The 66th annual Venice Film festival has been unveiled and it looks like Variety’s early trade report was almost completely on-the-mark.
Practically every major film they said was hoping to play at the festival is there including new world premieres for pictures by Werner Herzog, Michael Moore, Todd Solondz and John Hillcoat. But note, one film they were off on is the Coen brothers’ “A Serious Man. ” The picture is making its world debuts at the Toronto International Film Festival.
Here’s a brief rundown of the major debuts:
– Werner Herzog’s “Bad Lieutenant: Port Of Call New Orleans,” the “re-imagining” of Abel Ferrara’s “Bad Lieutenant,” but this time starring Nicolas Cage in the Harvey Keitel role. *This will get better see below. Here’s the “wtf?” trailer.
– John Hillcoat’s post-apocalyptic “The Road,” starring Viggo Mortensen in Cormac McCarthy’s bleak, but beloved apocalyptic novel about a father and son traveling a decrepit and dangerous wasteland to survive. BTW, one of our friends has already seen this and said it was “great,” which excited us to no end. Here’s our in-depth script review.
– Todd Solondz’s “Life During Wartime” which was said to be called “Forgiveness,” but it looks like it has reverted to its original title. It’s supposed to be a quasi-sequel to his 1998 film “Happiness,” with many of the same characters, only this time played by different actors like Charlotte Rampling and Ciaran Hinds in an ensemble cast.
– Michael Moore’s recession-themed documentary, “Capitalism: A Love Story“
Here’s some of no-less-notable, but perhaps less well-known or less-anticipated films that will also premiere at Venice:
– Claire Denis’ “White Material” which is probably no major surprise.
– The ‘Ben Button”-like “Mr. Nobody” which stars Jared Leto and Diane Kruger, and from the looks of the trailer is an odd combination of sci-fi, love story and family film? It was supposed to play at Cannes earlier this year, but evidently wasn’t ready or didn’t make the cut.
– Fatih Akin’s “Soul Kitchen,” is perhaps our most anticipated film of the this international section. The Turk-German’s 2008 film “The Edge Of Heaven,” was one of our favorites of the year, ‘Kitchen’ is evidently a creative left turn as it’s said to be a comedy and most of his work is heavy and meditative moral dramas. The picture reunites him with his “Head On” star Birol Ünel, so it’ll be interesting to see what he delivers.
– 81-year-old Jacques Rivette is still cranking them out. He returns with “36 vues du Pic Saint-Loup (36 Views from the Pic Saint-Loup)”
– George Romero’s already TIFF-bound “Survival Of The Dead” will also make its world premiere in Venice.
Update: Variety has more including some out-of-competition films. Evidently there are 71 premieres in total, not too shabby. Here’s the notables:
– “The Men Who Stare at Goats,” Grant Heslov (U.S.)
– “The Informant!,” Steven Soderbergh (U.S.)
– “Napoli Napoli Napoli,” Abel Ferrara (Italy) – Yes! An Abel Ferrara/Werner Herzog showdown. Can’t wait for WWIII.
– “South of the Border,” Oliver Stone (U.S.) – must be his new doc about the Venezuelan president, yeah?
– “La Boheme,” Werner Herzog (U.K.) – not sure what this is at the moment.
– “The Hole,” Joe Dante (U.S.)
There’s also many more films announced on the Venice website. Is this the final line-up? We’re unsure, but it does look that way, the festival is not known for showcasing hundreds of films like its Toronto counterpart [Venice Film Festival site]
Additionally, Variety has announced the judges for this year’s 66th edition. The festival chose mostly regulars and one newcomer to serve on its main jury on Wednesday.
First up is Ang Lee, two-time Venice Golden Lion winner for “Brokeback Mountain” in 2005 and for “Lust, Caution” in 2007, joined by U.S. director Joe Dante, whose “The Second Civil War” premiered at the Lido in 1997 and whose “Gremlins 2: The New Batch” delighted us as a child despite its wanton absurdity. Also judging will be Gallic actor Sandrine Bonnaire, who won the Venice Coppa Volpi acting prize in 1995 for her role in Claude Chabrol’s “La Ceremonie,” Italian director Liliana Cavani, director of the critically divisive “The Night Porter” and more recently “Ripley’s Game,” Italian rock star and director Luciano Ligabue, whose first feature, “Radiofreccia” premiered in Venice in 1998, and lastly, newcomer to the Lido Indian writer-director Anurag Kashyap, who collaborated with Danny Boyle on “Slumdog Millionaire.”
The judges seem to skew towards an older, more experienced directing-judging eye, which is fine with us. Nice to see some cultural diversity too.
The fest will run Sept. 2-12. Sadly, we won’t be attending unless you’re fitting the bill and somehow, we’re pretty convinced that’s not going to happen. It’ll be curious to see what smaller publications can afford to send their writers there, especially when many of these films will be at TIFF a week later. We assume only folks like the trades can afford that luxury. – additional reporting by Joe Sedita
