81st Venice Film Festival | Selected Excerpts

The 81^e The Venice Film Festival will take place from August 28 to September 7. Chaired by Isabelle Huppert, the jury will have to choose which of the 21 films will win the Golden Lion. With the writers’ and actors’ strike a thing of the past, the biggest international stars will walk the red carpet. A brief overview of a rich program.

Among the most anticipated

Presented out of competition, Tim Burton’s horror comedy starring Michael Keaton, Catherine O’Hara and Winona Ryder Beetlejuice Beetlejuice will have the honor of opening the Venice Film Festival. It will also be presented out of competition Wolfsby Jon Watts, where Brad Pitt and George Clooney compete in charm and humor as lone hitmen forced to team up.

Let us also note the return of Claude Lelouch with Eventuallya dramatic comedy in which a man (Kad Merad) leaves everything behind in a world that has become too crazy for him. The swan song of the director ofA man and a woman ? In addition, the French filmmaker will receive an honorary award for his entire career, like the American actress Sigourney Weaver and the Australian director Peter Weir.

On the official competition side, Babygirlby Halina Reijn, with Nicole Kidman, Joker: Madness for Twoby Todd Phillips, with Joaquin Phoenix and Lady Gaga, and The Brutalistby Brady Corbet, with Adrian Brody and Guy Pearce, are among the most anticipated films. Let us recall that the international jury is formed by James Gray, Andrew Haigh, Agnieszka Holland, Kleber Mendonça Filho, Abderrahmane Sissako, Giuseppe Tornatorre, Julia von Heinz and Zhang Ziyi.

Maria

The final part of the “ladies in high heels” trilogy by Chilean director Pablo Larraín, after Jackie And Spencerrespectively on Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy and Princess Diana, Maria traces Callas’s last days in Paris. In addition to the famous American singer of Greek origin, played by Angelina Jolie, this biographical drama set in Paris in the 1970s features her older sister Jackie (Valeria Golino), whose beauty she envied, and the wealthy shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis (Haluk Bilginer), the great love of her life, who left her to marry President Kennedy’s widow. In competition.

The Room Next Door

Pedro Almodóvar’s first feature film in English, The Room Next Door tells the story of the reunion between two women who met in their youth, when they were journalists for a magazine. Now a war photographer, Martha (Tilda Swinton) has just broken up with her daughter following a misunderstanding. At the same time, Ingrid (Julianne Moore), now a famous author of autofiction whose favorite subject is death, resurfaces from her past. In addition to having been Martha’s friend, Ingrid is also a close friend of Martha’s daughter; she therefore knows both versions of the facts. In competition.

Queer

Rumor has it that Luca Guadagnino had been dreaming of bringing William S. Burroughs’ novel to the screen since he was 20. Set in Mexico City in the early 1950s, Queer stars Daniel Craig as an American writer, Lee, who recounts his youthful memories to expatriate students, while scouring gay bars. One day, Lee meets the young Allerton (Drew Starkey) with whom he falls obsessively. Although Allerton rejects Lee’s advances, the two team up to find a hallucinogenic plant that would allow telepathic communication. Competing for the Golden Lion and the Queer Lion.

Why War (VO: Shikun)

As several protests against the Netanyahu government’s far-right policies were taking place, Amos Gitai was attending rehearsals for a stage adaptation of one of his films. Without hesitation, he gathered the cast, including French-Swiss actress Irene Jacob and Palestinian actress Bahira Ablassi, to join his voice to those of the protesters. Inspired by Rhinocerosan absurdist play by Eugène Ionesco set shortly before World War II, Israeli filmmaker Amos Gitai transposes the action into a shikun (social housing in Hebrew) in Tel Aviv, before the carnage of October 7, 2023. Presented out of competition.

Disclaimer

The Mostra is not just about cinema. It also presents television shows by great filmmakers, including Families Like Oursby Thomas Vinterberg, and Mr. The son of the secoloby Joe Wright. Not to mention Disclaimerby Alfonso Cuarón, where Cate Blanchett plays a documentary filmmaker who unearths the deepest secrets of the most respectable institutions. One day, while reading a novel, she discovers that she is one of the main characters. Worse still, the author (Kevin Kline) reveals something that she thought only she knew: his darkest secret. On Apple TV from October 11. Out of competition.

The Press will be at the Venice Film Festival for daily coverage starting August 29.