Among the highlights of the first few days of the Venice International Film Festival, a first appearance on the Lido by Julia Roberts and some well-deserved recognition for Fatma Hassan Alremaihi, the wondrous CEO of the Doha Film Institute.
Following Paolo Sorrentino’s opening film La Grazia, which truly conquered my heart and thoughts for the first few days of this year’s Venice Film Festival, I needed a bit of time to pull myself together again. As it turns out, I needed more than a couple of days — between parties, film-watching and interviews — to put my ideas down on paper. Or type them up on the keyboard of my computer, I should say.
As a brief aside, what I’ve noticed in the past couple of days is how, and this is not a new thing, the media likes to put down the festival here on the Lido. Snarky headlines reading like “Del Toro’s Frankenstein pumps blood into the Festival” seem to imply that we’ve all been rolling our thumbs for the past 6 days. When instead George Clooney has been here, twirling his wife Amal, dressed in a fuchsia number looking svelte and amazing, on the red carpet, as has Julia Roberts, who arrived wearing a sweater featuring Luca Guadagnino’s likeness all over (the American actress stars After the Hunt). And between Italian homegrown talents like Guadagnino and Sorrentino, along with a vast variety of groundbreaking films from all over the world, I’ve not found the time or the energy to sit down to write about it all. So, no rolling of thumbs until Guillermo’s monster(s) got here, we’ve been having a ball all along.
Yet this is not a new thing. Time and time again, American journalists in particular, like to find a way to put down Venice and the organization in their writing, which is both unfair and untrue. A rude eastern European journo in the press room, huffing and puffing behind me as we waited for our deliciously free cappuccino declared “nothing works here!” When I pointed out the error of his sweeping statement, he asked me if I was Italian. Out of spite I answered, half truthfully, “I’m American!” “Same thing,” he chimed back. Can’t win with irrational people.
Time and time again, I find it baffling how Italians, whose contribution to history and art throughout the centuries has been extraordinary, seem to bear the brunt of jealous statements — both personally and collectively as a country. It must be that excellence, coupled with understated elegance, doesn’t sit right with some.
But back to George Clooney for a moment. The American actor, who calls Italy home hence proving it’s a pretty darned great place to live, didn’t participate in the customary morning press conference for Jay Kelly, the Noah Baumbach film he stars in alongside Adam Sandler, as a version of himself. There was speculation that the actor didn’t want to be asked about Gaza, which has been prominently talked about here on the Lido — another reason to love the festival — and we know how journalists, or modern media love to speculate. However, Clooney was simply nursing a stubborn sinus infection and his turn on the red carpet later that evening confirmed it. He looked great, twirled Amal around like they were a couple of newlyweds, but the sparkle was missing from his eyes. Even stars can feel unwell at times.
Jay Kelly is fun, Netflix fun. I enjoyed Clooney playing an aging movie star who discovers he doesn’t have any friends or family still around, and sets off to catch up with his teenage daughter as she travels around Europe. The film also benefits from a momentous cameo by German actor Lars Eidinger, whom I loved interviewing a couple of years ago for Flaunt.
Speaking of Gaza, Venice4Palestine has been gaining momentum while the festival has been going on. They have been supported by a variety of stars in their endeavor to make the ongoing genocide happening in Gaza better known. “We — activists and workers in the film, media and news fields — believe that for once, the show must stop: We must interrupt the flow of indifference and open a path to awareness,” the letter read. “In Venice, all the spotlight will be on the film world: We all have a duty to amplify the stories and voices of those who are being massacred.”
The letter was signed by hundreds of actors, directors and producers, including Swann Arlaud, the French actor known for his role in Anatomy of a Fall; Charles Dance, the legendary British actor and director, and Italian actress and comedian Emanuela Fanelli. The latter hosted the opening ceremony of the festival and marched on Saturday, August 30th in the demonstration that went from the vaporetto stop of SM Elisabetta to the Palazzo del Cinema, where the festival is housed. More than 5,000 people took part in the march, it was estimated by the Italian media.
Fatma Hassan Alremaihi accepting her award from Variety
The Doha Film Institute, with Palestinian auteur Elia Suleiman as its artistic advisor, has of course been a huge supporter of Palestinian cinema. So the time has finally come for its extraordinary leader, DFI CEO Fatma Hassan Alremaihi, to be recognized. And that she was, when American trade publication Variety handed her this year’s Achievement in International Film Award. As someone who holds Doha and Alremaihi near and dear to her heart, I was moved to see her being celebrated in style, inside (or rather outside, on the Cartier rooftop terrace) at the Palazzo Gritti hotel. Italian and MENA correspondent Nick Vivarelli did the honors for Variety and Alremaihi spoke in her customary wisdom, about cinema being so important at challenging times like what we are experiencing now.
At this year’s Venice Film Festival, the DFI has supported a record number of films in the different lineups, from Competition title The Voice of Hind Rajab to projects still in production, like Sofia Alaoui’s Tarfaya. Read more about them here.
Speaking of Arab cinema, one of the first films I watched on the ground in Venice has been Shahad Ameen’s Hijra, a road trip adventure of a grandmother and her young granddaughter, across different terrains of Saudi Arabia — but also through the path once marked by the Prophet and all those spiritual travelers who have been following in his path. It’s an extraordinary story, in all its simplicity and hidden meanings, but also a beautiful film to behold, artistically. Plus this latest work by Ameen, whose previous films include her short debut in 2013 which I wrote about while it screened in Dubai for the HuffPost, and her feature Scales which I also featured in my writing, once again shows the world what this talented writer and director is able to do! And she still has many works in the making up her sleeve.
Last but not least, there have been fun songs in films on the Lido. I won’t reveal anything about Jim Jarmusch’s Father Mother Sister Brother, which officially premieres later today, but I do suggest you listen to LGBTQ icon Dusty Springfield’s 1968 hit Spooky, which bookends the film and is now stuck in my head on repeat. I mean, just read some of the lyrics of this fab song from songwriters Buddy Buie, Harry Middlebrooks, James B. Cobb Jr. and Mike Shapiro.
“You always keep me guessing
I never seem to know what you are thinking
And if a girl looks at you
It's for sure your little eye will be a-winkin'
I get confused, I never know where I stand
And then you smile
And hold my hand
Love is kinda crazy with a spooky little boy like you
Spooky…”
All images used with permission.