20 Films from the 2020 Venice International Film Festival - Quick Recaps

Cate Blanchett, President of Jury - Image courtesy of La Biennale ASAC - Photo: Andre Avezzù

 

(Venice, Italy) Many people expressed concern about the dangers of attending a film festival during a pandemic. For me, it was worth taking a chance. I have worked with La Biennale di Venezia for more than two decades, and trust the institution to do everything in its power to maintain high standards. Cinema is such a crucial art form that it was imperative to demonstrate how a film festival could be held safely, with reasonable precautions, and still be entertaining, enlightening and enjoyable. That two-time Academy Award-winning actor Cate Blanchett was the President of the Jury gave it an extra kick. 

 

In case you missed it, I wrote about the experience in a separate post:

How does it Feel to Attend the Venice Film Festival during a Global Pandemic?

 

Here are some quick recaps of the films I saw in the order in which I saw them, what language they were in, and links to the reviews I agree with the most, which will give you a fuller description. Some of the films have since screened at TIFF, so I am also including some reviews from there. I was so starved to see movies in a theater that I became a little obsessed, and saw 20 films. 

What a full house at the Venice Film Festival looked like during the pandemic - Photo: Cat Bauer

 

1. MOLECOLE (Venetian Molecules) - Italian

Andrea Segre's masterful love letter to Venice and to his deceased Venetian father, filmed in the lagoon during quarantine. I gave it its own post: The Haunting Film “Venetian Molecules” (Molecole) shot in Venice during Quarantine pre-opens the Venice Film Festival. Review from Film Inquiry. Grade: A

2. LACCI (The Ties) - Italian

Lots of Italian critics liked this movie, which was the first Italian film to open the Venice Film Festival in 11 years, but I thought the leaps back and forth in time were confusing. The film was about a thoroughly dysfunctional marriage and the offspring it spawned. I couldn't keep track of who was who, especially when the characters aged and a completely new set of actors took over the roles. Review from Indie Wire. Grade: C-

3. MILA (Apples) - Greek

Apples is Christos Nikou's debut film set (coincidentally) during a pandemic where people are losing their memories and sent into a dystopian rehabilitation program. Nikou is an original, talented director and Apples is an impressive debut. Review from The Hollywood Reporter. Grade: A-

4. FINAL ACCOUNT - German

The late Luke Holland, who died in June just three months before Final Account premiered in Venice, interviewed elderly Germans from various walks of life who were alive during the Holocaust in yet another attempt to understand why human beings commit genocide. Review from Variety. Grade: B

5. THE DISCIPLE - Marathi, Hindi, English

Chaitanya Tamhane won the award for best screenplay, which, to me was puzzling. I was really looking forward to this film because I love classical Indian music, but I thought the movie was too long and repetitive, and needed a good dose of editing. Review from Screen Daily. Grade: C

6. THE DUKE - English (UK)

Based on a true story, The Duke is a very British film that will delight those who remember the escapade back in 1961, but did not click emotionally with this American. Review from Screen Daily: "The Duke pairs national treasures Jim Broadbent and Helen Mirren in a by-the-Brit-playbook film about a well-meaning Newcastle cabbie who steals a Goya painting from the National Gallery in 1961 in a half-baked attempt to get free TV licenses for pensioners." Grade: B

Greta (I am Greta) - Official still

 

7. GRETA (I am Greta) - Swedish, English

I went to see Greta planning to leave early to catch a press conference, and ended up staying for the entire film. Like most of us, I am concerned about climate change, but was only aware of Greta Thunberg by the glimpses I caught of her on the news. The documentary changed my entire perception of her. She is articulate, intelligent, courageous and definitely her own person making her own decisions, writing her own speeches, and she is genuinely passionate about waking up humanity to the dangers of climate change.

