The Venice Film Festival kicks off: Impressive landing of Argentine artists

impress the Argentine presence that this 90th edition of the Venice International Film Festival will havewhich opens this Wednesday 31 with the screening of White noise, by Noah Baumbach, with Adam Driver. they will arrive on Friday Ricardo Darin, Pietro Lanzani Y Santiago Miterprotagonists and director of Argentina, 1985a film about the trial of the military juntas that will compete for none other than the Golden Lion.

Therefore, There will be Mariano Cohnthe screenwriter, producer and director who is part of the jury that presides over it Julianne Moore, and which will deliver the Palmarés on Saturday 10 September. And then Griselda Siciliani and Nicolás Giacobone, co-star and co-screenwriter of Bardfrom the Mexican Alejandro González Iñárritu, also in the running for the Golden Lion.

And next week, there will be two directors here. is approx Laura Citarellaleading to the exhibition Trenque Lauquénan ambitious project, consisting of two films and lasting a total of four hours, which will be screened in the Horizons Section, and Lucrezia Martellowho will preview his short film Housekeeper.

La donna di Salta has taken her latest feature film out of competition, Zamakin 2017, and in 2019 she was president of the Jury that awarded the Golden Lion to jokerwith Joaquin Phoenix.

But for many, many years, the Venice Film Festival ignored Argentine cinema. The last Argentine production to compete for the Golden Lion before Pablo Trapero took it to the Mostra The clanin 2015, it had been Cloudby Pino Solanas in… 1998.

Seventeen years without a film in competition for the highest prize, while other Class A festivals such as Cannes, Berlin and San Sebastian were increasingly fueled by national productions. Of CloudIn 1998 Gerardo Gandini won the Osella d’Oro for best music. Y Ragman, the silver lion best director for that film with Guillermo Francella and Peter Lanzani.

Much will have had to do with the arrival of Alberto Barbera as director of the Festival.

Since then, they have joined the main competition the distinguished citizen, by Mariano Cohn (as we said, today a member of the Jury here) and Gastón Duprat, for whom Oscar Martínez was the first Argentine performer to win the Coppa Volpi for best actor in the 2016 edition. And last year the co-production with Spain official competitionby Cohn and Duprat, he was also selected for the Golden Lion.

Francella returned to Venice, but out of competition, with My masterpiecedirected by Gastón Duprat, in 2018, and is now back with Lanzani Argentina, 1985.

The Argentines speak

Cohn is the Argentine who has set foot on the island of Lido several times.

-You haven’t been a jury in any festival yet.

-It is my first foray into this new profession as a jury. I received several invitations to be there, and in general I had to turn them down because I was working, filming. In this case it coincided that the filming of Whatever and it was only in October that filming of the second season of The one in charge. So it coincided in space and time, and it is the most important festival in the world.

-That there is an Argentine film competing for the Golden Lion (“Argentina, 1985”), does it generate anxiety, stress, commitment?

-Not really. I never paid attention to the nationality of a film, I never cared about the director’s passport, or in which country it was made so that something I like or dislike.

Argentina, 1985 has a gala on the best day of the whole festival, Saturday, and at night. Being there on the first weekend of the festival is always important, and for Ricardo Darín, who plays the prosecutor Julio César Strassera, “Yes, it’s a good time because you don’t feel so tired …”.

-But anyway, Saturday is a great day at any Class A Festival. “Wild Tales” was also in Cannes on a Saturday night.

-Yes, yes. This is happening to us everywhere. They offer us the best seats, the best space. It is known that the film, alone, makes its way. This is very inspiring.

Both Darín and Santiago Miter, its director, and Peter Lanzani (in the role of prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo) have a similar opinion on the importance of presenting the film – which will debut in our country on 29 September – in Venice.

Miter says he is “quite calm. This is the first time I’ve gone to a festival without sticking my tongue out. I arrive more than with expectations, with interests. You don’t know what a film is until you start sharing it with the public and the first screenings will be outside Argentina. It is a sufficiently universal film, I am told by the festivals to which it was invited, it is not necessary to understand how Argentine history has been in the last 40 years to understand the film ”.

Lanzani, like Darín and Miter, will also accompany the film in other festivals such as San Sebastián or London. “I am going to San Sebastián and am looking to go to London. And yes, I’d love to. I’m trying to take advantage of it, accompany her as much as I can, because I love festivals, “she says. This Tuesday she finished the functions of her successful sole proprietorship. wonderful thingsso you can travel.

