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Venice Film Festival 2019

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I spent five days at the 76th annual “Mostra Internazionale D’Arte Cimematografica,” otherwise known as the Venice Film Festival. Yes, that is Venice, Italy.  I know: I am very fortunate to live nearby!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I have been going to this festival for many years and have watched it grow from a time when I could have a casual conversation with actor Tim Robbins (about 20 years ago) to an event so crowded I could not get within 50 feet of Meryl Streep.

The importance of the Venice Film Festival has also grown. Some recent films featured here later became multiple award winners. For example, in just the last few years I saw premiers of Academy Award winners “Gravity,” “La La Land,” “The Shape of Water” and others.

 

The Venice Film Festival even features “glam” police.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Last week I watched 8 different movies. I think there are two potential “Best Foreign Film” nominees as well as some acting nominees in that list. It is probably by coincidence, but the films generally dealt with the difficult experience it is to be part of a family.

One film I saw was “The White Sheik” directed by Federico Fellini. This year is the 100th anniversary of the great Italian director’s birth, so a number of his works were featured at the Festival. “The White Sheik” was one of his earliest films, but it is full of Fellini signatures including great use of shadow and light, a few really bizarre characters and frenetic high energy scenes all supported by a good story with a strong message about trust and forgiveness in a family. Pretty sure you can find a copy through a streaming service such as Netflix. If you love cinema, it’s worth the effort to watch this one.

 

As for the other seven, here are my reviews, listed (according to my opinion) from worst to best.

 

  1. Ad Astra

I expected much more from this movie. I like Brad Pitt as an actor, I like Tommy Lee Jones as an actor and I like Donald Sutherland as an actor. Unfortunately they had little to work with in this really poorly done revision of “Apocalypse Now.”  It isn’t billed that way, but it’s a clear swiping of the “Heart of Darkness” story and so badly written it was almost funny. Almost, but not quite. It was just bad. Example: one bit of dialogue

“You have to let me go, Roy.”

“Roy, you have to let me go.”

“You have to let me go, Roy.”

“Roy, you have to let me go.”

Please, Roy, let him go. Put us out of our misery. Poor Tommy Lee Jones had to say those lines. And don’t even get me started about the killer space baboons.

Don’t go see this movie; don’t even bother to rent it to watch at home.

 

 

  1. Seberg

I had no knowledge of the story of Jean Seberg. She was an internationally successful and much loved actress being followed by the FBI due to her support for a radical organization called The Black Panthers. That was happening in the late 1960’s and her life and career were destroyed by FBI activity. She committed suicide in 1979. The story is unpleasant, harking to a dark period in the history of US law enforcement. But it is not told very well in this film. I felt the characters were flat and predictable. I remember the Black Panthers and “Seberg” offers no information as to why the FBI was suspicious of them. The film stars Kristin Stewart (she was in the “Twilight” films) who delivers a flat and predictable performance. I did like Anthony Mackie in his role, but the movie itself really had no impact on me.  It is worth renting but don’t go to a theater to see it.

 

 

 

BRIEF INTERMISSION FOR A BITE TO EAT!

During the festival, I always have a meal at Ristorante La Tavernetta.

Pasta stuffed with a pine nut basil filling and covered with smoked ricotta cheese. Now that is living!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You can find other Venice dining suggestions if you follow this link.

 

 

 

 

  1. The Laundromat

This is a strange film, delivering another unpleasant (true) story about insurance fraud, money laundering and just general economic mayhem inflicted on the rest of us by a few unscrupulous super wealthy crooks.  Meryl Streep stars in this one, so of course she will get an Oscar nomination (she almost always does) and indeed she is terrific. Gary Oldman and Antonio Banderas play the two crooks in a kind of Rosenkrantz and Guildenstern characterization (from Hamlet –look it up, or just think of the two grumpy guys in the balcony of the old Muppet Show on TV). They both delivered half good performances, but I expect more from each of them, given what excellent actors they usually are. There are some interesting film tricks in this one so it is probably worth going to see.

The crowd lining up outside the theater before the premier of “The Laundromat.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  1. La Verite’ (The Truth)

This is a French film very heavy on very heavy dialogue. “La Verite'” is the story of a stormy reunion between a mother and daughter. It stars Catherine Deneuve and Juliette Binoche. Both are excellent and deserve some award hype. It also stars Ethan Hawke who was completely overshadowed by the actresses. In his defense, the film is about the women and he really did not have much to do. However, if you like art house films that deal with the difficulty of family, go see this one.

 

 

  1. Marriage Story

This is another heavy-dialogue-difficult-family film as Scarlett Johansson and Adam Driver are experiencing their marriage fall apart. I think both of those actors are generally pretty good but they each deliver really superb performances in this move. I expect both will get multiple award nominations. The story itself is well told, offering both sides of a marriage destined to end. Go see this one because Johansson and Driver are really, really fantastic.

