Ninth day at the Venice Film Festival increasingly rich with interesting films with Dupieux’s Salvador Dalí, the transfigured Rome of “Amor” and Giorgio Diritti’s first time at the Lido. September 7 is also the day of A Dress for Venice and the Ciak party
The atmosphere at the Venice Lido, as often happens in the second week of the Festival, has become slightly calmer but the offering of films and events for those who have decided to stay has not diminished. We tell you what there is to see today, September 7, 2023, hoping to have you as our guests at the Hotel Excelsior for the presentation of A Dress in Venice, an initiative conceived by Venezia da Vivere.
Giorgio Diritti’s first time in the lagoon
Director Giorgio Diritti, winner of the David di Donatello for Volevo Nascondermi, is in Competition at Venice for the first time with Lubo, the story of a Jenisch street artist called to arms by the Swiss army to defend the confederation from the risk of a Nazi invasion in 1939. Upon his return, he will discover that his three children have been taken away by the National Re-education Program for street children, and that his wife was killed while trying to prevent it. Thus begins his battle to obtain justice, for himself and for all others like him.
The story, inspired by the novel Il seminatore by Mario Cavatore (Einaudi 2004), offers the director the opportunity to tell how “insane principles and discriminatory laws generate an evil that spreads like an oil stain over time, penetrating the lives of men, modifying their paths, their values, generating pain, anger, violence, ambiguity.”
Quentin Dupieux’s madness meets Dalí’s world
Perhaps one of the most anticipated films by our team, Out of Competition, is Daaaaaali! by Quentin Dupieux with a truly remarkable cast of French actors.
On screen we see Pierre Niney (Frantz, Yves Saint Laurent), Anaïs Demoustier, Gilles Lellouche (7 uomini a mollo), Édouard Baer, Jonathan Cohen (whom we saw at the Festival among the protagonists of Making of), Pio Marmaï, Didier Flamand and Romain Duris (I tre moschettieri).
The film tells of a young French journalist who repeatedly meets Salvador Dalí for a documentary project whose filming, however, never begins…
The director of Mandibules reconstructs Dalí’s complex personality by entrusting its interpretation to different actors, promising to bring something unexpected to the screen. In the coming days we will share our impressions.
Also Out of Competition is Amor by Virginia Eleuteri Serpieri, which will instead take the audience to a Rome probably somewhat different from the one seen in recent days in the films by Sollima and Castellito.
It is July 12, 1998 and Rome is deserted because the World Cup final is underway, and Teresa chooses this evening to decide to end it all by throwing herself into the Tiber. Her daughter Virginia in the darkness of night crosses this empty city in search of her. She will see her mother emerge from the river to reach “Amor,” a place that resembles Rome with waters and fountains, but where animals are free to roam and where everyone “takes care of one another, unconditionally.”
Stories of adolescents
Although Diritti’s is probably the most anticipated, the first film in Competition of the day is Holly by the Dutch director Fien Troch.
It tells the story of a fifteen-year-old girl who escaped, almost by premonition, a serious fire that struck her school, causing numerous victims and devastating the life of the local community. The young woman will be involved by teacher Anna in providing psychological support to the survivors, thanks to Holly’s innate ability to convey tranquility and hope.
The director stated that she wanted to create “a schizophrenic film experience by combining the pain with the madness of the characters and situations, which manifests itself through the rhythm of the narrative,” at first slow then increasingly chaotic and frantic. Daughter of a celebrated editor who won the César, Fien Troch won the directing award in the Orizzonti section in 2016.
And adolescents are also the subject of the two films presented today in the Orizzonti section. The first is Paradiset Brinner (Paradise Is Burning) by Swedish director Mika Gustafson, which, according to the director herself, is “a declaration of love to sisterhood.”
It is the story of four sisters who, in order not to be placed in foster care by social services, and probably separated, seek someone who can pretend to be their mother.
Gasoline Rainbow by Bill Ross and Turner Ross is instead the story of five teenagers from Oregon who, aboard a ramshackle van, try to reach the Pacific coast.
The directors recounted developing the project during lockdown. “With a folder of notes and ideas and five first-time actors, we launched into a great adventure… an impromptu self-portrait of the new generation.”
The other films of the day
Also for Orizzonti, the short films in Competition will be presented: A Short Trip by Erenik Beqiri, Dive by Aldo Iuliano, Wander to Wonder by Nina Gantz, Dar Saaye Sarv (In the Shadow of the Cypress) by Hossein Molayemi and Shirin Sohani, Sentimental Stories by Xandra Popescu and Aitana by Marina Alberti.
Out of Competition, also in Orizzonti, the short film Welcome to Paradise by the director of Ariaferma Leonardo Di Costanzo with Marta Cammi, Sofiane Bahari and Giorgia Restelli will be presented.
Orizzonti Extra presents Bota jonë (Phantom Youth) by Albanian director Luàna Bajrami, a film set in Kosovo in 2007, eight years after the end of the war. It is yet another film this year that reflects on the consequences of war, in this case seen through the eyes of two young people who move to Pristina to attend university.
For Critics’ Week, Las memorias perdidas de los árboles (The Lost Memories of Trees) by Antonio La Camera and Malqueridas by Tana Gilbert will be presented.
For Venice Days, To kalokairi tis karmen (The Summer with Carmen) by Zacharias Mavroeidis will be presented.
Finally, for Venice Classics, it will be the turn of the restored version of King and Country by Joseph Losey and that of the Iranian Saaz Dahani (Harmonica) by Amir Naderi and the documentary Un’altra Italia era possibile, il cinema di Giuseppe De Santis (Giuseppe De Santis – The Artist, the Man) by Steve Della Casa.
We remind you that today at 12:30 PM in the Veneto Region hall at the Hotel Excelsior Elena Donazzan, Councillor for education, training, employment and equal opportunities will present the third edition of A Dress For Venice with the creators Laura Scarpa and Lorenzo Cinotti of Venezia da Vivere.
The project that connects designers, artisans and sustainable innovation will also debut on the Red Carpet, with a dress worn by actress Margot Sikabonyi (Bocche Inutili, Boris, I cesaroni) and anticipates the Venice Fashion Week, an event dedicated to tailoring, craftsmanship and sustainable fashion in Venice, which this year celebrates 10 years and will take place from October 19 to 28, 2023.
This evening, finally, the Cartier terrace will host one of the unmissable events at the Film Festival, the party of Ciak magazine, which curates the Daily Magazine distributed every day here at the Lido and which brings together the most well-known faces of Italian cinema (and beyond) every year.
Article by Pietro Gallina of veneziacinema.com.
The photos from September 7, 2023 are by Igor Serdyukov and Rossana Viola.