Griselda Siciliani will arrive at the exhibition directly from Madrid. Y that of Venice will be his first experience in an A-class international festival. “I was once at the Sundance Film Festival with the last Elvis, a long time ago. And in 2020 Sentimentalby Cesc Gay premiered at the San Sebastian Film Festival, but due to the pandemic I was unable to travel and the truth is that I really wanted to go and accompany that film I love, “he recalls.

“Now I have high hopes that the public will see it Bard. It was an incredible film to make, an experience where everything was new to me, where I learned something every day and the result is so amazing that I can’t wait to share it with a cinema full of people from all over the world. . “

-How long have you seen the film?

-Only a few days ago and I’m still surprised and I think a thousand things. Bard is gorgeous.

-Two days after “Bardo” screened “Argentina, 1985”, will you see him at the gala?

-I hope so, and to be able to go with the Argentine shirt!

We consulted Nicolás Giacobone, who has already had his experience in Venice with Birdmanwhich is, for him, the best that Venice has to offer, when compared to another festival.

“So far I have only participated in Cannes, Venice and Sundance. Sundance is completely different, it feels like going to Chapelco to present a film. It is unknown if one is there for work or on vacation. Cannes and Venice, although both cities are particular, in my case they were similar experiences. It gives the impression that they are like River-Boca, or Barcelona-Real Madrid, of festivals, but instead of competing for who gets the best players, they compete for who gets the best films. But that’s just my impression. “

-And what can happen with “Bardo”?

–Bardlike it Birdman, it is a difficult film to define and which motivates a lot to bring to the world. It is impossible to predict what will happen, it seems so far similar to the previous one. The best thing about going to festivals is celebrating the premiere with everyone who attended the film and sharing the excitement / terror of presenting a work to thousands of people who mostly ignore it.

Lucrecia Martel does not bring a feature film, but a short film, Housekeeper. produced by the National Autonomous University of Mexico through its Filmoteca and by the Argentine company REI Cine.

“I was asked to find a way to relate contemporary dance with audiovisual language – he said -. I decided to focus on the continuous movement of the body and the discontinuous movement of audiovisual language. The short film eventually became an exercise on linear time and non-linear time. In the plot there is linear time: a woman is preparing for a job as a maid, in difficult times for her family. Non-linear time is in all the rest typical of audiovisual language. Since it is short, it is easy to observe ”.

The next film from the director of The swamp will be the documentary chocolate baron the story of photographer and activist Javier Chocobar, who was murdered while fighting the expulsion of his indigenous community from their ancestral land in Argentina, which will air on MUBI.

Laura Citarella is sticking her tongue out, ending the sound of Trenque Lauquénan ambitious project that is divided into two films that will be screened together with the exhibition.

“In total, there are four hours”, he anticipates in a moment of rest a Clarione. -Citarella will have the honor Trenque Lauquén go to the New York Festival, and it will also be in San Sebastian, “and some festivals that are still being confirmed. In principle, everything makes me happy because it’s not just about bringing trench everywhere, but to close a long period of work “.

fierce competition

However, the competition for the Golden Lion will be contested for several titles, many from the United States, and many who have Netflix productionand who are probably in the running for the Oscars.

Venice, unlike Cannes, welcomes the streaming giant with open arms, because Italy does not have the same restrictions as France with regards to the exit “window”, the time that must elapse between when a film is shown at the cinema. and then reach a platform.

And they also gave him the honor of having, for the first time, the opening film, White noise (or Background noise), from the pampered Noah Baumbach here, who returns with his actor from story of a wedding, Adam Driver, to tell a very different story. Although it focuses on a family and a couple, it is the protagonist’s fear of death that prevails in the adaptation of Don DeLillo’s successful novel.

Good, Bardby González Iñárritu, which marks his return to feature films later the rebornand in Venice, where it had made its debut Birdmanis a Netflix production.

Also there is expectation with blondewith Ana de Armas in the role of Marilyn Monroeby Andrew Dominick, the director of Kill them softly, with Brad Pitt. It is already known that the film does not spare sex scenes. It will premiere on Netflix on September 28th. Another Netflix? Athenamodern tragedy by Romain Gavras, son of Constantin Costa-Gavras.

and what to talk about Don’t worry, honey, the film by Olivia Wilde that arouses controversy. The actress fired Shia LaBeouf, claiming she did it “to protect” the protagonist, Florence Pugh, but there is a 2020 video in which she contradicts her and asks her to return.

Anyway, in the film the male character is now played by Harry Styles… It hits theaters in Argentina on September 22 as Don’t worry honey.

And it will be The whaleby Darren Aronofsky, for which Brendan Fraser had to transform his physique to play a 250-pound man.

Will it be another great edition for Argentine cinema? There is nothing more to discover.

wd