Venice Film Festival: Celebs Rumors

What would it look like if Danish auteur Nicolas Winding Refn took a stab at a superhero show? If one guessed neon-soaked, with a penchant for nihilism and framed through the throbbing tempo of synthesizer beats, they would be correct, of course.  NWR’s familiar triad of sorrow, synth, and neon guides his latest, Netflix’s six-part series “Copenhagen Cowboy.” The sprawling show trails Miu (Angela Bundalovic), an unlikely heroine presented as a non-descript magical entity whose powers go from healing long-lasting migraines to allowing post-menopausal women another shot at fertility.

Looking dapper in a blue blazer, Oliver Stone is chit-chatting with the press inside a glass box on the terrace of an antiquated hotel on the Venice Lido. He’s been posing for a few photos and doing rounds of interviews during this afternoon of rain that has somewhat dampened the festival glamor.

Moses Bwayo and Christopher Sharp’s documentary “Bobi Wine: Ghetto President” is a feat of cinematic journalism that captures a tumultuous timeline of events while keeping the focus on its titular subject. Going by the stage name Bobi Wine, Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu is a wildly popular singer in Uganda who is voted into office and becomes a major figure in the political party that opposes its president, General Yoweri Museveni.

For critics and audiences alike, the Venice Film Festival is an important first look at the films that will shape the award season and year-end conversations. That puts added emphasis on the Venice Film Festival awards – including the Golden Lion, the festival’s top prize – as the first step towards canon-building for the rest of the year.

Standing between Steve Buscemi’s newest directorial effort, “The Listener,” and his last time on the director’s chair for the Sienna Miller-starring drama “Interview” is a whopping 15 years. Buscemi has been open about his desire to direct again, but nothing seemed to work out until Oscar-nominated writer Alessandro Camon knocked on his door, script in hand.

movie about Marilyn Monroe for over a decade.The film wouldn’t be a biopic, but an experiential portrait delving into the psyche of Marilyn Monroe and Norma Jeane. It kept falling apart, but the New Zealand native couldn’t let it go. Then he found Ana de Armas, and, he said, the movie came alive.“It was like love at first sight,” Dominik said Thursday, before the world premiere of the film at the Venice International Film Festival.

With Italy not being a nation typically associated with progressive views and attitudes regarding sexuality, it was reassuring to hear the largely local crowd at the “Lord of the Ants” press screening of the Venice Film Festival laugh at the preposterous words of an ultra-religious woman on screen talking about how she “cured” her son from homosexuality by sending him to a saint. Whether the scene was intended to provoke that reaction is another story.

One of the first post-WWII trials to hold Germans to account, the January 1946 Kiev trial took place in the USSR and has since become known as the Kiev Nuremberg. Overlapping in both time and scope with that infamous trial, the tribunal took place over the course of two days where 15 Germans stood trial for war crimes, ultimately being convicted and hanged for atrocities committed.  Utilizing three hours of courtroom footage that he found in an archive while constructing his 2021 documentary “Babi Yar.

While she may not be a household name compared to the directors that she has worked for, Bonnie Timmermann’s IMDb reads as a decade-spanning watch list of some of the best films ever made.

No film at the Venice Film Festival not called “Don’t Worry Darling” has attracted such morbid fascination as Andrew Dominik’s Marilyn Monroe not-a-biopic, “Blonde.” Turns out that “morbid” qualifier is soft, to say the least: to call “Blonde” relentless would be about as immense an understatement as one can conjure of a movie that subjects its lead, Ana de Armas’ fictionalized Monroe, to two hours and forty-seven minutes of unending sexual torture, leering voyeurism, and devastating dehumanization.  READ MORE: Venice Film Festival Preview: 16 Must-See Films To Watch Much has already been made about the X-ratedness of it all, but god, this is — by design — soul-sapping stuff, leaving you bloodied and brutalized.

