of the world’s greatest filmmakers. And if the buzz from the industry is any indication, these works will be marking a new and promising era in Italian cinema.

The Venice fest is loaded with programmes and competitions (perhaps too many), so it’s practical that the focus lie on the major competition which will be judged by a jury of filmmaker peers. Some of the competition films include Robert Altman’s Dr. T. and the Woman, starring Richard Gere as a man whose juggling too many females in his life; Stephen Frears’ coming-of-age tale Liam; and Sally Potter’s long-awaited The Man Who Cried, starring Christina Ricci, Cate Blanchett, John Turturro and Johnny Depp. From Lithuania comes Sharunas Bartas’ Freedom; from France Xavier Beauvois’ Selon Matthieu; from Hong Kong Fruit Chan’s Liulian Piao Piao (Durian Durian); from India Buddhadeb Dasgupta’s Uttara (The Wrestlers); from Japan Zhang-ke Jia’s Platform; from South Korea Ki-duk Kim’s Seom (The Isle); from Australia Clara Law’s The Goddess of 1967; from Portugal Manoel de Oliveira’s Palavra e utopia and João Pedro Rodrigues’ O Fantasma; from Iran Jafar Panahi’s Dayereh (The Circle); from France Raoul Ruiz’s Fils de deux mères ou comédie de l’innocence; and from Colombia Barbet Schroeder’s La vierge des tueurs.

Perhaps even more impressive than Calopresti, Salvatores and Giordana’s presence is the long list of new and veteran filmmakers participating outside the competition programme such as Roberta Torre (Sud Side Stori), Isabella Sandri (Animali che attraversano la strada), Matteo Garrone (Estate romana), Pasquale Scimeca (Placido Rizzotto), Tonino De Bernardi (Rosatigre), and Giuseppe Rocca (Lontano in fondo agli occhi).

Then, as everywhere else, there is Hollywood. Venice fixture Woody Allen brings his kooky heist flick Small Time Crooks; music-video director Tarsem presents his box-office hit The Cell; Robert Zemeckis takes a chance with his ambitious thriller What Lies Beneath; Jonathan Mostow’s high-budget U-571 is long-awaited; and Ed Harris stars in his directorial debut Pollock.

As to the Canadian presence, there’s a fairly respectable contingent this year. Aside from our very own Atom Egoyan presiding over the main jury (along with Milos Forman), Quebec theatre wunderkind Robert Lepage will be bringing Possible Worlds, starring Tilda Swinton and Tom McCamus; while Lynne Stopkewich will make a presence with Suspicious River, featuring her Kissed star Molly Parker.

Opening the fest on August 30 will be Clint Eastwood’s Old Guys Do Armageddon flick Space Cowboys, the first of series of films honouring the filmmaker who, this year, is the recipient of the Fest’s Golden Lion Lifetime Achievement Award. Fans of Eastwood heading to Venice will be able to see Sergio Leone’s Il buono, il brutto, il cattivo; Don Siegel’s The Beguiled; Eastwood’s Play Misty for Me, The Outlaw Josey Wales, Bronco Billy, Honkytonk Man, Bird, Unforgiven, A Perfect World; and two episodes of the television series Rawhide.

Other notable filmmakers bringing their latest works to what is arguably the world’s most beautiful festival are Claude Chabrol (Merci pour le chocolat); Tony Gatlif (Vengo); Takeshi Kitano (Brother); Martin Scorsese (Il mio viaggio in Italia); Fernando Trueba (Calle 54); Tsui Hark (Time and Tide); Benoi Jacquot (Sade); Tom Tykwer (Der Krieger und die Kaiserin); Barbara Kopple (My Generation); Lukas Moodysson (Tillsammans); Christopher Nolan (Memento); and Mohsen Makhmalbaf and Shahabodin Farokh-Yar (Dastan Hay-e).

Of course we can’t forget the stars, or Le Stelle al Lido. They’re already dubbing this year’s installment Hollywood in Venice, where next to the world’s most renowned filmmakers will parade many of their stars. Expected are Robert Altman with Richard Gere; Sally Potter with Johnny Depp, John Turturro and Cate Blanchett; Hugh Grant sans Woody Allen (Small Time Crooks); Jonathan Mostow with Harvey Keitel, Matthew McConaughey and Jon Bon Jovi; Clint Eastwood with Tommy Lee Jones and Donald Sutherland; Michelle Pfeiffer and Harrison Ford; and Claudia Schiffer representing Nicolas Roeg’s The Sound of Claudia Schiffer. Sharon Stone, of course, will be conducting her annual AIDS benefit show.

Under the direction of Barbera, now in his second year, the Venice Film Festival is slowly fulfilling the promise of bringing innovative and interesting cinema to forefront. For years derided for its Hollywood preferences, there is now a chance that the Fest will live up to its location’s stature.