However, to me, it was essential to understand how the documentary came into existence in the first place to put all the conspiracy theories to rest. Throughout the film, I kept wondering how the filmmaker Nathan Grossman just so happened to capture the sudden rise of Greta Thunberg onto the international scene. How did he get involved? He was there at the beginning when Greta was sitting outside Swedish parliament, mostly alone, holding a school strike, and followed her as the climate change movement exploded across the globe. He was there when she met world leaders and spoke before parliaments and the United Nations, and when she crossed the Atlantic Ocean by sailboat. Her father was by her side, but her mother was only briefly on screen, and her sister not at all. What were the family dynamics? The answers are not in the documentary.

To fill in the missing background, I had to do my own research. I recommend reading Nathan Grossman's interviews with Cineuropa and the Golden Globes to fill in some blanks. 

 

Greta's father, Svante Thunburg, is an actor. Her mother is the Swedish opera singer Malena Ernman, who wrote a book with the other members of the family entitled Our House Is on Fire: Scenes of a Family and a Planet in Crisis, which was excerpted by The Guardian that gives raw insight into the dynamics of Greta's family, and the emotional struggle they went through when Greta was diagnosed with Asperger syndrome, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OSD) and selective mutism.

 

To me, it would have presented a more complete picture if some of this critical background had been included in the film. I am Greta will be in cinemas on October 16 and then stream on Hulu starting on November 13. Review from The Hollywood Reporter. Grade: B

8. PIECES OF A WOMAN - English (USA)

Vanessa Kirby won the Volpi Cup for Best Actress for her performance in Pieces of a Woman. I had never seen her before, and thought she was brilliant, especially after also seeing her in The World to Come, which also premiered at the Venice Film Festival. But after the first thirty minutes of a home birth gone terribly wrong, which was riveting, the film lost my interest. Review from Slash Film. Grade: C

9. MISS MARX - English (UK)

Romola Garai stars as Carl Marx's youngest daughter, a female pioneer of socialism. The film isn't perfect, but it held my attention and I enjoyed the history. Susanna Nicchiarelli, whose critically acclaimed Nico, 1988 won Best Film in the Orrizonti section of the 2017 Venice Film Festival, directed. Review from Screen Daily. Grade: B

10. THE FURNACE - English (AUS) , Badimaya

Australian Roderick MacKay's engrossing debut feature is set in the Western Australia desert in the late 19th century when the British imported camel caravans and their drivers from Afghanistan, India and Persia to transport goods across the vast terrain, and where the Chinese also had set up shop. Different religions and languages collide with the indigenous people, as gold fever strikes. Review from Variety. Grade: B+

11. MAINSTREAM - English (USA)

Director Gia Coppola allowed Andrew Garfield, talented as he is, to have total freedom in her satire on social media. That was a mistake. Review from Indie Wire. Grade: D

Vanessa Kirby - Image courtesy La Biennale ASAC - Photo: Jacopo Salvi

12. THE WORLD TO COME - English (USA)

Katerine Waterston and Vanessa Kirby both give excellent performances in a story directed by Mona Fastvold of forbidden love set in Upstate New York in 1856, told through diary entries. It is quiet, intelligent and beautifully moving, and whisks Vanessa Kirby up to the stars. Review from Variety. Grade: A-

13. ONE NIGHT IN MIAMI - English (USA)

Regina King makes history as the first Black woman to direct a film selected by the Venice Film Festival in Kemp Powers' fictional account of an actual gathering in Miami with Cassius Clay, Malcom X, Jim Brown and Sam Cooke. I gave this film its own post: Black Power: “One Night in Miami” Moves the Needle Forward at the Venice Film Festival. Review from Variety. Grade: A

14. DOROGIE TOVARISCHI! (Dear Comrades) - Russian

The story of the real-life Novocherkassk massacre on June 2, 1962 when Soviet soldiers opened fire on workers who were protesting for better living conditions and lower food prices, shot in black and white. Review from Indie Wire. Grade: B

15. NOTTURNO - Arabic, Kurdish

Italian director Gianfranco Rosi's vision of the effect war torn Middle East has upon the civilian population. Powerful images, but no narrative. Review from The Wrap. Grade: B

