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.
20th August 2008
According to yesterday’s Il Gazzettino, namely the remarkable local newspaper, the inaugurating ceremony of Calatrava’s Bridge, or the fourth on the Canal Grande, is just a matter of few weeks. The attestation of work-end is dated 30th June and during the latest month in the builder’s yard, workers are just arranging some important details. Still there is not only the confirmation by the Quirinale about the presence, on 18th September, of the President of the Italian Republic Giorgio Napolitano for the official inaugurating ceremony. Should the Italian President assure his presence, he might find himself in the embarrassing situation of inaugurating a nameless bridge. Such debate, as far as we know, is still open. The potential names could be ‘Santa Lucia’s Bridge’, deriving from the church that used to stand out there and that was demolished for the building of the railway station, or ‘ St.Chiara’s Bridge’, named after the ancient convent on the other side of the canal. In short, it seems that the bridge
1st – 5th September 2008
A nice black cat gets on a tram in Mestre in order to reach Venice and after catching a water-bus it flies away becoming a winged lion, namely the symbol of the town.
We are proposing here the still unknown video which will be the signature tune for the opening of the Venice Film Meeting, representing the exhibition of Venetian productions, that will be on set during the Film Festival, from 1st to 5th September, at the Multisala Astra in Lido. Created by the young Venetian graphic designer and illustrator Lucio Schiavon, this cartoon will accompany about fifty film titles selected by Roberto Ellero and Noemi Battistuzzo for the fifth edition of the Venetian exhibition, realized in order to promote the spreading of the audiovisual production of the town during the days celebrating the ancient Venetian cinematographic art.
An unprecedented display, with a centrepiece of three Golden Lions flying towards the new Palazzo, has been created this year by Dante Ferretti for the set design of the 65th Venice Film Festival (27th August – 6th September, 2008).
In this way, Dante Ferretti (two Oscars for The Aviator in 2005 and Sweeney Todd in 2008, and eight nominations) continues his artistic enhancement of the set designs for the Venice Film Festival, which began in 2004 with the spectacular creation of the now legendary sixty winged Golden Lions.
Following in the wake of the massive “Felliniesque” sphere, which in 2007 symbolically knocked down the historical Palazzo, this year will see the Lions return to centre-stage in the new external set design, which will provide the backdrop for the red carpet. The focus will be on a huge 5 metre high Golden Lion - the traditional symbol of the Festival - tearing through the white screen covering the front of the old
30 August 2008 - 5 January 2009
This is the very first exhibition dedicated to George Barbier (1882-1932), artist and fashion illustrator, theatre designer and protagonist of the Art deco movement. Curated by Barbara Martorelli, this exhibition presents over two hundred works including paintings, drawings, articles, pochoir, photographs, books, manuscripts and films from the extensive collections of Palazzo Mocenigo – Study Centre of the History of Fabrics and Costumes, from the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale in France, Musée des Beaux Arts in Nantes as well as from private Italian and French collections. By reconstructing the diverse contexts of his production and comparing them to the artistic movements and avant-garde of that period, the exhibition focuses on the manifold aspects of the artist’s creativity, the author of renowned images - including the black panther that is Cartier’s symbol.
Monday September 1st will see Natalie Portman cutting the ribbon for the Corto Cortissimo section, t
he 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.
For those who incurably love Venice and thus come back here very often, or the occasional visitors who justly get frightened because of the cost of transports and intelligently want to make use of public services and civic museums, since not a long time have had the opportunity to buy the Venice Card.
Venice Card is one of the proposals permitting the transformation of the medium tourist into a privileged visitor: it guarantees an immediate quantifiable saving and an advantage as far as time and opportunities are concerned. You can find it in the versions Transport which guarantees the unlimited use of public means of transport (navigation and by car including the one from and to the airport) and the ‘Transport and Culture’ one which guarantees also the admission to the main museums and churches of Venice, as well as discounts and reductions on the tickets for the main temporary exhibitions, the visits to the Teatro La Fenice, the Biennale and the Car Park. Its cost is variable: from 54 to 137 Euros, but, anyway, it guarantees a 25% saving than doing the same things without the Venice Card. You can buy it directly on line, before leaving, on www.hellovenezia.com or at all the Hellovenezia retail outlets and APT offices.
For further information about transports in Venice, click here.
September 7th, 2008
The regatta was one of the view painters’ favourite subjects as it allowed them to paint a celebrating Venice and it is still one of the main events. Every year on the first sunday of september sumptuous historic procession of boats precedes competitions among boats of the same kind (the gondolini race, etc.).
Indeed, on this occasion the San Marco Basin and the Grand Canal teem with all sorts of boats from which people can watch the competitions and root noisily. At present the most important and exciting competition is the gondolini race.
