Venice film festival- first day and reactions

I will be covering the Venice film festival sporadically in the following days, so watch out for updates and new posts. Will post news soon.

Ah, the Venice film festival. Last year's festival winner Brokeback Mountain grew into one of the most important and best films of last year among many other films. Now, a year has passed and here we are again. David Lynch is premiering his new film Inland Empire and Aranofsky's The Fountain will be in competition. Oddly, a controversy has emerged regarding the competing Rome film festival which is opening around the same time as the Venice film festival and will premiere Fur, a biopic about the famous photographer Diane Arbus. I find it quite silly that representatives and supporters of the Venice film festival are threatened by the new Rome festival, considering their festival is one of the oldest film festivals in the history of film (if not the oldest). Oh well...on to the films.

After wading through a sea of Venice film festival news stories primarily focused on how sexy Scarlett Johanson is (I...Don't...care), I was able to find a few reactions to Brian Depalma's Black Dahlia, the film which opened the festival yesterday and which features Scarlett Johanson (as well as Aaron Eckhart, Josh Harnett, and Hilary Swank). Suffice it to say, the initial reviews are mixed, but they still acknowledge that the film does possess positive elements. The film was mainly criticized for slight overacting from some actors, some minor comments on the film's writing and structure, but mainly the film has been seen as overplaying some of its film noir content such as the film's love triange involving Josh Harnett. In addition, one critic seemed to think DePalma overdid and exagerrated some of the film's elements. Overall, however, the film appears to be viewed as an interesting, but also a disappointing and flawed film.

However, I stress that I have only been able to find a few critical responses on the film, so if the film receives more praise, I will comment on it and reinterpret the film's critical reception. Sadly, news reporters seem to be more interested in dedicating entire stories to Scarlett Johanson. The festival runs from August 30 to September 9th, so it may be a few days till more critical responses are released.

On a side note, Allen Coulter's Hollywoodland, another noir inspired film, which stars Adrian Brody is getting a response similar to Black Dahlia. Good and passable, but could could have been great. The film revolves around the attempt to solve the mystery of actor George Reeves' murder/death. Reeves played the television version of Superman.

As for Infamous, the odd project which revolves around the same plot as Capote, the creation of his non-fiction novel In Cold Blood. The project had begun around the same time as Capote, but was too far into production to stop upon hearing of a parallel project using the same story. So, now, we have two films with the same plot following each other by a year. Early word on the film is that Toby Jones plays a good Truman Capote and the film itself is good, but does no reach the level of Capote. The strangest happening resulting from the film's showing are the news stories reporting how Daniel Craig lost his "masculine" bond image by engaging in a homosexual kiss with actor Toby Jones. I find these odd news stories floating online to be absolutely ridiculous. Since when does engaging in a gay kiss make you less "masculine" whatever that even means anymore (I personally hate the term). It's rather sad that news reporters are reinforcing these stereotypes for the sake of a minor story. Obsessions with Scarlett Johanson and now this. I am beginnning to despise these online news writers.

On a side note, surprisingly, Daniel Craig plays Perry Smith in the film, so Infamous is definitely going with a different characterization of Smith than Capote.

Finally, the documentary The Us vs John Lennon (which I want to see) has been overall very well received by Venice, despite a few minor critics who did not like it. One reporter even claimed that it could be nominated in the Academy award's documentary category. I can't wait to see this film now.

In order to please my fancy and hopefully yours, here are a few new trailers on the side in order to ease the wait.

Fur (biopic of photographer Diane Arbus)
http://movies.aol.com/movie/fur/26835/trailer

Pan's Labyrinth (new teaser trailer. Can't wait to see this fantasy film)
http://www.chud.com/demo/pantease.html


Little Children
http://www.apple.com/trailers/newline/littlechildren/large.html

The Queen
http://www.apple.com/trailers/miramax/thequeen/large.html

Curse of the Golden Flower- Zhang Yimou's new film after Riding Alone for a Thousand Miles (his new drama). It is a return to the martial arts epic of Hero and House of a Thousand Daggers. I don't know what to think of a new Yimou martial arts film, so here is the trailer. Judge for yourselves.
http://www.apple.com/trailers/sony/curseofthegoldenflower/teaser/