16. SPY NO TSUMA (Wife of a Spy) - Japanese

Set in 1940 when Japan joined the Tripartite Pact with Germany and Italy, Kiyoshi Kurosawa's Wife of a Spy has many clever plot twists and plenty of intrigue that drive the story forward. Yu Aoi was terrific as the wife. One of my favorites. Kurosawa won the Silver Lion for Best Director. Take the time to read the review from Variety. Grade: A-

17. NOWHERE SPECIAL - English (IRL)

Set in Northern Ireland, a single father (James Norton) is dying and must find a new home for his four-year-old son (Daniel Lamont). There is genuine chemistry between the two leads as they interview potential families. Umberto Pisolini created the film based on a true story he read in the newspaper. You will cry. Review from The Upcoming. Grade: A

18. NOMADLAND - English (USA)

Winner of this year's Golden Lion, the Venice Film Festival's top prize, Chloè Zhao's Nomadland takes us into the real lives of nomadic Americans who live out of vans and RVs and work gig jobs. The always amazing Frances McDormand is surrounded by non-actors who play versions of themselves. Review from Polygon. Grade: A-

19. CRAZY, NOT INSANE - English (USA)

Alex Gibney's documentary features Dorothy Lewis, a forensic psychiatrist, whose radical views about what makes serial killers tick brought her fame as a defense witness. Her most famous case was Ted Bundy, whom Gibney saves for the end. Review from Variety. Grade: B-

 

20. LASCIAMI ANDARE (You Came Back) - Italian

 

The closing film of The Venice Film Festival was on location in Venice when exceptional high water hit last November and December. The weather was cleverly incorporated into the film, which gave it an added dimension. It's hard enough to film in Venice under "normal" conditions, let alone when the city is flooded. The movie reminded me of Nicholas Roeg's Don't Look Now. I featured it in a separate post: Venice Film Festival Closes with the Eerie "Lasciami Andare" (You Came Back) - Filmed during the Venice 2019 Floods. Grade: B

New Talent: Greek director Christos Nikou - "Mila" (Apples) - Photo: C. Nikou

This year's film festival was not about escapism and sheer entertainment, but was quieter and more thoughtful -- perfect for going to the movies during a pandemic when we are all feeling a bit more retrospective and bewildered. The magical experience of viewing a film with fellow human beings invokes a precious camaraderie -- there is nothing else like it. The void left by the absence of Hollywood films was filled with distinct voices that might otherwise have been overlooked. I learned a lot, and am grateful to have had the opportunity to attend La Biennale di Venezia's 77th Mostra internazionale d'arte cinematografica. See you at the movies!

 

Ciao from Venezia,

Cat Bauer

Venetian Cat - The Venice Blog 

Venice Film Festival Closes with the Eerie "Lasciami Andare" (You Came Back) - Filmed during the Venice 2019 Floods

Image Courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures - Photo: Andrea Pirrello

(Venice, Italy) The closing film of the 77th Venice International Film Festival was Lasciami Andare (You Came Back), which was filming on location in Venice last November and December when the city was hit by the devastating November 12th flood, followed by endless periods of acqua alta, or high water. Production continued on the movie, and the weather was skillfully incorporated into the film. Venice and all her mysteries add an intriguing element to a movie that questions if there is life after death.  

The movie starts with the sound of the siren that alerts Venetians that acqua alta is approaching. Everyone who lives in Venice understands the dread you feel when the air is filled with the blast of the air raid siren. Then, one by one, the wailing tones go up, up, up, depending on the level of the water. The fourth tone, rarely heard, is ominous, and warns residents to prepare for the worst. By using the high water siren to start the film, director Stefano Mordini invokes an eerie backdrop for a movie that confronts the supernatural.

Here is a YouTube clip from La Repubblica -- from real life in Venice, not from the movie -- so you can hear the haunting siren for yourselves:


The movie reminded me of Nicholas Roeg's Don't Look Now -- both films are about the loss of a child and supernatural contacts, and both are set in Venice. However, Lasciami Andare is a more internal story about grief and guilt and a man torn between two women -- his former wife, the mother of his dead child, and his new, pregnant lover -- than a thriller. 

