By Hanna Rantala and Crispian Balmer
VENICE (Reuters) – Stars galore will mild up this yr’s Venice Movie Pageant, which opens on Wednesday, bringing intercourse, track and soul-searching to the Lido, making up for a low wattage 2023 version when a strike stored most A-listers away.
The 11-day occasion fires the beginning gun for the awards season, with movies premiering at Venice within the final three years accumulating 77 Oscar nominations and profitable 14, making it the place to be seen for actors, producers and administrators alike.
Among the many main lights anticipated in Venice this yr are Brad Pitt, George Clooney, Girl Gaga, Joaquin Phoenix, Angelina Jolie, Daniel Craig, Nicole Kidman, Michael Keaton, Winona Ryder, Jenna Ortega, Tilda Swinton and Adrien Brody.
“Everybody is really very eager to come back to Venice after the long strike of last year. So we’re going to have the most crowded red carpet ever, I think,” the pageant’s inventive director Alberto Barbera instructed Reuters on Tuesday.
The 2023 strike by Hollywood actors compelled many to skip the gathering, with unions telling their members to not promote their initiatives to place stress on the large studios.
This yr, a number of the stars have even paid their very own means to ensure they get snapped on the Venice Lido, the place followers pressure to observe their favourites arrive for the glitzy premieres.
“It seems that the productions could not invite all the talents so they paid for the ticket and the hotel and everything just to be here,” he mentioned.Among the many movies contending for the Golden Lion prime prize are Todd Phillips’ “Joker: Folie à Deux”, starring Phoenix and Gaga, Pablo Larrain’s “Maria”, with Jolie taking part in the opera diva Maria Callas, and Luca Guadagnino’s “Queer”, with Craig defying the James Bond stereotype and taking part in a homosexual American.
Barbera mentioned Craig had “a couple of sex scenes that are quite full on” – one in every of a variety of motion pictures on present that do not draw back from intercourse after years of relative prudishness.
“It seems that sex was banned from the screens in the last 10, 15 years. I don’t know if it was a matter of a sort of auto censorship or whatever. Now it’s back,” he mentioned.
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The pageant opens with Tim Burton’s “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” – a sequel to his 1988 comedy, which reunites a number of the unique forged, together with Keaton and Ryder, and throws in newcomers like Ortega, Monica Bellucci and Willem Dafoe.
The movie is taking part in out of competitors, alongside Jon Watts’ “Wolfs”, starring Venice regulars Pitt and Clooney, and the most recent characteristic by Japan’s Takeshi Kitano, “Broken Rage”.
Venice prides itself on drawing each blockbusters and auteur motion pictures, established names and recent faces, with over half the competitors movies this yr made by administrators who’re new to the pageant.
“We have, of course, a lot of great filmmakers, some of the most expected films of the new season, but a lot of discoveries, new talents from all over the world. So it’s really a mirror of the contemporary cinema,” Barbera mentioned.
A complete of 21 motion pictures will play in the primary competitors, together with Spanish director Pedro Almodovar’s first English-language movie, “The Room Next Door”, starring Swinton and Julianne Moore a couple of fraught mother-daughter relationship.
“I would be surprised if some of the films do not appear again at the Oscars ceremony. “Joker” is one of those, “Queer” by Luca Guadagnino as well (and) the Almodovar is a very good film,” mentioned Barbera, who whittled down his choice from round 4,000 candidates.