 

ANOTHER BRIEF INTERMISSION TO ENJOY A BIT OF VERY COOL ART

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  1. Qiqiu (Balloon)

This film from Tibet tells a story of a family dealing with the (now revised) one child law imposed for many years by the Chinese government. The family struggles balancing the law with their religion and with their economic needs in a story that is both funny and touching. It is beautifully filmed and the performances are authentic and believable. If this film gets any help with international distribution, it will screen at art house cinemas. Go see it if you are lucky enough to have it come to your town. This is a truly excellent movie.

 

 

 

And the best movie I saw last week at the 76th Annual Venice Film Festival…

 

  1. Bik Eneich (A Son)

“A Son” is a marvelous Tunisian movie. A 10-year old boy needs a blood transfusion and liver transplant after he and his parents are caught in the crossfire of a terrorist attack. A very dark family secret is revealed and the parents are left to deal with law, religion, paradoxical rules in a rapidly changing society and their own past mistakes. A remarkable story, superb performances by everyone in the cast and simply stunning filming add up to a near-masterpiece of cinema.  In the 20-plus years I have been attending the Venice Film Festival, this movie earned what is possibly the longest standing ovation I have seen. I expect this movie will win many awards and score wide international distribution.

See it. Maybe see it twice, as it is that good.

 

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I Did it Again! Venice Film Festival part 3

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This is my third and final review of movies I saw at this year’s Venice Film Festival. I have saved the best for last. Of the 18 movies I watched (don’t get excited, 14 of them were short films – each only about 8 to 12 minutes long), this was by far the best. I am not alone in that thinking, this movie scored Best Director and Best Actor honors by the jury at the festival. I am pretty sure it will also get some Oscar buzz as a nominee for Best Foreign Film. And I would not be surprised if a Best Supporting Actor nomination happens, as well.

“Bedoune Tarikh, Bedoune Emza”

That translates to “No Date, No Signature.”  Directed by Vahid Jalilvand.

This is an Iranian film and I loved every aspect of it. The synopsis from the Venice Film Festival catalog reads: “The forensic pathologist Dr. Nariman, a principled and virtuous man, has an accident with a motorcyclist and his family, and injures the 8-year old son. He pays compensation and offers to take the child to the clinic nearby, but the family declines. The next morning, he finds the same little boy has been brought in for an autopsy. Dr. Nariman faces a dilemma now: is he responsible for the child’s death due to the accident or did the boy die due to food poisoning according to the other doctor’s diagnosis?”

More to the story: the boy’s father had been buying cheap chicken for his family from the local slaughterhouse, and that did cause food poisoning in the child. The boy’s father, frantic and distraught, goes to the slaughterhouse and confronts the man who illegally sold him the bad chickens. That man later dies in the hospital so the father is arrested and charged with murder.

Now what does the good doctor do?  A moral dilemma, for sure, and a really terrific, tightly written story.

Excellent camera work throughout this nail biter really brings home the mood of despair and confusion of the characters.

Finally, absolutely superb performances by Amir Aghaee (Dr. Nariman), Navid Mohammadzadeh (the father), and Alireza Ostadi (the mother). All told, this is a really superior movie. If it comes to a cinema near you – GO SEE IT!

Until Next Year.

 

 

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I Did it Again! (Venice Film Festival part 2)

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This time I’ll talk about the disappointing movies I saw at the Venice Film Festival two weeks ago. I don’t like to dwell on negatives, so promise to be brief.

In the meantime, the pictures I have included in this post are shots of various pieces of graffiti I have found in Venice.

 

 

 

 

 

Normally I love short films. Unfortunately, unless you live near an art-house cinema they can be hard to find. One of my favorite features of this terrific film festival is access to many, many shorts. This year I watched 14 of them but I was not impressed. Here is a list (title, country where it was made, director’s name).

By The Pool, Lithuania, Laurynas Bareisa

Aria, Greece, Myrsini Aristidou

Tierra Mojada, Columbia, Jaun Sebastian Mesa Bedoya

Mon Amour Mon Ami, Italy, Adriano Valerio

It’s Easier to Raise Cattle, Malaysia, Amanda Nell Eu

The Knife Salesman, Australia, Michael Leonard

8th Continent, Greece, Yorgos Zois

Astrometal, Greece, Efthimis Sanidis

L’ombra della Sposa, Italy, Alessandra Pescetta

Ant Killers, Brazil, Joao Maria

Gros Chagrin, France, Celine Devaux

Himinn Opinn, Iceland, Gabriel Sanson

Death of the Soundman, Thailand, Sorayos Prapapan

Futuro Prossimo, Italy, Salvatore Mereu

 

 

 

 

 

 

My friends appreciated “L’ombra della Sposa” citing the special effects and the artistic filming. The dialog is a poem written to pay homage to the victims of a boat that sank between mainland Italy and the island of Sicily during WWII. I felt it was over dramatic to the point I stopped feeling sympathy for those victims and just wished they would shut up. But that’s just me.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The one I liked most – or more accurately disliked the least – was “The Knife Salesman.” It was comical, dealing with a door-to-door knife salesman visiting a the home of a frustrated housewife and mother. Plenty of clever sexual innuendo to keep the story fresh and interesting.

