News from Italy
Venice Film Festival 2023: notes from the world of fairy tales
Vita gazette – Venice Film Festival 2023 at the start with the film Comandante and Leone a Cavani. Liliana Cavani, the Modenese director, collected the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement with the movie Out of Competition, The Order of Time. The award also goes to Hong Kong actor Tony Leung Chiu-wai.
The Venice Film Festival, like every year, will take place on the Venice Lido from 30 August to 9 September 2023. The Festival aims to promote the dissemination of international cinema in all its art, entertainment and industry forms. The 80th edition of the Venice Film Festival officially kicked off with the opening red carpet, with Caterina Murino as godmother. Opening the films in competition is Comandante, by Edoardo De Angelis. Today, the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement was awarded to the Italian director Liliana Cavani. The festival will continue until 9 September: 23 films in competition, 7 American, 6 Italian and ten from the rest of the world.
Gina Lollobrigida is the protagonist
The pre-opening of the 80th edition of the Venice Film Festival is dedicated to the extraordinary actress and diva who passed away on January 16 this year. The Biennale pays homage to one of the most loved film stars in Italy and .the world with two truly unmissable titles. In the Sala Darsena, on 29 August, the world premiere of Portrait of Gina (1958, 27’) by Orson Welles will be screened, in the version restored for the occasion by the Filmmuseum Munchen in collaboration with Cinecittà. In addition to the very rare documentary by the great American filmmaker, we will also see La provinciale by Mario Soldati, a feature film based on the homonymous novel by Alberto Moravia. This film is a world premiere in the version restored for the occasion by the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia-Cineteca Nazionale, in collaboration with Compass Film.
Cavani, the first woman to receive the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement: “I hope it’s just the beginning.”
Cavani commented on being the first woman to receive the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement: “It’s not entirely fair. Many women work in cinema as very good screenwriters and directors. I hope this is just a start.”
“Comandante” opens the Venice Film Festival
“Comandante” opens the Venice Film Festival; after. Perez (2014) and Indivisible (2016) Edoardo De Angelis returns to the Lido, this time competing for the Golden Lion with a feature film centred on Salvatore Todaro. The film, set during the Second World War, tells the story of Salvatore Todaro, at the head of the Cappellini submarine of the Regia Marina, who in 1940 saved the survivors of a Belgian ship, the Kabalo, which sank himself, to then lead them to a safe harbour.
The presenter of the competition
A significant figure in the Venice Film Festival is the godmother, the presenter of the competition, and the presenter of the participants and the films in the competition. During this edition, it will be the Italian actress Caterina Murino. The American director Damien Chazelle, the French director Alice Diop and the Italian director Jonas Carpignano are the three personalities called to preside over the international juries of Venice 80, of the Venice Opera Prima Prize “Luigi De Laurentiis” and of the Orizzonti section of the 80.
Malike Ayane at the Venice 80 opening ceremony
Malika Ayane performed at the opening ceremony of Venice 80 on the notes of Il cielo in una stanza by Gino Paoli.
Guests and prizes
Also known as the Venice Film Festival, the Mostra brings great films, world-famous actors and actresses to the competition. Sofia Coppola and Woody Allen are expected to return to this year’s edition. Not only that, the public can’t wait to discover the new pearl of Yorgos Lanthimos and to meet Hollywood stars such as Emma Stone, Jessica Chastain and Adam Driver. Among the expected guests is also Bradley Cooper, who will attend as director and actor of a film with an Italian title: Maestro. But not only that, among the film stars present, there will be Micky Rourke, Pierfrancesco Favino, Toni Servillo, Valerio Mastandrea and even George Clooney, with his wife Amal.
Salvini: “Excited and happy to be at the Venice Film Festival”
The Minister of Culture, Gennaro Sangiuliano and the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Infrastructure and Transport, Matteo Salvini, also arrived at the event. “I am excited and happy to be here at the Venice Film Festival”, said the leader of the League as he entered the Sala Grande of the Palazzo del Cinema to participate in the opening ceremony of Venice 80.
