25/07/2022 - The film, based on a novel by Don DeLillo and starring Adam Driver and Greta Gerwig, will be in competition on the Lido

The opening film of the 79th Venice International Film Festival (31 August - 10 September) will be White Noise, written and directed by Noah Baumbach. The New York-based director, screenwriter and producer, author of Frances Ha, Mistress America and The Meyerowitz Stories among others, returns to the Lido after presenting Marriage Story there in 2019. Starring in his new film are Adam Driver, Greta Gerwig, Don Cheadle, Raffey Cassidy, Sam Nivola, May Nivola, Jodie Turner-Smith, André L Benjamin and Lars Edinger.

Based on the novel by don DeLillo, White Noise chronicles the attempts of a contemporary American family to confront the mundane conflicts of daily life, while grappling with the universal mysteries of love, death, and the possibility of happiness in an uncertain world. The film promises to be “at once hilarious and terrifying, lyrical and absurd, ordinary and apocalyptic.”

“Baumbach has made a work that is original, ambitious and compelling, which plays with measure on multiple registers: dramatic, ironic and satirical,” argues Alberto Barbera, director of the Venice Film Festival. “The result is a film that examines our obsessions, doubts and fears, as captured in the 1980’s, yet with very clear references to contemporary reality.”

“It is a truly wonderful thing to return to the Venice Film Festival,” declares Noah Baumbach, “and an incredible honor to have White Noise play as the opening night film. This is a place that loves cinema so much, and it’s a thrill and a privilege to join the amazing films and filmmakers that have premiered here.”

Produced by Baumbach himself with David Heyman and Uri Singer, White Noise will be distributed by Netflix. In Venice, it will be screened on Wednesday 31 August in the Sala Grande of the Palazzo del Cinema on the Lido.

(Translated from Italian)