Among the new additions, Nadav Lapid’s absurdist tale, focusing on a struggling jazz musician tasked with reinventing the Israeli national anthem, taking place in the aftermath of October 7th, but also Lynne Ramsay’s latest, Kristen Stewart’s directorial debut and Lav Diaz’s ‘Magellan’ starring Gael Garcia Bernál as the Portuguese explorer.
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Sofia Coppola (left) and Kirsten Dunst on the set of 'Marie Antoinette', photographed by Brigitte Lacombe
The Qumra Diaries: Brigitte Lacombe and the power of a photograph
I know that a Diaries series is meant to go chronologically, yet there are moments when the rules need to be broken.
For me, hearing master photographer and longtime Doha Film Institute collaborator Brigitte Lacombe talk about cinema and fashion from a photographic point of view was one such moment. I could not wait to get home and write about the pleasant afternoon I spent in her company -- along with a theater-full of attendees of this Qumra talk -- and her sister's, video photographer Marian Lacombe.
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PHOTO BY FRANÇOIS DUHAMEL, COURTESY OF VICE
Jim Carrey in a still from ‘Man on the Moon’
The Venice Film Festival Diaries: ‘mother!’, ‘Loving Pablo’ Escobar and Jim Carrey Made Me Cry
Every meeting at this year’s Venice Film Festival has been a once-in-a-lifetime chance encounter for me. From chatting with the fabulous James Toback, to meeting his visionary producer Michael Mailer, from the relaxed junket on San Clemente island with Kirsten Dunst and the Rodarte sisters to sitting leisurely with artist Shirin Neshat at Villa degli Autori, from the wisdom of Argentinian filmmaker Lucrecia Martel to the Zen discipline and class of Maestro Ryuichi Sakamoto — it’s all been divine. There is no other word to describe it.
And yet, on the seventh day of the festival, another surprise awaited me. A cozy, wonderful junket with Jim Carrey and director Chris Smith, who together made a film that has quickly risen to my top five — alright top three actually — in Venice.
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