All told, though, the shorts this year were less than mediocre.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I also saw “Into the Night,” part of honoring the great director John Landis (“Blues Brothers” “Animal House” “American Werewolf in London” etc.). Made in 1985, it starred Jeff Goldblum and Michele Pfeiffer, with cameo appearances by Dan Aykroyd, Paul Mazursky, David Bowie and many others. While it was fun to see those actors young again and there were some funny bits, the story was really pretty stupid. I never cared much for Goldblum as an actor and this movie gave me no reason to change that opinion. I do think Pfeiffer is quite good, but this had to have been one of her first big roles and she was just OK. Best part of “Into the Night” was the soundtrack that featured lots of songs performed by the late great B.B. King.

 

 

 

 

 

 

NEXT:

Part 3 (the last one!): The Best Movie I Saw

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I did it Again! The Venice Film Festival (part 1)

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As I do pretty much every year in late August – early September, I headed to Venice for the annual “Mostra Internazionale d’Arte Cinematographica” or Venice Film Festival. Over the last nearly 20 years I have attended, the festival has grown more glamorous (measured by the star power present), more important to the industry (measured by the number of big studio premiers), and more expensive (measured by violent wallet shrinkage). Nonetheless, as a film festival Venice continues to deliver.

I’ll be writing three separate posts about my experience this year. In them, I’ll add gratuitous pictures of Venice or of the food I ate while there. I do that not because it has anything to do with movies but because I get how lucky I am to live less than an hour away from that beautiful place.

In this, my first post, the focus is on the big release films I saw.

 

 

 

 

 

“DOWNSIZING” written and directed by Alexander Payne (best known for “Sideways”), starring Matt Damon, Kristen Wiig, Christoph Waltz, and Hong Chou.

This film deals with an interesting solution to global problems of overpopulation, depletion of resources, and environmental deterioration.  First, shrink people to about six inches tall, then set them up in Utopian societies where resources are plentiful and problems are few.

I rate the movie as pretty good.

Needless to say, the things that make humans interesting, irritating, endearing and – well, human – exist if we are six inches tall or six feet tall. Fortunately the story in “Downsizing” does not get preachy about social consciousness themes and sticks instead to the character traits (or flaws?) that make us who we are.

 

 

 

 

 

Technically, Payne has put together a proficient movie. The special effects that juxtapose downsized people into a full sized world are seamless and clever. Look for the delivery of full sized wedding rings to a small Matt Damon.

Damon and Waltz both give adequate performances. A disappointment to me was that Kristen Wiig is only on screen for maybe 10 minutes. Hong Chau, on the other hand, is terrific. She has a great role and simply nails it. I predict she’ll earn a well-deserved Oscar nomination. She really carries the movie.

Again, pretty good.

 

 

 

 

 

“LEAN ON PETE” directed by Andrew Haigh, starring Charlie Plummer, Steve Buscemi, Chloe Sevigney, Steve Zahn.

This is a film about a 15 year old boy (Plummer) who wants a home, some food, and to be on his High School football team. Stability is hard to find though, and he ends up taking a summer job with a washed-up horse trainer (Buscemi). He befriends a kind jockey (Sevigney) and a failing race horse named Lean on Pete. Based upon the novel by Willy Vlautin, the story is about refusing to give up hope.

I also rate this one as pretty good.

The story is moving, at times difficult and at times tender, but never too sentimental or sappy. Director Haigh cites a John Steinbeck quote, “It is true that we are weak and sick and ugly and quarrelsome. But if that is all we ever were, we would millenniums ago have disappeared from the face of the earth.” I don’t know what that has to do with this movie, but if John Steinbeck said it, it is worth repeating, right?

The directing is good, but (not being a film maker) I don’t think it was too challenging – most of the film is short scenes with the boy talking either to an adult or to the horse.

As for acting, don’t get excited about seeing Steve Buscemi or Chloe Sevigney, or Steve Zahn. This is a movie for Charlie Plummer. I had not seen him in anything before, but have looked up his body of work and say this: he has really strong potential. For me, the young actor is not ready to take on a role where he is in every single scene, but he does indeed have talent. Look for him in a few years to be a big Hollywood star.