I saw the Saturday afternoon screening at the film festival, and thought it was compelling. I posted on social media alerting everyone to see the film that evening, as it was playing all over town. To my surprise, someone in the States replied on Twitter that the film was based on the book You Came Back written by Christopher Coake, who was a friend of hers. I was amazed that the book was actually set in the American Midwest. Venice is so much an element of the film that it seemed it had been written just for the city.

Next, up popped Christopher Coake himself, who tweeted that he had not yet seen the film. He and his wife were supposed to be at the opening on Saturday night during the Venice Film Festival but could not travel due to the pandemic. But he did say that he had watched Don't Look Now for the first time while writing the novel.

Stefano Mordini's Director's Statement:

There are houses in Venice where the sun enters through the cracks, capturing the image of what it encounters and reflecting it on the walls. The process is like the camera obscura. Marco and Clara lived in a house like this and it is in the image of a canal, with wooden boats and the odd gondola passing by, that something more than a simple landscape is reflected. Looking more closely, in the beams of light you can see something else. And that is where the camera starts in its search for young Leo, to help him leave.

Lasciami Andare, which translates to "Let Me Go" not "You Came Back," opens in theaters in Italy on October 8. Let's hope it becomes available on streaming with English subtitles for all the Venice lovers out there. I can't find an English-language review, but just that it is set in Venice makes it worth watching (I'm biased). Go to La Biennale for the synopsis and details.

Ciao from Venezia,

Cat Bauer 

Venetian Cat - The Venice Blog

How does it Feel to Attend the Venice Film Festival during a Global Pandemic?

The Red Carpet behind the wall - Photo: Cat Bauer

(Venice, Italy) How does it feel to attend the Venice Film Festival during a global pandemic? Mostly serene. Less frenetic. More European. There is a new system in place where every person with accreditation must make a reservation for every screening and every press conference, which is a good thing. In past years, it had become more like a competition to get in the door to the buzzy films, and attendees were sometimes forced to queue long in advance. Now we know we have a seat, just like regular members of the audience — it saves a lot of time. We can be found by matching our seat number to our accreditation badge in case of a coronavirus outbreak, and they can easily identify everyone who is seated in the same vicinity. 

Our temperature is taken when we enter the grounds of the film festival, and when we enter a screening. The police are being extremely vigilant about checking our tote bags. Every other seat in the theater is left empty, so the audience is cut in half. To work in the press room, our pass codes and time we enter is recorded by hand, and we are given a handwritten number so that we can be easily located. There are no computers to share, which is inconvenient but understandable; we must bring our own. When we leave the press room we turn in the number so the time we leave can be recorded, and the place where we sat is sanitized. Masks must be worn everywhere at all times, and it is strictly enforced.

New electric scooters on the Lido

To me, the Sala Grande —normally 1031 seats, now cut to 518 seats — and the Sala Darsena —normally 1401 seats, now cut to 699 seats — are two of the most pleasant cinemas in which to screen a film, though the much smaller audience feels a bit surreal. I miss the energy of all the journalists gossiping and reacting to what we see on screen. There were 12,000 accredited visitors last year. This year there are only 5,000. When it comes to the public, last year 80,000 tickets were sold versus 20,000 this year. But still, just being able to live through movies on a big screen with fellow human beings, with shared emotions, is a moving experience for which there is no substitute.

The frenzy of the arrival of the stars on the Red Carpet is almost non-existent. The barrier separating the people on the street from the Red Carpet has been heightened so you can’t see over it — it used to be that stars could just reach across the barrier and thrill their fans with a personal touch. Now in order to see anything you have to watch the video screen. Gone are all the autograph and selfie seekers that would camp out for hours in the hope of seeing their favorite stars. I miss all the glitz and glamour, and the crowds of onlookers. Last year I interviewed three girls who had been coming to the Red Carpet for years in a post called Waiting for the Stars.  They had first encountered each other outside the barrier to the Red Carpet, had bonded, and since then had held a yearly reunion, becoming Red Carpet pros with clever tricks and maneuvers. I wonder where they are this year...

