14th September -2nd November 2008
The 11th International Architecture Exhibition started last Sunday 14th september and this year the Biennale, rather than proposing us a series of relief models, tries to make us understand the visions of architects. Starting from the presupposition, already explained several times by the manager of such sector, Aaron Betsky, that buildings are frequently unattractive and sad, it has been decided, thus, to focus people’s attention on the meeting between imagination and the real essence of architecture. In fact it represents a field of study which not only puts up buildings, but it gives life to the environment surrounding us, namely the environment immediately near us and the one involving our social life.
The Architecture Biennale has been, thus, transformed into something looking like the Art Biennale (with lots of naked models capturing everybody’s attention!): most of the installations are frequently interactive, thus immediately drawing the visitors’ attention, and they are

29th August 2008

We expected to see Charlize Teron and Kim Basinger too – taking part, today, in the Film Festival with ‘The Burning Plain’ – at the sparkling soirée that last night involved two exceptional Venetian locations, namely the Theatre La Fenice and the Peggy Guggenheim Collection, the first one prepared for the presentation of the documentary ‘The last emperor’ and the second one for the Party in honour of Valentino, doubly celebrated: in a film and in his real life. On the contrary none of them was present, though there were actually some celebrities: Eva Herzigova, Eva Riccobono, Liz Hurley, Diane Kruger, the young Carolina Crescentini, Afef, Eliana Miglio, Gaia Bermani Amaral, the icon Elsa Martinelli, Matteo Marzotto and Lapo Elkann. After standing ovation welcoming Valentino at the Sala Grande at Lido, yesterday afternoon many more applauses at the Theatre La Fenice, where in the foyer for this occasion a retrospective exhibition with thirty creations of the maison has been organized. And after the Fenice everybody was invited to Ca’Corner dei Leoni, namely the place of the Peggy Guggenheim Collection, where Vanity Fair and Vogue Italia offered the stylist a great party with one thousand candles illuminating the garden and the terrace, as well as flowery decorations and waiters in dark blue uniforms.
Charlize Teron, instead, delighted people with her presence and all her amazing beauty this morning at Lido; she wore a wonderful fuchsia dress. She presents her competing film ‘The Burning Plain’ by Gulliermo Arriaga, the scriptwriter of Inarritu, who has worked as a film director for the first time. C. Teron, besides being, with Kim Basinger, one of the protagonists, is also the producer of this intense and dramatic film developed on more temporal and spatial levels and dealing with four stories that, like the film director has explained today during a press conference, are based on the main natural elements: fire, air, earth and water. Her interpretation is perfect, showing once more that besides being very beautiful, she is very good too, and the film too has won a deep emotion and the applauses of the public of critics and journalists of this morning.

Tania Danieli

28th august 2008
Yesterday Manoel De Oliveira, who is now centenarian, started the opening Ceremony of the 65th Venice Film Festival in front of a worshipping public who stood applauding Venice – 65th International Film Festival. As the opening ceremony his great work in the cinematographic world.
Soon afterwards the new masterpiece of the Coen Brothers was projected, still they, not being satisfied with the three Oscars they had just won with ‘It is not a country for the old’, present their ‘Burning after reading’, completely changing genre: it is an irreverent bitter and cynical comedy lining up a stellar cast, namely stars bound to become unexpectedly grotesque as they are placed in nearly surrealistic situations. Just not long beforehand, these actors, and particularly Brad Pitt and George Clooney, literally had sent into a frenzy the crown who had been crouched down since the morning out of the Palazzo del Cinema, in order to get their autographs. The Festival has given us a sparkling opening and looks like very interesting despite the fact that there will not be many great stars from Hollywood next days and in spite of the arguments about the temporal closeness to the Rome Festival and Toronto’s one, which represents, according to everybody, the fact causing the shortage of presences. Anyway the programme is rich in films by famous directors, such as ‘Akires to kame’ by Takeshi Kitano, ‘The Perfect Day’ by Opzetek and ‘The