Heavy on Loachian social realism and undergirded by the intensity and heavy stakes of a Safdie Brothers flick, Juan Diego Botto’s gritty eviction thriller “On the Fringe” — produced by Penélope Cruz, who also lends her name to the billing sheet — makes for hard-hitting stuff. Premiering at the Venice Film Festival today in the Orrizonti section, here’s a slice of agitprop that feels as timely as ever, with the energy crisis surging across Europe, the costs of living rocketing from shore to shore, and society’s most marginalized left to pick up the tab.  Anyone with half a heart and half a brain will be quickly won over by its interweaving stories, following three different people in the same Spanish city living under the cold, foreboding shadow of red-stamp eviction notices: though a little baggy in the second act, the first and final thirty-minutes are appropriately earnest and affecting.

Lightning strikes twice for filmmaker Bill Pohlad in his sophomore feature “Dreamin’ Wild.” The producer-turned-writer-director follows up the promise of his bifurcated Brian Wilson biopic “Love & Mercy” with another moving tale of personal and artistic redemption. His recounting of Donnie and Joe Emerson’s resurgence over three decades after the release of their only album captures not just musicians but also something of the quality of the music itself.

With its abundance of flickery grain, exceedingly credible period production, and eminently authentic ensemble, UK filmmaker Georgia Oakley’s astonishing debut feature “Blue Jean” — which premiered at the Venice Film Festival last week, no doubt primed to pick up a swath of gongs and laurels — could well be a relic exhumed from the back cupboards of a dusty film archive.  READ MORE: Venice Film Festival Preview: 16 Must-See Films To Watch Set amid Margaret Thatcher’s reign of terror in the late ‘80s, the little-known Rosy McEwen puts in a calling card performance for the ages as Jean, a closeted lesbian gym teacher torn asunder by the emergence of Section 28: barbaric British legislation that, until 2003, prohibited the “promotion of homosexuality” across the country.

One doesn’t need to be religious to feel the impact of the words uttered by Pope Francis to never-ending crowds of faithful followers, a concept deeply understood by Gianfranco Rossi with “In Viaggio,” a decade-long chronicling of the travels of the head of the Catholic church across all corners of the world. Composed entirely of archival footage, the film grants rare access to the public life of the pontifical, not only from the elevated security of a pulpit but from the more democratic grounds of unpaved streets and vast public avenues.   The film opens with the following disclaimer: “In the first nine years of his pontificate, Pope Francis made 37 trips visiting 53 countries, focusing on his most important issues: poverty, migration, the environment, solidarity and war.” These very same issues guide the work of Rossi, whose two latest documentaries – 2016’s Golden Bear-winning “Fire at Sea” and 2020’s “Notturno” – deal with the haunting ripples of the refugee crisis and the war in the Middle East (in fact, Rossi and Pope Francis came together after the pontiff visited the island of Lampedusa following a watch of “Fire at Sea”).

Chris Pine's rep is denying a fan theory. In a statement to ET, the 42-year-old actor's rep shuts down claims that Harry Styles spit on Pine at the premiere of their flick, at the Venice Film Festival. «This is a ridiculous story… a complete fabrication and the result of an odd online illusion that is clearly deceiving and allows for foolish speculation,» Pine's rep tells ET.

[VENICE] It’s Saturday afternoon at the Tennis Club on the Lido, and American director Abel Ferrara chats on camera to an Italian television host before some of his customary swearing sets in, courtesy of a few brave souls wanting a photo with him next to the courts. He’s hungry.

cast at the Venice Film Festival is going viral, this time involving the film's leading men, Harry Styles and Chris Pine. A viral clip is circulating online of 28-year-old Styles taking his seat next to 42-year-old Pine at the film's premiere in Italy. In the clip, the «As It Was» singer appears to do something with his mouth at the exact moment that Pine stops clapping, smiles and shakes his head.Soon after the clip began making the rounds, many fans were convinced that Styles had, in fact, spit on Pine in front of hundreds of attendees at the premiere. #HarryStyles appears to spit on Chris Pine i won't sleep until i know the truth pic.twitter.com/wLXjIHTYgUBut others think that Pine was simply realizing he'd put his own sunglasses, which he picks up a moment after the alleged spit, in his lap. «Chris Pine just wondered where his sunglasses were after the applause.

