After announcing the lineup of the Venice Film Festival, Alberto Barbera, director of the film event, talked about the absence of Netflix titles, the political nature of the works and the stars of this year’s festival.
to report cinema cinemathe list of films of the official part of the 81st Venice Film Festival was announced in a press conference with the presence of works by directors such as Pedro Almador, Luca Godenino, Todd Phillips, Pablo Larin, Justin Krezel and… Skrein talked about the different aspects of this year’s selection of films in Venice.
Considering the selected films, is there a particular theme that stands out among the works?
There are some topics that have been covered before, such as gender representation. This year, we are witnessing films that were banned from screening in recent years due to prevailing caution. Among the works of this year, there is less and less prejudice and censorship from the filmmakers.
Which movie are you thinking of in particular?
I’m thinking of Nicole Kidman’s Baby Girl, Alfonso Cuarón’s Disclaimer, Luca Guadagnino’s Queer, and the Norwegian film Love by Dag Johan Høvgrud. All of them are related to contemporary issues and relationships.
Many films also deal with the coming of age and the problems of young people after this epidemic, people without any vision for the future, without a father, without family support, without any reference that can help them find a place in our society. are left For example, there is a very beautiful French film in the main competition called “Their Children After Them” by Ludovic and Zoran Boukerma about teenagers in a remote area of France. In the horizons section, there are the movie “The History of Frank and Nina” by Paula Randi, “Nineteen” by Giovanni Tortorici and the Japanese movie “Happy Ending” by Neo Soro with these themes.
It seems that this year’s politics will also be an important topic among the works of the festival.
There are many films about the contemporary crises in the world that we face every day in the media, from the war in Ukraine, the conflict between Israel and Hamas to climate change, immigration, the return of white supremacy in the United States, etc. Cinema is still the most effective way to think about the contemporary world and forces the audience to think about various issues from a different perspective than the news.
Films such as Queer, Joker: The Insanity Collective, Wolves, and The Brutalist were already highly anticipated. Are there any movies that you were surprised to be chosen that weren’t on people’s radar?
In the main competition section, a film from Singapore called “Stranger Eyes” by Yeo Siew Hua, which is only the director’s second feature film, but is a very mature and multi-layered film that deals with the surveillance society and the situation of families. This is a very unexpected and brilliant film.
The French film “The Silent Boy” by Delphine and Muriel Cullin is very interesting about contemporary issues. It is the story of a father with two sons. One is very calm and the other is fascinated by far-right movements and neo-fascist violence in France.
Netflix has always had a strong presence at the festival, but not this year. Did they send a lot of videos?
No, the problem is that they didn’t have strong films to send to the festival this year because they were in transition. Scott Stuber [مدیر سابق فیلم نتفلیکس] He resigned at the end of last year. His successor, Dan Lane, took over in the spring, so there were no quality films to submit to the festival during this transition period. But I know they have some very strong movies coming up next year, so this is a temporary situation.
A right-wing government is in power in Italy, and the new president of the Biennale, Pietrangelo Bottafocco, is also right-wing. Yet you still chose films that address concerns about the far right. Was it a challenge for you to include some of these films?
No, it was not a challenge. I could work in complete freedom of choice and received no pressure from anyone. I have a very good relationship with the new president of Biennale. He preserved my freedom without any interference. So I work in continuity with the past without any problem and that’s good.
Last year the actors’ strike kept the stars away from Venice, but this year it looks like a lot of stars are coming. Who will be here?
All the actors from the films will be here, and I’m very happy about that, and we’ll see the most talent in Venice in the last 15 years or more: Michael Keaton, Winona Ryder and Monica Bellucci for the opening film Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, and then Keith We will also have Blanchett, Kevin Kline, Brad Pitt, George Clooney, Julianne Moore, Tilda Swinton, Daniel Craig and Lady Gaga at the festival.
This year, it seems that there are fewer films from controversial filmmakers such as Roman Polanski or Woody Allen at the festival. Was this a deliberate choice?
Absolutely not. I don’t care about the problems caused by controversial movies. Neither in the past nor now, I have no such worries. There may be some controversy surrounding political films, but nothing compared to the experience of the last few years.
There are a lot of feature films at the festival this year, and you’re showing several series in their entirety. Would it be difficult to plan to show them all?
This is an issue. Movies are getting longer and longer every year. This is a trend in today’s cinema. As Steven Spielberg said in an interview a few months ago, the future of cinema is in series, it is not the conventional form of movies that we are used to seeing.
**
The 81st edition of Venice, as the world’s oldest film festival, will be held from August 28 to September 7 (September 7 to 17).
This year, the prominent French actress Isabelle Hooper will be the head of the jury for the main competition of the Venice Festival, and American director and writer James Gray, British writer and director Andrew Hague, Polish director, producer and screenwriter Agnieszka Holland. Brazilian director “Colbert Mendonsa Filo”, “Abdul Rahman Sissako” director and screenwriter from Mauritania, “Giuseppe Tornatore” famous Italian directors along with German director “Julia von Heinz” and “Zhang Ziyi” actor of “Memoirs of a Geisha” and “Tiger” films. Khizan, the hidden dragon” are the members of the jury of the 2024 Venice Film Festival.
As previously announced, Tim Burton’s “Beetlejuice 2” will be the opening film of the 81st edition of the Venice Film Festival. This movie starring Michael Keaton, Monica Bellucci, Jenna Ortega, Willem Dafoe, Winona Ryder, Catherine O’Hara, and Justin Theroux is a continuation of the classic comedy-horror directed by Tim Burton. It is in 1988 and it is scheduled to be screened in the out-of-competition section of the main hall of the Venice Film Festival on August 28.
The movie “Witness” directed by Nader Saivor, which is a joint production of Iran, Germany and Austria, has been accepted in the Horizons section of the Venice Film Festival 2024, and according to the previous announcement, the movie “Boomerang” directed by Shahab Fatuhi and produced by Mojbad Barzegar, has been accepted as one of the 10 films. The competitive section of Venice Days and the film “Anywhere in Every Time” by Milad Tangshir, an Iranian director, has been selected to represent Italian cinema in the Venice Critics’ Week competition, and Iranian filmmaker Ali Asgari has been selected as one of the jury members of the Horizons section of the Venice Film Festival. is
Source: ISNA