The usual suspects are named in Screen’s spitballing of the upcoming 81st Venice Film Festival: Leigh, Larrain, Guadagnino, Phillips, Martel, Salles and Schnabel. These are the recurrent names that we keep hearing about.
There is also, finally, mention of Brady Corbet’s “The Brutalist,” which is being “tipped” for a competition slot. No surprise there, Corbet’s last film, “Vox Lux,” premiered at Venice in 2018. “The Brutalist” stars Adrien Brody, Felicity Jones, Guy Pearce and Joe Alwyn. Here’s the synopsis:
When visionary architect László Toth and his wife Erzsébet flee post-war Europe in 1947 to rebuild their legacy and witness the birth of modern America, their lives are changed forever by a mysterious and wealthy client.
Also mentioned in the Screen piece is Francois Ozon’s “When Fall Is Coming,” they additionally note that not many French films are expected on the Lido this year. I’m fairly certain we’re getting Emmanuel Mouret’s “Une Chose et Son Contraire,” which was offered a Cannes Premiere slot but opted for a comp berth at Venice. I’m also hearing French duo Ludovic and Zoran Boukherma’s “Their Children After Them” might show up on the Lido as well.
In Asia, watch out for Yeo Siew Hua’s “Stranger Eyes” which I’m told has impressed Venice programmers and will definitely be part of the lineup. Whether it’s in competition or not, I wasn’t told.
Tom Tykwer’s “The Light,” which I’ve been hearing great things about, could be a major comeback for the German filmmaker. Tykwer is known for “Run Lola Run,” “Perfume” and “Cloud Atlas,” but hasn’t directed a film since the 2016 Tom Hanks starring “Hologram for a King.”
In “The Light” (Das Licht), which is set in present day in Berlin, Tykwer draws the portrait of a modern family between collapse and new beginnings and deals with the big issues of our times, in a world that is reeling.
As for Steve McQueen’s “Blitz,” nobody knows what’s going on with that film. I’ve emailed a few people these last few weeks, and haven’t gotten a concrete answer as to what fall plans Apple has for the film. At this point, and given the setting of the film, I wouldn’t be surprised if it just premieres at the London Film Festival.
There’s still no distribution pact for McQueen's film. Apple would surely want this one to have a significant US theatrical run, as part of the agreement, but nothing has been announced yet.
LATEST VENICE COMPETITION PREDICTIONS:
Luca Guadagnino’s “Queer”
Pedro Almodovar’s “The Room Next Door”
Pablo Larrain’s “Maria”
Todd Phillips’ “Joker: Folie a Deux”
Lucrecia Martel’s “Chocobar”
Mike Leigh’s “Hard Truths”
Walter Salles’s “I’m Still Here”
Julian Schnabel’s “In the Hands of Dante”
Brady Corbet’s “The Brutalist”
Francois Ozon’s “When Fall Is Coming,”
Michel Franco’s “Dreams”
Sebastian Lelio’s “The Wave”
Tom Tykwer’s “The Light”
Dea Kulumbegashvili’s “Those Who Find Me”
Emmanuel Mouret’s “Une Chose et Son Contraire”
Pietro Marcello’s “Duze”
Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s “Cloud”
Zoran Boukherma’s “Their Children After Them”
Maura Delpero’s “The Mountain Bride”
Yeo Siew Hua’s “Stranger Eyes”
That’s 19 titles, two of them are Italian (Delpero and Marcello). There are usually 4-5 Italian films that crack the competition. I figure the following are top contenders …
Gianni Amelio’s “Battlefield”
Gabriele Salvatores’ “Napoli”
Marco Tullio Giordana’s “The Life Apart”
Fabio Grassadonia and Antonio Piazza’s “Iddu”
Uberto Pasolini’s “The Return”
Paolo Gep Cucco and Davide Livermore’s “The Opera!”
Non-Italian possibilities for Venice …
Steve McQueen’s “Blitz”
Rodrigo Prieto’s “Pedro Paramo”
Hong Sang-soo’s “Untitled”
Athina Rachel Tsangari’s “Harvest”
Justin Kurzel’s “The Order”
Xavier Beauvois’ “La Vallée des fous”
Robert Guédiguian’s “La Pie Voleuse”
RaMell Ross’ “The Nickel Boys”
Joshua Oppenheimer’s “The End”
Andrew Patterson’s “The Rivals of Amziah King”
Jon Watts’ “Wolfs”
David Gordon Green’s “Nutcrackers”
Jeremy Saulnier’s “Rebel Ridge”
Wei Shujun’s “Untitled”
Aleksandre Koberidze avec David Koberidze’s “Dry Leaf”
Malcolm Washington’s “The Piano Lesson”
Robert Zemeckis’ “Here”
Aude-Lea Rapin’s “Planete B”
Fabrice Du Welz’s “Maldoror”
Harmony Korine’s “Baby Invasion”
Guillaume Senez’s “Une Part Manquante”
Kirill Serebrennikov’s “The Disappearance”
Wei Shuju’s “Sunshine Club”
Hikmat Rahimov’s “Apathy”