“Mandibules”
French director/DJ Quentin Dupieux – who may be better known in some circles as his musical pseudonym, Mr. Oizo – makes obsessively odd dark comedies with a surrealist bent. His last film, “Deerskin” was about a man (Jean Dujardin) who grows enamored with his jacket after his wife leaves him, posing as a filmmaker in the French Alps. His newest, “Mandibules” – which will screen out of competition – veers into almost full on Cronenberg territory, following two naïve dudes (David Marsais, Grégoire Ludig) who discover a giant fly and set out to train the massive insect, seeing a financial opportunity for themselves. Wearing multiple hats as director, writer, cinematographer, and editor, Dupieux is a jack of all trades, and while his latest may seem more grotesque than his previous flick on the surface, he intends “Mandibules” to be an earnest comedy exploring friendship, as opposed to a humorous meditation on death like many of his previous works. Also starring Adèle Exarchopoulos (“Blue is the Warmest Color”), and featuring a score from electronic group Metronomy, Dupieux’s warped, chimeric visions sit someone between whimsical and depraved. – AB
“Salvatore – Shoemaker of Dreams” / “Fiori, Fiori, Fiori!”
Luca Guadagnino (“Call Me By Your Name,” “Suspiria”) is bringing two different projects to Venice this year: “Salvatore – Shoemaker of Dreams,” a documentary on Italian designer Salvatore Ferragamo, and “Fiori, Fiori, Fiori!,” a short film Guadagnino made with only a tablet, smartphone, and a bare-bones crew during the pandemic. Knocking on the doors of several of his childhood friends, ‘Fiori’ attempts to capture what various households were experiencing throughout the COVID-crisis. Whereas with “Salvatore,” the filmmaker wanted to examine the meaning of the term “genius,” how such art is born, and how we come to view it as such. Believing Ferragamo to be the perfect figure through which to explore the notion of expressive brilliance, ‘Shoemaker’ explores all the factors which shaped the creative cobbler into the artist he would become, following Ferragamo’s from his youthful years as an apprentice in Naples, to his journeyman days across the United States, until he eventually made his name designing shoes in Santa Monica and Hollywood. After his last two movies propelled him to one of the hottest names in world cinema, Guadagnino shows no signs of slowing down, the multi-faceted filmmaking having some serious momentum going for his career right now. – AB
“Hopper/Welles”
While we’re definitely not complaining, there’s certainly been no shortage of movies/ documentaries made about Orson Welles at this point in time (“They’ll Love Me When I’m Dead,” “The Eyes of Orson Welles,” David Fincher’s upcoming “Mank”). Hopper/Welles, however, more closely resembles a project like Kent Jones’ “Hitchcock/Truffaut,” or “De Palma,” made by Noah Baumbach and Jake Paltrow. Filmed during the infamous guerilla production of “The Other Side of the Wind” – while Dennis Hopper was in the midst of editing his own cinema experiment “The Last Movie” – Venice will unveil a sure-to-be-fascinating back and forth between two of Hollywood’s greatest iconoclasts. Discussing an array of subjects, such as whether a director is more like a god or a magician, to the political problems plaguing a violent nation, captured during a revolutionary period for America and American filmmaking, the film is described as “an essential piece of movie history, pitched at the hinge of a changing industry, voiced by a pair of filmdom’s most radical creators.” – AB
“The Human Voice”
Loosely inspired by a Jean Cocteau stage play that Pedro Almodóvar has reportedly sought to adapt for decades, “The Human Voice,” is the Spanish auteur’s short film follow-up to the outstanding, “Pain and Glory,” (which Antonio Banderas received a much deserved Oscar nomination for). The director’s first English-language movie project stars Tilda Swinton as a woman who sits by the phone, watching the minutes tick past on her watch, waiting beside the suitcases of a former lover, who has perhaps abandoned her (and their dog. What a jerk!), for a call that may never come. Swaying between a series of uncontrollable emotions as she waits and waits – afraid to leave the apartment lest she miss the call – Swinton’s character does everything from doll herself up to contemplate suicide. Almodóvar describes the short as “a moral lesson about desire, even though its protagonist is on the verge of the very same abyss.” Sounds like it could be a phenomenal performance showcase for one of the best actors on the planet, and we imagine the insular nature of the narrative will lend itself wonderfully to the Spanish filmmakers’ colorfully unrivaled production design. – AB