Films in Competition
- Wednesday, 30 August – Commander of Edoardo De Angelis with Pierfrancesco Favino (Italy)
- Thursday 31 August – El conde by Pablo Larraín with Jaime Vadell (Chile)
- Thursday 31 August – Michael Mann’s Ferrari with Adam Driver, Penélope Cruz (USA)
- Thursday 31 August – Dogman by Luc Besson with Caleb Landry Jones (France)
- Friday 1st September – Bastarden by Nikolaj Arcel with Mads Mikkelsen (Denmark, Germany, Sweden)
- Friday 1st September – Poor Creatures! by Yorgos Lanthimos with Emma Stone, Mark Ruffalo (Ireland)
- Friday 1st September – Finally the Dawn by Saverio Costanzo with Lily James, Rebecca Antonaci, Alba Rohrwacher, Willem Dafoe (Italy)
- Saturday 2 September – Adagio by Stefano Sollima with Pierfrancesco Favino, Toni Servillo, Valerio Mastandrea (Italy)
- Saturday 2 September – Master of Bradley Cooper with Carey Mulligan, Bradley Cooper, Matt Bomer, Maya Hawke (USA)
- Sunday 3 September – Die Theorie von Allem by Timm Kröger with Jan Bülow, Olivia Ross (Germany, Austria, Switzerland)
- Sunday 3 September – La Bête by Bertrand Bonello with Léa Seydoux (France, Canada)
- Sunday 3 September – The Killer by David Fincher with Michael Fassbender, Tilda Swinton (USA)
- Monday 4 September – Aku wa sonzaishinai (Evil does not exist) by Ryūsuke Hamaguchi with Hitoshi Omika (Japan)
- Monday 4 September – Priscilla by Sofia Coppola with Cailee Spaeny, Jacob Elordi (USA)
- Tuesday 5 September – Zielona granica (The green border) by Agnieszka Holland with Jalal Altawil (Czech Republic, Poland, Belgium)
- Tuesday 5 September – Aeneas by Pietro Castellitto with Pietro Castellitto and Benedetta Porcaroli (Italy)
- Wednesday, 6 September – I am captained by Matteo Garrone with Seydou Sarr, Moustapha Fall (Italy, France)
- Wednesday 6 September – Origin by Ava DuVernay with Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor, Jon Bernthal (USA)
- Thursday 7 September – Holly by Fien Troch (Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg, France)
- Thursday, 7 September – Lubo by Giorgio Rights with Franz Rogowski (Italy, Switzerland)
- Friday 8 September – Hors-Saison by Stéphane Brizé with Guillaume Canet and Alba Rohrwacher (France)
- Friday 8 September – Kobieta z… by Małgorzata Szumowska and Michał Englert with Małgorzata Hajewska-Krzysztofik (Poland, Sweden)
- Friday 8 September – Memory by Michel Franco with Jessica Chastain, Peter Sarsgaard (Mexico, USA)
Films Out of Competition – Fiction
- Wednesday, 30 August – The order of time by Liliana Cavani with Alessandro Gassmann Claudia Gerini (Italy, Belgium)
- Friday 1st September – The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar by Wes Anderson with Ralph Fiennes, Benedict Cumberbatch (United States of America)
- Saturday 2 September – The Palace by Roman Polański (Italy, Poland)
- Saturday 2 September – Aggro Dr1ft by Harmony Korine (USA)
- Sunday 3 September – The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial by William Friedkin (USA)
- Monday 4 September – Making Of by Cédric Kahn (France)
- Monday 4th September – The Penitent by Luca Barbareschi (Italy)
- Monday 4 September -Coup de chance by Woody Allen with Lou de Laâge, Valérie Lemercier (France, United Kingdom)
- Tuesday 5 September – Hit Man by Richard Linklater (USA)
- Wednesday 6 September – Xuěbào (The Snow Leopard) by Pema Tseden (China)
- Wednesday 6 September – Vivants by Alix Delaporte with Alice Isaaz, Roschdy Zem (France, Belgium)
- Thursday, 7 September – Dali! by Quentin Dupieux (France)
- Saturday 9 September – La Sociedad de la Nieve by Juan Antonio Bayona (Spain, Uruguay, Chile) – closing film
Films Out of Competition – Non fiction
- Thursday 31 August – Hollywoodgate by Ibrahim Nash’at (Germany, USA)
- Sunday 3 September – Menus plaisirs – Les Troisgros by Frederick Wiseman (France, USA)
- Tuesday 5 September – Ryūichi Sakamoto: Opus by Neo Sora (Japan)
- Tuesday 5 September – Front of Guernica by Yervant Gianikian and Angela Ricci Lucchi (Italy)
- Thursday 7 September – Amor by Virginia Eleuteri Serpieri (Italy, Lithuania)
- Friday 8 September – Enzo Jannacci I’m coming too by Giorgio Verdelli (Italy)