Photo: Vittorio Zunino Celotto/Getty Images As Memory’s Peter Sarsgaard stepped up to the podium after winning of the Best Actor award at the 80th Venice Film Festival, he made sure to cover all of his bases by bringing the audience to tears and encouraging human connection. He began his six-minute-long speech by remembering his time… Continue reading Peter Sarsgaard Moves Venice Film With Touching Speech
Tag: Venice
Venice International Film Festival – Full Winners List
Photo: Daniele Venturelli/WireImage Despite an industry-wide strike that’s made the promotion of films feel impossible, the Venice Film Festival has given a chance for some stars of independent features to shine a light on their upcoming projects — with a few of those artists taking home prizes from the fest. The 80th Venice International Film… Continue reading Venice International Film Festival – Full Winners List
The Scariest Film at Venice Has Spiders
The first time an army of tiny spider-babies appeared, my body bent into a shape it has never taken before or since. Photo: Venice Film Festival Screams are one thing. It’s another thing entirely to feel an audience squirm in their seats — legs twisting, arms tensing, bodies slowly contorting. The new French thriller Vermin,… Continue reading The Scariest Film at Venice Has Spiders
Jessica Chastain Was ‘Nervous’ to Attend Venice Amid Strike
Jessica Chastain at the 2023 Venice Film Festival. Photo: Ernesto Ruscio/Getty Images There’s still some confusion surrounding SAG-AFTRA’s interim agreements, I see. At a press conference for her upcoming Michel Franco–directed film Memory at the Venice Film Festival, the actor was staunch in her support for the ongoing SAG-AFTRA strike, though some on her team… Continue reading Jessica Chastain Was ‘Nervous’ to Attend Venice Amid Strike
2023 Venice Film Festival Trends: Hitmen and Horny Gals
Photo-Illustration: Vulture. Photos: Brian Roedel; Atsushi Nishijima/Searchlight Pictures; NEON This year’s Venice Film Festival, sapped as it was of movie stars and glamor, had a slightly uncanny feeling. The selfie-seekers outside the Sala Grande, usually clamoring for the likes of Joaquin Phoenix or Lady Gaga, were instead falling over themselves to take photos with, for… Continue reading 2023 Venice Film Festival Trends: Hitmen and Horny Gals
Ava DuVernay’s Origin Devastates Its Audience at Venice
Jon Bernthal and Aunjanue Ellis in Origin. Photo: ARRAY Filmworks Ava DuVernay’s Origin is both essay film and melodrama, though neither description quite does it justice. The director has taken Isabel Wilkerson’s influential nonfiction best-seller Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents — a sweeping analysis of discrimination that finds the connections among American racism, the… Continue reading Ava DuVernay’s Origin Devastates Its Audience at Venice
Harmony Korine Premieres at Venice 2023
The night-vision hit-man feature starring Jordi Molla and Travis Scott is a unique exercise in tedium. Photo: Edglrd/Iconoclast I’m not sure Harmony Korine actually knows how to make a film, though I say that with some affection. His best works consciously refuse to become movies. The Beach Bum (his masterpiece) keeps flirting with narrative, or… Continue reading Harmony Korine Premieres at Venice 2023
Bradley Cooper’s Leonard Bernstein Biopic at Venice
Photo: Jason McDonald/Netflix Carey Mulligan gets first billing in Bradley Cooper’s film about the life of conductor Leonard Bernstein (played by Bradley Cooper). And she deserves it. As Bernstein’s wife Felicia Montealegre, she has to absorb, attract, shield, and parry every loving embrace and slight from her brilliant husband. It’s a reactive performance, and Mulligan… Continue reading Bradley Cooper’s Leonard Bernstein Biopic at Venice
The Vibes Are Off at the 2023 Venice Film Festival
Photo: Venice Film Festival Before this week, I would never have called the presence of movie stars in any given room “keenly necessary.” A few days into the 2023 Venice Film Festival, I have had the chilling realization that, should the Screen Actors Guild strike lurch on due to the Alliance of Motion Picture and… Continue reading The Vibes Are Off at the 2023 Venice Film Festival
11 Movies We’re Excited to See at 2023 Venice Film Festival
Michael Mann’s Ferrari, Sofia Coppola’s Priscilla, and Bradley Cooper’s Maestro are among the films at this year’s mid-strike fest. Photo-Illustration: Vulture It’s been well over 100 days, and Hollywood is still on strike. The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers has failed to meet the demands of not one, but two picketing unions, the… Continue reading 11 Movies We’re Excited to See at 2023 Venice Film Festival