ROME – Venice regains its position as the most sensible cultural destination with the opening of the Venice Film Festival, the first major in-person film exhibition of the coronavirus era after the cancellation of Cannes and other foreign festivals have selected to be basically online this year.
But make no mistake about it. The 77th edition of the world’s oldest film festival will look nothing like its predecessors.
Audiences will be excluded from the red carpet, Hollywood stars and movies will be largely absent and internal and external masks will be needed when the festival opens on Wednesday.
These strict measures are evidence of the hard line that Venice and the surrounding Veneto region took to involve the virus when it gave the impression on the lagoon city last February, unlike neighboring Lombardy, which has become the epicenter of the COVID-19 epidemic.in Europe, Veneto largely kept the virus under control with early local closures and general testing once it spread.
Biennale director Robert Cicutto said the resolution to host the festival is a vital sign of rebirth for Venice and the film industry, and said the delight at the Lido will serve as a “laboratory” for long-term cultural encounters. . .
“It will be a pleasure to know how to deal with an event” in the coVID era, he said when presenting this year’s Venice lineup.
The festival from 2 to 12 September marks Italy’s return to the world art scene after being the first Western country to be criticized through COVID.Even Tom Cruise’s “Mission: Impossible 7” in Venice at the time of 3 weeks of filming, had to withdraw.
The strict 10-week blockade in Italy has largely tamed the virus, however, infections are now recovering after the summer holidays. The health government is running to monitor passengers at airports and seaports in an attempt to identify imported cases before they spread.
Guests at the glamorous film festival are not exempt. If they arrive from outside Europe’s Schengen open area, they will be examined upon arrival. Other measures to restrict contagion include reserved and spaced seats for all projections and the requirement to wear masks even projections and exteriors.
“It is transparent that we will have to respect anti-COVID measures,” said Paola Mar, Venice’s head of culture.”Each of us has a non-public responsibility.And if we all do our job, we can restrict mistakes.”.»
But he said the exhibition had to happen, given the importance of the film festival and other long-term cultural contributions of the Biennale to the Venice economy, which is almost entirely based on tourism.
Restrictions on U.S. travel to Europe have caused Hollywood films, which use Venice as a springboard for other festivals and ultimately for the Oscars, not necessarily to show up this year.
That there is no prospect of Venice regulars George Clooney and Brad Pitt arriving by water taxi, that there are no red carpet photoshoots with Lady Gaga, who created “A Star is Born” here, or Joaquin Phoenix, whose ” Joker “won Venice’s first prize, the Golden Lion, last year before moving on to Oscar glory.
This year’s slightly reduced schedule still features films at country festivals, but it will be a predominantly European event.The Italian films are well represented, adding the first Italian film of the opening night in years, the circle of family drama outside the festival “Lacci” through Daniele Luchetti.
Two Italian documentaries filmed the lockout make their debut: Andrea Segre’s “Molecules”, a haunting look at an empty and airy Venice, opens on Tuesday as a preview film of the festival, and director Luca Guadagnino, whose documentary about Italian shoemaker Salvatore Ferragamo is an official out-of-competition film, has released a last-minute short film “Fiori , Fiori, Fiori!”about the renaissance with his fellow training years in Sicily, the confinement.
Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar releases his first English-based film, “The Human Voice,” which he filmed and edited in the weeks following the end of the Spanish lockup.The short film, an adaptation of Jean Cocteau’s play of the same name, stars Tilda.Swinton, who this year will win the Golden Lion for The Journey in Venice.
Cate Blanchett heads the jury, which Matt Dillon joined at the last minute following the retirement of Romanian director Cristi Puiu.
But other A-list celebrities remain largely out of the way.Venice itself still has a long way to go from the economic devastation of a pandemic, the interruption of cruise shipage stops and the closure of a high society city.
All this happened after Venice has already brought its knees through the historic flooding of “acqua alta” last November, which raised profound questions about how the Italian lagoon city will work as the climate replaces and emerging sea grades increase threats.
“The village hasn’t worked since November,” said gondolier Maurizio Carlotto.”There’s nothing. Absolutely nothing. Open hotels are partially empty.If you look at the restaurants at night, they’re empty.”
“To revive Venice, and tourism in general, we want this virus to stop,” he said, on a strangely empty channel. “They have to locate the antidote.”
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Visual journalist Brian Hendrie contributed from Venice.
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