Monday, September 05, 2022

#BiennaleCinema2022 - #Venezia79 - The Venice International Film Festival - Favorite Films - Argentina 1985 + Living

Lina Etchesuri  photo - Amazon Studios - La union de los Rios Kenya Films Infinity Films - 
courtesy La Biennale di Venezia
 
The Venice International Film Festival 
Argentina 1985
Santiago Mitre
 
Argentina, 1985 is inspired by the true story of public prosecutors Julio Strassera and Luis Moreno Ocampo, who dared to investigate and prosecute Argentina’s bloodiest military dictatorship in 1985. Undeterred by the military’s still considerable influence within their fragile new democracy, Strassera and Moreno Ocampo assembled a young legal team of unlikely heroes for their David-vs-Goliath battle. Under constant threat to themselves and their families, they raced against time to bring justice to the victims of the military junta.
Stars - Ricardo Darin, Peter Lanzani - Alejandra Flechner, Santiago Armas, Laura Paredes, Carlos Portaluppi.
 
 Ricardo Darin and Peter Lanzani
 
 Director's Statement
Santiago Mitre 
 
"I can still remember the day Strassera closed his indictment: the roar of the courtroom, my parents’ emotion, the streets finally able to celebrate something other than a soccer match, the idea of justice as an act of healing. The trial of 1985 made Argentinean justice acknowledge and deliberate a long overdue claim. As I researched, I stumbled onto unknown aspects: the prosecutors’ backgrounds, the young team with no experience, the region that was still under dictatorships. This story resonated with me and set in motion my desire to make a film about justice, and go deeper into the cinematic and political search than ever in my previous films, this time based on actual events."
 
photograph - courtesy La Biennale di Venezia
 
Living
Oliver Hermanus 

Living is the story of an ordinary man, reduced by years of oppressive office routine to a shadow existence, who at the eleventh hour makes a supreme effort to turn his dull life into something wonderful—into one he can say has been lived to the full. 
Cast - Bill Nighy, Aimee Lou Wood, Alex Sharp, Tom Burke.
Screenplay - Kazuo Ishiguro.
 
Bill Nighy 
 
Director's Statement 
Oliver Hermanus 
 
"Although it might seem like only a fool would take on the task of re-imagining master filmmaker Kurosawa’s humanist triumph, Ikiru, I instantly jumped at the opportunity. I felt a need to tell a story about life and the value of the simple, incremental footprint we all leave. In a world overwhelmed by instant fame and gratification, an obsession with eternal devotion and adoration, I felt a want of a film like Living. A companion at those moments in time when all one really needs in a film is to be reminded that life is short but beautiful."
 
 


 

 

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Sunday, September 04, 2022

#VeneziaCinema2022 - La Biennale di Venezia - Lifetime Achievement Award - Paul Schrader + Master Gardener

screenshot
 
 “I am deeply honored. Venice is the Lion of my heart.”
Paul Schrader

 #VeneziaCinema2022 - La Biennale di Venezia
The 79th Venice International Film Festival
Lifetime Achievement Award - Paul Schrader 
 
The Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement of the 79th Venice International Film Festival was awarded to the American director - The Card Counter, First Reformed, Cat People, American Gigolo - and screenwriter - Raging Bull, Taxi Driver, Obsession, The Yakuza - Paul Schrader.  The decision was made by the board of the Biennale di Venezia, which embraced the proposal of the Festival's Director, Alberto Barbera. The Award was followed by his latest film, Master Gardener - see below.
President of La Biennale di Venezia - Roberto Cicutto - Sigourney Weaver - Paul Schrader - Director of the Venice Film Festival - Alberto Barbera 
 
photo courtesy La biennale di Venezia
Master Gardener
Paul Schrader 
Narvel Roth is the meticulous horticulturist of Gracewood Gardens. He is as much devoted to tending the grounds of this beautiful and historic estate, as pandering to his employer, the wealthy dowager Mrs. Norma Haverhill. When Mrs. Haverhill demands that he take on her wayward and troubled great-niece Maya as a new apprentice, chaos enters Narvel’s spartan existence.
Cast -
Joel Edgerton, Sigourney Weaver, Quintessa Swindell, Esai Morales.
Joel Edgerton - Sigourney Weaver
 
 
Director's Statement
Paul Schrader
director and screenplay 
 
"I have been blessed living in a bubble of creative freedom, affluence, leisure time, peace and good health. My latest film centers on Narvel Roth, a man sitting alone in a room, wearing a mask— which is his occupation, a horticulturist—and waiting for something to happen. And then something happens."
 
 
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Tuesday, August 30, 2022

#BiennaleArte2022 - National Pavilions - Italy Pavilion - Arsenale

  
La Biennale di Venezia - 59th International Art Exhibition 
National Pavilions - Arsenale   
 
Italy Pavilion 
Commissioners - Onofrio Cutaia - Direzione Generale Creativita Contemporanea - Ministero della Cultura
Curator - Eugenio Viola
Exhibitor - Gian Maria Tosatti
History of Night and Destiny of Comets
 

"History of Night, traces the rise and fall of the Italian industrial “miracle”, the vast warehouses between Ragusa and Cremona, the single paradoxically homogeneous panorama of a hypothetical journey into the Italian provinces that today reflects the frustration of a working-class that has come to an end.
 
History of Night and Destiny of Comets is an installation by Gian Maria Tosatti that combines literary references, visual art, theatre, and performance. It confronts the tricky balance between Humanity and Nature, between the dreams and mistakes of the past and the prospects future. The first part, History of Night, traces the rise and fall of the Italian industrial “miracle”, the vast warehouses between Ragusa and Cremona, the single paradoxically homogeneous panorama of a hypothetical journey into the Italian provinces that today reflects the frustration of a working-class that has come to an end. This scenario sets the stage for the epiphany of the last act, Destiny of Comets, that is, of humanity that has crossed the earth in a rapid and luminous trajectory without, in the end, being guaranteed the right to inhabit this planet forever. Here, imagination is overturned in a cathartic epiphany. 
 
 
Gian Maria Tosatti
 

 

 Italy Pavilion
History of Night and Destiny of Comets 
 

 
 
 Italy Pavilion
History of Night and Destiny of Comets 
 

 Italy Pavilion
History of Night and Destiny of Comets 
 

 Italy Pavilion
History of Night and Destiny of Comets 
 

 Italy Pavilion
History of Night and Destiny of Comets

 

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