Venice Film Festival 1.2
Initial reactions, politics and controversy, transportation, food and drink, and Italians.
(Above: patio area with the only meals available, aka the watering hole of the Venice Film Festival.)
Ciao ragazzi,
This is the second of the big three Euro-film festivals I’ve visited this year. A first time for both this and Berlin, neither disappointing. Whereas one expects Berlinale to be political, and Cannes to be glamorous and sales-heavy, Venice scoots in between as the oldest to close out the Summer. It also takes place in a city, not a metropolis or seaside resort—although it certainly contains some of the worst qualities (tourists/high prices) of both.
What makes the Venice film festival more glamour-heavy is its location on the Lido, a thin-strip to the east of Venice’s main islands that caters well to five-star hotels and private water taxis. It has the only beaches Venetians and visitors can use, which works well for getting those kinds of publicity photos, but doesn’t offer a hostel.
Sitting at the end of Summer and beginning of Fall, it helps kick of the awards season along with Toronto and Telluride. Therefore, and this being a European festival, Venice offers everything from Hollywood films to someday indie classics. Last year Poor Things won the top award, the Golden Lion, as well as five Oscars, and this year it’s premiering Kevin Costner’s sequel to Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1, called Horizon: An American Saga - Chapter 2. (We all remember how well last year went with all the hyphens and dashes and sequel threats with Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part…
As this is barely 48 hours into my festival experience, I will first offer some basic initial reactions to the events before reviews.
Politics and Controversy
They don’t have time for either at Venice (besides from a puffed-up hit piece about press not getting enough access to A-listers; if only Brad Pitt could answer more lousy questions). Initial speculations were that Giorgia Meloni would try to veer the festival rightward as Mussolini did with great skill back in the day. But that didn’t happen. I haven’t seen anything about wars or genocides or threats from blackshirt hoodlums. That’s the sweet spot for Venice: not as prestigious as Cannes attention-wise and not obligated to pretend being political like Berlinale. As always, the politics should, and are, in the films, which the public rightly gets to decide upon.
I had heard that the one Israeli co-production in the competition (idk if that’s true but don’t want to check), Why War, had most of its audience leave in the first few minutes as it depicts Israeli victims of war (lol). Yet again, and forever more, the audience decides what comes and goes. No Palestinian films are in the festival as far as I know (or Russian films, where they’re now only depicted as the militarized baddies in artificially boosted Ukrainian films). There was a looong 206-minute documentary titled Israel Palestina on Swedish TV 1958-1989, which depicts the decades long conflict (and genocidal beginnings) against Palestinians using on-the-ground footage from Swedish TV. Well received on Letterboxd but was under-seen given its runtime and two-day playtime.
Transportation
When I first moved abroad, I thought it was weird that cars were almost entirely useless in places like Munich and Berlin. But that didn’t prepare me for taking at minimum four water buses each day. Because of Lido’s location, many attendees stand in line for fifteen minutes to an hour, day and night, to get can-sardined to and from San Marco. The distances are such (no more than 15-20 minutes on the boat) that my seasickness can’t kick in, quindi va bene. (Italians hit me up if you offer free translation/editing services so that I can spice things up.)
Also, one doesn’t walk in the land of la dolce vita, one strolls along the canals and walkways because streets and sidewalks don’t really exist. I feel like an asshole speeding past people to save seven seconds, which is necessary in a big city but not here.
Cinemas
Because the area around the Palazzo del Casinò was practically made for the festival, the cinemas are huge and nice, most within walking distance of one another after hopping off the specially designated Lido Casinò water bus route. I’ve only attended four out of the fifteen or so venues, therefore, much more to see.
A note on press screenings: even with a healthy balance of old people and younger Italians, the Boomers have a hard time not checking their phones during these screenings; and the ushers blast them with laser pointers when they do.
Food & Drink
Pastries, sandwiches, pasta is the daily order with Aperols and espressos everywhere in between. Because of the resort-compound nature of Lido, they hold a tight, monopolistic grip on our dietary consumption, which is pricy. But, when the options are those listed above, non c'è problema. I’ll have to venture outside the compound, somewhere around my hostel, for fresh seafood, which I’ll do soon. (I did right after writing this, fresh fried seafood and black squid ink pasta!)
Italians
There are lots of them here, naturally beautiful and well-dressed (or at least more than the Americans and Germans I’ve resided near). I asked around, and most Italians had some kind of pass that allowed under-28s the chance to attend. Keep it in the family and such. But as with most places in southern Europe close to water, there are also many, many Brits…
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