There’s always been a haunted mood in Joanna Hogg’s films, felt both in the deceptively mundane domestic rhythms of the likes of “Exhibition” and “Archipelago,” and in the exquisite memory pieces, “The Souvenir” and “The Souvenir Part II.” Like the best and most personal of storytellers—Chantal Akerman comes to mind as a creator with akin sensibilities—Hogg is a filmmaker possessed by the slivers of her recollections.

Reviews of Olivia Wilde’s psychological drama “Don’t Worry Darling” premiering at the Venice Film Festival are now out. And while it’s a little too early to land on a consensus (our review is mixed), unless you’ve been living under a rock, the film and the spectacle surrounding it have threatened to become one of the biggest, nosiest dramas of the year.

The tragedy at the center of “Love Life,” the new film from Japanese director Kōji Fukada which premieres in Competition at this year’s Venice Film Festival, does not come to disrupt a perfectly happy family. Cracks are visible in the facade of the life shared by Taeko (Fumino Kimura) and Jiro (Kento Nagayama) even before the fatal accident that claims the life of Keita (Tetta Shimada), her young son from a previous marriage.

The mordantly comedic assault on the politics of revenge used to be the province of English/Irish playwright turned filmmaker Martin McDonagh. In more recent years, the writer/director has turned his probing eye towards compassion, forgiveness, and redemption and the unanswerable question of whether his problematic protagonists are worthy of either.

upcoming “Don’t Worry Darling” and “My Policeman.” But the pop star said Monday at the Venice International Film Festival that, with acting, he often feels as if he has “no idea what I’m doing.”Styles’ arrival on the Lido, where “Don’t Worry Darling” is having its world premiere Monday night, has been one of the most anticipated events of a festival full of stars. At a press conference before the premiere, Styles was peppered with questions about his fans, his career and whether or not he would work with director Olivia Wilde again — neither of which he answered.In “Don’t Worry Darling,” Styles plays Jack, who works for the mysterious Victory Project, run by Chris Pine’s charismatic cult-like leader, in a mid-century-styled experimental community.

Brendan Fraser reveled in the spotlight once again at the Venice Film Festival and was praised for his role in the upcoming Darren Aronofsky movie, “The Whale.”The 53-year-old actor kept his best composure while walking the red carpet of the famed festival, only to break down in tears once inside the cinema as theatergoers gave the star a six-minute standing ovation for his performance, according to Variety.Fraser, who has largely stayed out of the spotlight after addressing physical ailments due to performing many of his own stunts on screen, was then also plagued by the mental repercussion of an alleged sexual assault incident that happened in 2003.He’s returning to the silver screen again for what many believe could be an Oscar contending role as Charlie, a 600-pound gay man who feels as though his life is coming to an end.Fraser was noticeably moved by the response to the film that he could barely stand up as the crowd cheered once the credits rolled when the movie was over in a video captured from inside the festival.“Brendan Fraser is back — and he sobbed during the #Venezia79 six-minute standing ovation for #TheWhale,” Ramin Setoodeh tweeted.He then added, “The standing ovation for #TheWhale was so enthusiastic, Brendan Fraser tried to leave the theater but the crowd’s applause made him stay.”During a pre-show interview with press, Fraser showed gratitude for “the warm reception” he’s received since discussing his latest work.“I’m looking forward to how this film makes a deep impression on everyone as much as it has on me,” he said, via The New York Times.Fraser recalled having to wear an extensive amount of prosthetics that sometimes weighed up to 300 pounds to play Charlie, a reclusive character based on the

What a knotty task, to detach instinctive overtures of motherly love from the traditional structures that perpetuate the restraining of gender roles, offering love freely without conforming.

Parents gather around the tatami, the mat where one practices the martial art of judo. On the mat, children wrestle and grunt, tugging at each other with giddy joy.

Darren Aronofsky loves reclaiming the broken, the damaged, the forgotten. Take his magnum opus, 2008’s “The Wrestler,” the story of an aging WWE entertainer who gives it all for one more shot at glory.

