email print share on Facebook share on Twitter share on LinkedIn share on reddit pin on Pinterest

VENICE 2006 Opening

Deneuve: All the best for European cinema

by 

Catherine Deneuve, in Venice as the president of the festival’s international jury, wished "all of European cinema" all the best.

Upon her arrival on the Lido, the star of Luis Buñuel’s Golden Lion-winning, 1967 film Belle du jour, said that her most beautiful memory of Venice were the first steps her daughter Chiara, who she had with Marcello Mastroianni, took in Piazza San Marco.

The festival will open with Brian De Palma’s highly anticipated The Black Dahlia. Based on the eponymous noir novel by James Ellroy, the film’s stellar cast includes Scarlett Johansson and two-time Oscar winner Hilary Swank.

(The article continues below - Commercial information)

De Palma is hoping for favourable reviews that would give his film the endorsement necessary for next year’s Oscars. Hollywood critics say they have not seen many films worthy of winning February’s Academy Awards so far, thus Venice and Toronto are important testing grounds.

The festival, whose competition this year features only world premieres, has a more than respectable selection: 62 feature films (chosen from 1,429) in the three main sections alone. Besides De Palma’s film, other anticipated titles include The Missing Star [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
by Gianni Amelio, ensemble piece Infamous by Douglas McGrath, Children of Men by Alfonso Cuarón, Public Fears in Private Places [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
by master French filmmaker Alain Resnais, The Devil Wears Prada with Meryl Streep, Inland Empire by David Lynch (who will receive a Career Lion), and World Trade Center by Oliver Stone.

There will be retrospectives to Russian cinema, Luchino Visconti, Mario Soldati and Roberto Rossellini. Of the independent sections, Critics Week will present Italian title La rieducazione (lit. “Re-Education”), a unique debut film made by a collective of very young directors on a mere €500 budget.

(The article continues below - Commercial information)

(Translated from Italian)

Did you enjoy reading this article? Please subscribe to our newsletter to receive more stories like this directly in your inbox.

Privacy Policy