27/07/2006

Numbers talk at the 63rd Venice Film Festival. A total of 62 films will be presented across the festival’s three sections: the 21 titles in the main competition(Venice 63) are all, for the first time since WWII, world premieres, from 27 countries (compared with 18 last year) for an event that, once again confirms Venice’s identity as a “mostra” (exhibit) rather than a festival, as suggested by Artistic Director Marco Muller.

Strengthened by a renewed trust on the part of producers and sellers, the Venice Fest is presenting a high quality line-up that brings together the most important names of the international film landscape, ready as it is to tackle internal challenges, such as the fledgling Rome Film Festival (“Venice dialogues with the Rome Festival, we are open to working with them”, says Davide Croff, President of the Biennale, about the controversy of the last few months), as well as external ones, such as the international market.

Other events include two international forums ("European Films in the United States" and "Italian films in a Global Context", September 4 and 5, respectively) that offer the possibility of understanding and delving more deeply into audiovisual prospects; the retrospective "The Secret History of Russian Cinema"; centennial celebrations dedicated to Italian filmmakers Roberto Rossellini, Mario Soldati and Luchino Visconti; a retrospective on Joaquim Pedro de Andrade, father of Brazilian Cinema Novo; and the September 6 ceremony to present US director David Lynch with a Liftetime Achievement Golden Lion Award.

The festival will open its doors on August 30 with the screening of the first competition film, The Black Dahlia by Brian De Palma, and will close on September 9 with the new film by Russian Pavel Loungine, Ostrov.

Second only to the US and its 13 films, Italy leads the European countries with ten films, including Venice 63 competition titles The Missing Star by Gianni Amelio, The Golden Door [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Alexandre Mallet-Guy
interview: Charlotte Gainsbourg
interview: Emanuele Crialese
interview: Emanuele Crialese
interview: Fabrizio Mosca
film profile] by Emanuele Crialese, Quei loro incontri (lit. "Those Encounter of Theirs") by the Italian couple of French origin, Jean-Marie Straub and Danièle Huillet, as well as the out of competition return of Vittorio De Seta with Lettere dal Sahara (lit. "Letters From the Sahara").

Quality is the order of the day for four French films as well, two in competition (the much anticipated Private Fears in Public Places [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Alain Resnais and The Untouchable [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by Benoît Jacquot), the out of competition title Quelques jours en Septembre (lit. “A Few Days in September”) by Santiago Amigorena, and another in the Horizons section, C’est Gradiva qui vous appelle by Alain Robbe-Grillet.

There are also two interesting UK films: The Magic Flute [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Irish actor-director Kenneth Branagh, presented out of competition, and The Queen [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Andy Harries
interview: Stephen Frears
film profile] by Stephen Frears (in competition).

Of the other Europeans, Venice will welcome the great Portuguese director Manoel de Oliveira and his Belle toujours [+see also:
trailer
film profile], Spain’s Jaime Balaguerò with Para entrar a vivir (out of competition), Austria’s Barbara Albert with Fallen (competition), German filmmakers Edgar and Christian Reitz and their documentaryHeimat-Fragments (Horizons Doc) and, for the first time at the festival, a title from Cyprus: Akamas by Panicos Chrysanthou (Horizons).

(Translated from Italian)