As a fresh batch of boot camp recruits moves through processing, a name keeps resurfacing like some kind of curse — as if its mere mention is enough to call down the power of its wrath.  “Classic case for Eismayer,” one experienced soldier remarks about a smart-mouthed inductee, while another explains his fake-illness strategy thusly: “Just trying to avoid drillmaster Eismayer.” A legend in the Austrian armed forces, Sergeant Major Charles Eismayer (Gerhard Liebmann) is equal parts bad-ass and martinet, yet what he is, more than anything else, is afraid, and it’s the exploration of this fear that serves as the backbone of “Eismayer.” A title card at the beginning of the film sets up the story as based on actual events — something that the brutalist architecture, bland color palette, and utilitarian nature of the military base setting reinforces right from the jump.

The greatest strength of Ti West’s “X,” the very A24 vibes ‘n all sex-slasher which premiered to tepid acclaim at South By Southwest earlier this year, was never its reverence for “The Texas Chain Saw Massacre,” nor its lurid ‘70s grit and grain, nor its abundance of pornstaches. No, no: a double-dipping Mia Goth was the lynchpin, be it caked in prosthetics as the melting, murderous octogenarian Pearl or starlet-in-the-making (with an aptly porn-y name) Max Minx.

A man scribbles in his diary. The pages are visible by dim light, the wooden table nondescript.

If you ever questioned it before, let “Bardo” — wordily subtitled ‘or False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths,’ as was the director’s wont with 2014’s “Birdman” — lay your queries to rest: Alejandro Iñárritu really, really loves Fellini. He’s not the only one, naturally: comparisons to “8 ½” are par for the course whenever a filmmaker comes out with a notionally autobiographical work, as with Pedro Almodóvar’s “Pain and Glory” in 2019.

Andrea Pallaoro’s “Monica” is oblique in its depiction of characters in crisis, yet never obtuse. He and cinematographer Katelin Arizmendi shoot the film in the boxier Academy ratio, locking the film into a nearly permanent state of portraiture.

Romain Gavras wastes no time in “Athena” informing the audience of the stakes. There have been three cases of police brutality within two months in the titular majority-minority community.

To love is to want to consume someone whole, to pick their skin and sinews out of the gaps between your teeth, to swallow their pancreas and wash it all down with gulps of throat-fizzing stomach acid. Take the age-old question that dominates the Grindr lexicon: do you want to be someone, be with them, or be inside them? “Bones and All,” Luca Guadagnino’s typically sumptuous, deeply romantic American parable — about a pair of teen cannibals, coming of age against the backdrop of ‘80s Reaganism — literalizes this allure, as any great anthropophagist love story should.

Apart from the few but mighty completists of renegade filmmaker Abel Ferrara, the primary draw to watch “Padre Pio” is star Shia LaBeouf making his first on-screen attempt at a comeback after facing domestic abuse allegations. The star credits the film with prompting his conversion to Catholicism and helping to begin the process of repairing his life.

While watching Frederick Wiseman’s “Un Couple” — the legendary documentarian’s first fictional drama— a different literary giant comes to mind besides the ones whose mercurial marriage is depicted on screen. The film’s fickle love recalls a verse from Latin poet Catullus, undoubtedly familiar to anyone who studied the language in school: “what a woman says to her ardent lover should be written in wind and running water.” The woman in question in “Un Couple” is Sophia Tolstoy, wife of legendary Russian novelist Leo, as embodied in the film by French actress Nathalie Boutefeu.

For a certain type of cinephile versed in the avant-garde, the name Jonas Mekas brings to mind a particular type of autobiographical filmmaking — one that prioritized the immediacy of a given moment over context or sometimes even narrative coherence. He was an Immensely prolific filmmaker, critic, archivist, and poet who, in his own words, immigrated to the US in the late ’40s “hungry, thirsty for art,” taking in everything he could.  While not exactly forgotten, Mekas’ work as the “Film Culture” founder, Village Voice critic, historian, and champion of such directors as Kenneth Anger and Ken Jacobs, has often overshadowed his prolific film work.