Lexus all-electric car - Photo: Cat Bauer

Since I‘ve spent a good chunk of my life in Hollywood, most of all I miss the American movies. I am a diehard fan of Hollywood magic; I love the structure, and normally focus on seeing movies from the United States. But in the absence of American films, I have been able to see films from all over the world that I normally would not have the time to see, so I get to travel to faraway lands without leaving my seat. 

There are lots of positive new innovations on the Lido. The busses to take us to the festival are all electric and nearly silent, without that ancient fossil fuel energy belching out the rumble of dinosaurs. All the Lexus cars, an official sponsor of the Venice Film Festival, are fully electric. There are new orange bicycles for rent, as well as electric scooters. La Biennale di Venezia tote bags are khaki green, created by Tucano in Milan, and made entirely of recycled plastic bottles, which are transformed into thread. It feels just like cloth.

Winged Lion of Venice wood sculpture by Marco Martalar - Photo: Cat Bauer

There is a new guardian lion in the gardens of the film festival. The wooden Lion of San Marco sculpture, Il Leone Alato e gli Alberi d'Oro di Vaia, was created by Marco Martalar, and composed of more than 1500 pieces of branches and roots broken by the fury of the wind during an unprecedented storm in the Veneto on October 28, 2018 named "Vaia." The artist began the sculpture in October 2019, and finished it in March 2020, transforming the broken trees into a majestic lion, a symbol of strength and hope. It is the largest winged wooden lion in the world.

At the moment I write this, there has not been a single COVID-19 coronavirus case at the 77th Venice International Film Festival. I feel grateful and privileged to be able to attend it in this challenging year. That La Biennale di Venezia took the courageous step of safely restarting the World of Cinema during a global health crisis is something to applaud.

Ciao from the Venice Film Festival,
Cat Bauer
Venetian Cat - The Venice Blog

Black Power: “One Night in Miami” Moves the Needle Forward at the Venice Film Festival

One Night in Miami

(Venice, Italy) One night in Miami, on February 25, 1964, the brash 22-year-old Cassius Clay defeated the World Heavyweight Champion, Sonny Liston. Years later, playwright and screenwriter Kemp Powers would stumble upon a paragraph in Redemption Song - Muhammad Ali and the Spirit of the Sixties, a book by Mike Marqusee about the intersection of sports and politics. One paragraph mentioned how four Black icons had gathered in a hotel room after the fight: Cassius Clay, Malcolm X, Sam Cooke and Joe Lewis. The four luminaries were friends, and Powers imagined that they had come to support Clay in a fight no one thought he would win.

During the ZOOM press conference, Powers said that he was fascinated by that paragraph because if you had asked him who were the four most inspirational men in his entire life, randomly he would have named those four men. At the time he read the paragraph, he was still a journalist and was planning to write a book about the friendship between the four men. "The subject that I had been researching for many years with the intention of writing as a book, suddenly became ripe for writing this piece of fiction." So he wrote it as a stage play, and then adapted his play into a screenplay.

Regina King is making history as the first Black woman to direct a film selected by the Venice Film Festival. King was asked what it meant to show the film at this pivotal moment in time -- a story set nearly sixty years in the past, but with a theme that is relevant to Black society in America today. King said that the story that was happening for Black Americans sixty years ago is the same story that is happening now. "When we started filming it, did we know we would be in this powder keg moment that we're in right now? Absolutely not. But the conversations were relevant when Kemp wrote the script, when we started filming, and it feels kind of like one of those things where it was meant to be, even though our intention wasn't that it would happen during the time when an uprising, if you will, was going on in our country... Maybe we're lucky and we are going to have the opportunity to be a piece of art out there that moves the needle in the conversation for real transformative change."

