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VENICE 2008 Opening

Festival opens with de Oliveira and the Coens

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At just over 24 hours before the official opening of the Venice Film Festival (tomorrow evening, with the screening of Burn After Reading by Joel and Ethan Coen), the there large golden lions created by Dante Ferretti are already in place and guarding over the historical Palazzo del Cinema. The most imposing, five meters talls, symbolizes the world’s oldest festival. The other two, a bit smaller, represent future editions and will soon watch over not just the few (and inadequate) existing structures, but also a new Palazzo del Cinema, the first stone of which will be set this year, and should be ready by 2011.

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Meanwhile, everything is ready for tomorrow night’s opening: the mistress of ceremonies will be Russian actress Ksenia Rappaport, at home in Italy where she won the David di Donatello for The Unknown [+see also:
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by Giuseppe Tornatore. The night’s guests include the stars of the Coen’s film – Brad Pitt, George Clooney and John Malkovich – as well as Manoel de Oliveira, who will present his latest short film by, significantly entitled Do Visível ao Invisível.

Another maestro, Ermanno Olmi (who on September 5 will receive the Career Lion), will be the subject of a pre-inauguration tribute tonight, with the screening – not on the Lido but on the beautiful Campo San Polo – of The Legend of the Holy Drinker, which won the festival 20 years ago.

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(Translated from Italian)

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