 

 

 

 

 

“OUR SOULS AT NIGHT” directed by Ritesh Batra, starring Robert Redford and Jane Fonda.

Two elderly folks living alone across the street from each other decide to hook up. Really.

I rate this as OK.

Let’s face it. The story does not matter, the directing does not matter. This is a vehicle for Redford and Fonda to once again light up the screen. They both have had extraordinary careers and have earned respect for their work.

The writing is too sentimental and sweet for my taste, almost saccharine. Nothing special about directing in this one, just point the camera at the two actors and stay out of their way. Of course these two have made a number of really terrific movies together, and I am happy to say they still have it. The chemistry between them works and you believe they care for each other. Their performances are very good indeed.

A friend of mine who saw it with me (widow, in her late 50’s) said she could relate to the need for companionship, so she liked the movie. Me (early 60’s, married), I think it isn’t much more than a sappy film with two great actors.

 

 

 

NEXT UP: what wasn’t very good…

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Three days at the annual Venice Film Festival is not enough.

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Truth is I catch this festival pretty much every year. Usually I am there for five or six days, but this time I had to cut it short. However, it was a pretty lucky three days as only one of the five films I saw was one I recommend you miss.

Fans line up early to catch a glimpse of stars on the red carpet.

Fans line up early to catch a glimpse of stars on the red carpet.

Before I get to my comments on those movies, there are three new discoveries to mention.

First, (almost) affordable accommodation is becoming more and more common in Venice. You can find decent apartments through many of the on-line services such as Booking.com or Tripadvisor.com. We found ours through Booking. It’s on the island called Giudecca, so it is spared the mass of tourists. The place was called Approdo and it was pretty nice. Good location, easy access to water bus lines, and it was clean. The kitchen was missing a can opener and a cheese grater (in Italy!) but other than that, everything was good.

Second, not far from the apartment we found a ristorante/pizzeria called “da Sandro” (Calle Michelangelo 53/C). Very good, but don’t order their prosecco. Sandro and his wife were very nice and the food quite good.

The pizza at "da Sandro" is very, very good!

The pizza at “da Sandro” is very, very good!

 

Finally, on the island of Lido, where the films are shown, we found a vegetarian restaurant called Bio Sound System. I know, weird name, but it is a vegetarian/vegan restaurant with a real chef in the kitchen. Wide assortment of dishes, three of which we tried, all excellent. Even if you are not vegetarian, this place is worth it.

A true vegetarian/vegan restaurant on Lido island. YUM!

A true vegetarian/vegan restaurant on Lido island. YUM!

 

OK. Now let’s talk about the films. They are listed in the order I saw them.

Sobytie (The Event)

This is a Russian documentary about the failed coup attempt in 1991. The film is all archive footage taken over the course of a week in August of that year. Since there was very little explanation or back story, I was compelled to research the event after watching the film. But the documentary is a terrific testimony to the strength of a unified population and the real power of democracy. It is the kind of movie you’ll find only in art house cinema and it is worth the effort to go find it.

Black Mass

This is the new Johnny Depp film. I was a little disappointed. It ended up being a typical gangster movie: lots of F-bombs, lots of blood splattering against walls and windows, inept cops, psychopath gangsters. This one is different because it is based on a true story — the life of James “Whitey” Bulger, the notorious Boston mob boss in the 1980’s. Johnny Depp is usually terrific, but he’s done this kind of part before and seemed uninspired. Ladies, he put on weight for this movie, cut his hair, messed up his teeth and looks nothing like the Johnny Depp you want. Still, if you like gangster movies go see it.

Janis: Little Girl Blue

A fantastic documentary directed by Amy Berg that tells the story of Janis Joplin’s rise to and fall from fame. Let me put it this way, this was a documentary movie, and after it was done the audience gave the director a ten minute standing ovation. She deserved it. Go see it.

Soory about the quality of this pic. It is director Amy Berg during a ten-minute standing ovation.

Sorry about the quality of this pic. It is director Amy Berg during a ten-minute standing ovation.

L’attesa (The Wait)

An Italian movie shot in a beautiful villa in Sicily. Painfully slow story, plenty of very nice, artistic camera shots that had nothing to do with the story, many scenes with actresses staring off into the distance with a blank look. Really, not a good movie at all. Do not bother.

Pecore in Erba (Sheep in the Grass)

Another Italian movie, this one a “mockumentary” that satirizes intolerance, bigotry, and senseless hatred. Many references to Italian popular culture and cameo appearances by Italian celebrities and news people. Funny and moving and poignant. Yes, there is a pretty obvious message but it is delivered in a clever and witty film.

 

 

Another successful visit to Venice. Aaahhh

Another successful visit to Venice. Aaahhh

All in all, I consider the last three days a successful, but too short visit to the Film Festival.