One Night in Miami ZOOM press conference - Photo: Cat Bauer

As an American living overseas, it was deeply disturbing to watch as George Floyd was murdered by Derek Chauvin in front of the eyes of the world. The United States exploded just as Italy was gently emerging from the global pandemic. The dichotomy was extreme. So to see a film like One Night in Miami, and watch articulate, intelligent Black men delve deep into the question of race was reassuring, thought-provoking and inspiring. The film is a real opportunity to have an informed debate.

The actor Eli Goree, who plays Cassius Clay, said something that really struck a chord. In the film (as he did in real life) Cassius Clay boasts about how beautiful he is. Goree's mother had seen the movie for the first time the night before. It was the first time she had ever cried when seeing a film that her son was in. Goree's mother had grown up in the 60s, and she was reminded how Cassius Clay was the first Black person who had ever said that he was beautiful. "It affected everything after that. Because other Black people said, well, he's beautiful? Then I must be okay."

All the actors give distinct, powerful performances: Kinglsey Ben-Adir as Malcolm X; ldis Hodge as football superstar Jim Brown; Leslie Odom Jr. as music legend Sam Cooke, and Eli Goree as Cassius Clay the moment he transforms into Muhammad Ali. Read the Variety review by Owen Gleiberman, which eloquently sums up the film:

"Where the film comes together, and holds you as a structured piece of drama, is in the theme that surges throughout it but is given a name only at the end: “Black power.” In 1964, that phrase was just coming into its own, and “One Night in Miami” is set at the paradigm shift of a moment when Black power was a consciousness that emerged, in part, from how figures like these four were rising in the culture, becoming influential stars in it, challenging it and changing it and maybe, in the process, revolutionizing it. Revolution was in the air, yet only Malcolm X had named it that. “One Night in Miami” is a casually entrancing debate about power on the part of those who have won it but are still figuring out what to do with it."

One Night in Miami has been picked up by Amazon Studios, and will be released later this year. Let's hope this time the needle takes a giant leap forward.

Ciao from Venezia,
Cat Bauer
Venetian Cat - The Venice Blog

The Haunting Film “Venetian Molecules” (Molecole) shot in Venice during Quarantine pre-opens the Venice Film Festival

Molecole - Photo courtesy ASAC

(Venice, Italy) Filmmaker Andrea Segre has had a complicated relationship with Venice, his father’s hometown, as well as a complicated relationship with his deceased father, Ulderico, who was born in 1946. Andrea, who lives in Rome, had come to Venice on February 20, 2020 to work on two projects for cinema and theater about the banes of Venice — over-tourism and high water. 

Then the global pandemic struck, and Andrea was quarantined here in Venice. The film took a completely different direction.

Andrea weaves home movies and photographs of his father’s boyhood in Venice — material that the director did not know existed until after Ulderico’s death — with his own masterful images and thoughts, capturing the essence of Venice during the lockdown. He digs deep inside himself to find some type of resolution to an unanswered letter he had written to his father, as he speaks to Venetians about how life is lived inside the lagoon. The film is a poignant love letter both to Venice and to Ulderico, and illustrates the impact that living inside a singular city like Venice has upon one’s soul. It touched my heart. 

Andrea Segre’s Director’s Statement says it best:

“To make a film you have to think about it, write it, organise it, shoot it. This wasn’t the case for Molecole. I experienced it and it came out by itself, in a time and dimension I couldn’t foresee. Molecole just gushed out. Like water. Like the molecules, the material we are all made of but can’t see. 

My father was Venetian and was a physicist-chemist. He studied molecule movements, the small elements of the material we can’t see but that determines the evolution of our lives. Often unexpectedly. 

Like the virus that blocked the world and showed me a solitary, magical Venice where I was able to encounter my father and understand what this fragile, powerful city can teach us.“

Molecole opens in theaters in Italy today, September 3, 2020. When international distribution is available, I will let you know. Not only a film for those who love Venice, Molecole captures in real time the surreal world created by a global pandemic, and the disorienting emotions and periods of retrospection that impacted all of us. I thought it was brilliant.

Ciao from the Venice Film Festival,
Cat Bauer
Venetian Cat - The Venice Blog