27th August 2008
The 65th International Film Festival started yesterday (one day in advance compared to the official date) with the arrival of prominent international film stars. George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Tilda Swinton, John Malkovic and the Coen Brothers, respectively actors and directors of the film opening the festival, ‘Burn after reading’, have been among the 120 hosts taking part in the Party organized at the Granai of Giudecca. The Charity event has been arranged by Manuele Malenotti by Belstaff together with the Noow (Not on our watch) Foundation, created by Pitt and Clooney themselves with Matt Damon, that will gather funds for the starving people in Darfur. There were also Angelina Jolie, Ksenia Rappoport, Valeria Golino and Riccardo Scamarcio, Wim Wenders and Lola Ponce who also sang the opening phases of a song for her boyfriend, namely Belstaff’s patron, and precisely ‘Malenotti no’.
Tonight the actors of the new long-awaited film by the Coen Brothers are going to take part in the real Inauguration Ceremony at the Palazzo del Cinema, before the projection of ‘Burn after reading’ at the Sala Grande and then they will be present at the great Party organized, like every year, on the Terrace along the Beach (which has been built just for such event) of the Westin Excelsior Hotel.

Monday September 1st will see Natalie Portman cutting the ribbon for the Corto Cortissimo section, the international competition of Short Films at the 65th Venice Film Festival.
Eve, the directorial debut by the young American actress (Queen Padmé Amidala in Star Wars, and star of films including Léon, Closer, V for Vendetta, The Darjeeling Limited), will open – out of competition – the first of three programmes of the line-up curated by Stefano Martina, in cooperation with Giuliana La Volpe. Featuring two icons of American cinema in the shape of Lauren Bacall and Ben Gazzara, who have lent their gloriously-lined features and talent to a civilised comedy on the third age fuelled by amorous dalliances, Portman’s film is, however, just the first of many American productions selected this year. Among these is The Butcher’s Shop, a melange of cinema and video-art and a refined rereading of a famous canvas by the 14th century painter Annibale Carracci, directed by the veteran Philip Haas (Up at the Villa, Angels and Insects), the Kammerspiel co-directed by the Italians Giacomo Gatti and Francesco Carrozzini 1937, entirely set in the notorious Chelsea Hotel in New York, and – as the closing film, also out of competition – Jarred by Martin Gaiss.

runs 2 to 18 October 2008

77 composers and 34 concerts performed by 13 leading ensembles –instrumental and vocal– 3 orchestras, 8 solists, and meetings, seminars, workshops to form a rich, packed programme for the 52nd International Festival of Contemporary Music, to be held in Venice between the 2nd and 18th October 2008.
Roots / Future, the title chosen for the Festival by the new director, Luca Francesconi, is the underlying theme of the “tale” that unfolds through the concerts planned. In each of them, the roots co-exist with the future: young composers or from the mid-generation, whether newcomers or established, appear alongside some great masters who have left their mark on 20th-century music and beyond, in a series of references multiplying the meanings and offering new significance to the works presented.
For Francesconi,  Roots / Future means “reflecting about that which has left a trace, starting with the young

August 27 – September 6 2008

The following jurors have been nominated to join president Wim Wenders on the International Jury for the Competition of the 65th Venice Film Festival, directed by Marco Müller and organized by the Biennale di Venezia.
They are Russian screenwriter Juriy Arabov, a significant voice in contemporary Russian cinema; Italian actress Valeria Golino, the winner of the Coppa Volpi in Venice at the early age of twenty, and one of the most beloved Italian actresses abroad; British visual artist Douglas Gordon(photo), internationally renowned and acknowledged by major artistic institutions throughout the world; American cult filmmaker John Landis, who experiments in virtually every film genre with a scathing, satirical point of view; young director Lucrecia Martel, the most significant female voice in New Argentine Cinema; and Hong Kong director Johnnie To, representing the best contemporary Asian cinema and who has featured prominently in the recent history of the Venice Film Festival.
On September 6th, the closing night of the Festival, the Venice 65 International Jury will award the following prizes to the feature-length films in competition: the Golden Lion for Best Film, the Silver Lion for Best Director, the Special Jury Prize, the Coppa