“Sportin’ Life”
The sixth installment of an ongoing creative project called “Self,” curated by designer Anthony Vaccarello, “Sportin’ Life,” is an hour-long, self-reflective documentary on the relationship Abel Ferrara has with his artistic body of work – including his relationship with actor Willem Dafoe. The goal of Vaccarello’s international project is to explore various artists’ expressive individuality, each bringing their own personal aesthetics to the cultural commentary experiment. With “Sporting Life,” Ferrara holds a lens up to his own personal history and creative inspirations: his earliest works, various musical collaborations, to how different partnerships have launched, evolved, and shaped his work over the years. Ferrara has made a number of docs over the past decade, where he’s always recording the process of his filmmaking as he partakes in the process itself. When this year’s pandemic caused Ferrara to look more intently at his own life and artistic choices, electing to closely examine his relationship to his own art, exploring the variety of factors that shape the complex persona of self-expression. – AB
Honorable Mention
That’s really the tip of the Gondola of course. Film Festival season might be handicapped by COVID, but there’s still plenty of good titles to watch out for. Other films to keep an eye on include Nathan Grossman‘s documentary about 15-year-old climate change activist Greta Thunberg, simply titled “Greta“; Mexican filmmaker Michel Franco‘s “Nuevo Orden,” which features talent like Diego Bonieta (“Rock Of Ages,” “Terminator: Dark Fate“), Naián González Norvind and plays in competition, so it’s one to keep an eye on; Japanese filmmaker Kiyoshi Kurosawa‘s latest, an espionage movie called, “Spy No Tsuma (Wife Of A Spy)”; Romola Garai stars in Susanna Nicchiarelli‘s “Miss Marx” about Karl Marx’s youngest daughter, among the first women to link the themes of feminism and socialism; Julia von Heinz‘s “And Tomorrow The Entire World,” about Antifa activists drawn together by their will to fight the rise of neo-Nazis across Germany; Gianfranco Rosi‘s “Notturno” which was shot over three years in the Middle East and recounts the everyday life that lies behind the continuing tragedy of civil wars; Russian filmmaker Andrei Konchalovsky‘s Communist regime drama in USSR, 1962, “Dear Comrades” starring Julia Vysotskaya; and “In Between Dying” by director ilal Baydarov, produced by Joslyn Barnes and Carlos Reygadas, and supported by Christian Mungiu.
Non competition titles to look out for include, Roger Mitchell‘s “The Duke” starring Jim Broadbent and Helen Mirren; Alex Gibney‘s new documentary, “Crazy, Not Insane,” about a a psychiatrist who investigates and tries to understand serial killers; Fredrick Wiseman‘s scant 4.5 hour documentary “City Hall“; Directors JR and Alice Rohrwacher 10 minute short, “Omelia Contadina“; “Topside,” from, directors Celine Held and Logan George, which already garnered strong acclaim at SXSW earlier this year, co-starring Held herself as a mother living underneath the tunnels of New York City with a five-year-old child; episode 1 of Álex de la Iglesia’s new exorcist, cursed coin HBO Europe series “30 Coins“; the Monica Belluci-starring “The Man Who Sold His Skin“; Lav Diaz‘s relatively short (2.6 hours), “Lahi, Hayop (Genus Pan“); Yorgos Lanthimos‘ assistant director Christos Nikou‘s new feature “Mila (Apples“); and Venice’s one genre pick, sure to make for controversy, “Run Hide Fight,” starring Thomas Jane, Radha Mitchell, Isabel May and it’s about a nightmarish school shooting in America. Want more? Check out the Venice Film Festival website.
In bocca al lupo to all the filmmakers there and critics and writers who will be on the ground! Everyone please stay safe. Stai attento! – RP