Each year on the occasion of the Venice Film Festival, or Mostra Internazionale d'Arte Cinematografica della Biennale di Venezia, the city of lagoons is abuzz with the elegance charcateristic of classic Italian cinema.
At the event’s grand opening ― to which Lady Gaga has arrived in the past perched atop a water taxi, sporting stilettos, a vintage silhouette and sleek victory rolls ― the oldschool glamour embodied by stars and industry professionals might leave onlookers expecting a young Sophia Loren or Marcello Mastroianni to strut round the corner, cameras flashing before their Prada shades.
For the festival’s 79th opening ceremony on Wednesday night, homage to the cinematic splendours of yore extended beyond the sartorial, with the evening welcoming legendary actress and 1960s icon of the French New Wave Catherine Deneuve, who accepted her career Gold Lion, the coveted lifetime-achievement award.
Magnetic and beautiful as ever, Deneuve seemed keen to refute her cultural perception as une bombe, defiantly telling reporters that she has "never been sexy or an icon”, that “It’s not the major thing for me when I work.”
Deneuve was also reticent about a pin of the Ukrainian flag that she sported on her chest, saying "I don't want to say anything because my words could be misunderstood".
The 78-year-old star has a decades-spanning history with the awards ceremony, going all the way back to 1967, when she gave a legendary and nuanced portrayal of a housewife turned sex worker in Luis Buñuel’s Golden Lion winner Belle de Jour.
Catherine Deneuve with Gold Lion at Venice Film Festival opening night. (Photo: AAP)
The legend also won Best Actress in 1998 for her compelling performance in Nicole Garcia’s Place Vendôm.
In spite of this year’s winks at the past, however, the 79th edition of the festival boasts some bold affirmations of the new, opening with Oscar award-winning director Noah Baumbach’s White Noise― the first ever Netflix film to inaugurate the event. Based on a book by Don DeLillo, and starring Adam Driver, Greta Gerwig and Don Cheadle, the film examines an American family's quest to find solace in an uncertain world.
"It is a great honour to open the 79th Venice Film Festival with White Noise," said Festival Director Alberto Barbera.
"Adapted from the great Don DeLillo novel, Baumbach has made an original, ambitious and compelling piece of art... dramatic, ironic, satirical.”
“The result is a film that examines our obsessions, doubts, and fears as captured in the 1980's, yet with very clear references to contemporary reality."
Baumbach is making his awaited return to the Lido after having premiered Marriage Story at Venice in 2019, a film which, also starring Driver alongside Scarlett Johansson as a warring couple struggling to navigate a coast-to-coast divorce, won Laura Dern the 2020 Oscar for Best Supporting Actress.
Adam Driver suits up to walk the Lido red carpet. (Photo: AAP)
Of the 17 films competing this year, five are helmed by Italian directors, namely Emanuele Crialese’s L’immensità, Gianni Amelio’s Il Signore Delle Formiche, Andrea Pallaoro’s Monica, Luca Guadagnino’s Bones and All and Susanna Nicchiarelli’s Chiara.
Guadanigno’s 2022 offering has been highly anticipated, seeing him reunite with muse Timothee Chalamet , who plays a love-sick cannibal in the horror, for the first time since 2017’s beloved Call Me by Your Name.
Other hot titles on the line-up include Olivia Wilde’s sophomore feature Don’t Worry Darling, starring it-girl Florence Pugh and pop star Harry styles in his first starring role, as well as Darren Aronofsky’s The Whale starring Brendan Fraser, an actor who has shied from the limelight for almost two decades.
Off to a roaring start with its first iteration to return to pre-Covid norms, the spectacle has only just begun, with global cinephiles bracing themselves for the announcement of the triumphs, wins and thrills to come.
