photograph Kirsty Griffin - courtesy Netflix - La Biennale di Venezia
#Venezia78 - Competition
The Power of the Dog
Jane Campion
Charismatic rancher Phil Burbank inspires fear and awe in those around him. When his brother brings home a new wife and her son, Phil torments them until he finds himself exposed to the possibility of love.
Benedict Cumberbatch
"Falling in love with Thomas Savage’s powerful novel was a rare joy, yet I never thought of directing it with so many male characters and such deep masculine themes. I questioned instead who Savage with his own ambiguous masculinity would have wanted as his director and slowly I felt him slip an arm around my shoulder; “A mad woman who knows how to love the story? Yes, perfect.” I offered my whole self to Savage’s magnificent story, I let it sweep me up; I felt the lover in Phil as well as his terrible loneliness; I saw the importance and strength of each of the characters to the story and how each are finally revealed. I am honored to share this film with a real audience in a real cinema."
Jane Campion
Director's Statement
Silver Lion - Award for Best Director
Jane Campion
The Power of the Dog
New Zealand - Australia
photograph Kirsty Griffin - courtesy Netflix - La Biennale di Venezia
Main Cast
Benedict Cumberbatch, Kirsten Dunst, Jesse Plemons, Kodi Smit-McPhee
Kirsten Dunst
The 78th International Film Festival Lido di Venezia - Early Morning Palazzo del Casino  #Venezia78 - Competition Un Autre Monde - Another World Stephane Brize An executive manager, his wife and his family, at the moment when his professional choices are about to overwhelm them all. Philippe Lemesle and his wife are in the process of separating, their love irretrievably damaged by pressures of work. An executive working for an industrial conglomerate, Philippe no longer knows how to respond to the contradictory demands of his bosses. Yesterday they wanted a manager, today an executioner. Now he must decide what his life really means. Vincent Lindon  photograph - Nord-Ouest Films - France 3 Cinema - courtesy La Biennale di Venezia "Philippe Lemesle moves amongst society’s winners, in the realm of executive managers, of the meritocracy, of what are typically known as “success stories”. How do you admit you’re in pain, that you’ve lost your way, when you are part of the social elite? To complain would be both obscene in the eyes of the less well-off and a sign of weakness— unforgivable in the eyes of his peers, and in his own eyes. In this world, you cannot—you must not—be weak. It’s forbidden, on pain of downgrading and being replaced by a younger, more dynamic counterpart, or another who won’t argue about what he or she is asked to do. In this world it seems one no longer enjoys the right of questioning the orders that come from on high and which must swiftly be imposed below. This is the story of a world splitting silently in two, of professional and personal lives foundering, of a world in which men and women in ties and too-tight suits increasingly struggle to find meaning." Stephane Brize Director's Statement Main Cast
  Lido di Venezia The 78th International Venice Film Festival Red Carpet Photographers pack up an move on Ciao #Venezia78 Please Note Text was edited from La Biennale di Venezia - Cinema website |