Cannes may have the glitz and Sundance the slopes, but the Venice Film Festival (Aug. 31–Sept 10) has history. It’s the oldest film festival in the world, this year being its 68th. With a line-up including new works by Roman Polanski and David Cronenberg, it could also be one of the best.
Who might be taking home a Leone d’Oro? Let’s take a look.
The opening night film will be political thriller The Ides of March, directed by and starring George Clooney and based on the play Farragut North by Beau Willimon. Clooney plays a charismatic presidential candidate campaigning for the Democratic nomination. Opposite Clooney is Ryan Gosling as an idealistic young press secretary whose ambition thrusts him into a moral struggle. The rest of the cast ain’t half-bad either — Paul Giamatti, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Marisa Tomei, Jeffrey Wright and Evan Rachel Wood all have roles.
Then there’s Roman Polanski’s Carnage, also based on a play, the Tony-award winning God of Carnage. Kate Winslet, John C. Reilly, Jodie Foster and Christoph Waltz are two pairs of young parents who meet in order to sensibly discuss their sons’ culpability in some playground play that got a little rough. In theory. The discussion instead escalates into an entire evening of antics. The movie is only 79 minutes and it plays out in real time, which is one of the reasons why it made for such good theater. While adaptations often bring disappointment, we have a hunch this will be one of those rare exceptions.
Another potential winner is the highly anticipated spy thriller Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy from director Tomas Alfredson, based on the Cold War novel by John le Carré. Gary Oldman stars as semi-retired agent for the British Secret Service who is called back in to smoke out a mole. Colin Firth, Tom Hardy, Benedict Cumberbatch and John Hurt form an excellent supporting cast.
See these movies, and Venice while you’re at it. Charming House DD724, Palazzina Grassi and Hotel Monaco & Grand Canal still have availability in early September.
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