De Hadeln

by Camillo De Marco

02/08/2002 - The new artistic director presents the 59th edition of the Venetian event: an exciting programme, ranging from experimental works to major productions

It will be a festival of variety and discovery. This is the promise of the new director of the Venice Film Festival, Moritz De Hadeln, who today presented the programme for the 59th edition of the event, which will take place from August 28 – September 8. De Hadeln was the director of the Berlin Festival for 22 years and at the last minute, in March, he received the Italian appointment: “It’s a miracle that we’ve put together a programme as interesting, rich and varied as this in just over 4 months”.
De Hadeln stressed the “painful choice” which led to the exclusion of certain films and has admitted that he’s taken some risks, announcing the films with a month to go before the opening of the festival: “Of all the films announced today which are confirmed as of now, some may not be available by the time the exhibition starts”.
The idea of the two parallel competitions has been maintained: Venezia 59 stays essentially for a more classic type of cinematographic language, whereas Controcorrente, is for more innovative works. Along with these two competitions, there’s also the Nuovi territory section and a retrospective dedicated to Michelangelo Antonioni.
De Hadeln is said to be especially happy that this year there’ll be 19 first works appearing in the various sections of the festival: “our wish is to help cinema to remain alive, also in the future”. Italian cinema is well represented, with three films in competition. European films include Dirty Pretty Things, by Stephen Frears (GB); Bear's Kiss by Sergej Bodrov (Germany, France, Spain, Italy and Sweden); Nackt by Doris Dörrie (Germany); L'homme du train by Patrice Leconte (France); Un viaggio chiamato amore by Michele Placido (Italy); Nha Fala by Flora Gomes (Portugal, France, Luxemburg).
The guests who’ve so far confirmed their attendance are Harrison Ford, Sofia Loren (who’s been absent from Venice for 20 years), Julianne Moore, Tom Hanks, Salma Hayek, Angelica Huston and Catherine Deneuve.