ITALY: Preparations are underway at the Venice Lido ahead of the 64th Venice film festival

Venice prepares for a star-studded festival with a line-up including the latest films from Hollywood A-listers Brad Pitt and George Clooney as well as acclaimed directors Ken Loach and Ang Lee. The Venice Film Festival, which kicks off on Wednesday (August 29), gets serious this year with competition films about the Iraq war and its impact on U.S. society, police brutality in Egypt, big corporation corruption and the mafia in Italy. There are 22 movies vying for the coveted Golden Lion award at the end of the 11-day celebration of cinema, famous for red carpet glamour, late night parties on the canals of Venice and critical kudos of being part of the world's oldest film contest. Director Marco Mueller has assembled a Hollywood-heavy line up for this year's festival, which opens with "Atonement", the screen adaptation of Ian McEwan's acclaimed novel starring Keira Knightley. "We don't select movies because a certain star plays in it, we select movies because they are beautiful, full stop. I mean we selected 60 films so of course there was a very clear system hierarchies and priorities. Some films were more beautiful and stronger than the others. Unfortunately there is no other way we can comment on them, we go for the better films and we are only happy if some of the better films have some well-known talents who can defend the film together with the director," Mueller told Reuters on Tuesday (August 28). Two competition films are about Iraq, part of a spate of movies on the topic due to hit theatres over the coming months. Paul Haggis' "In the Valley of Elah", starring Tommy Lee Jones, Charlize Theron and Susan Sarandon, is the eagerly anticipated film based on the real-life murder of a young soldier who returned to the United States from Iraq. It is up against Brian De Palma's "Redacted", which tells the story of a U.S. army unit that persecutes an Iraqi family and also examines the way media cover the conflict. There will be comedy too, notably Wes Anderson's "The Darjeeling Limited" starring Owen Wilson, Adrien Brody, Anjelica Huston and Bill Murray. But its launch on the Lido waterfront is likely to be overshadowed by news of Wilson's hospitalisation this weekend. The 38-year-old had been expected in Venice for the premiere, but that now looks unlikely. His spokeswoman has declined to discuss Wilson's medical condition after media reports he attempted suicide. Also tackling topical issues in Venice are "Michael Clayton", starring George Clooney as a "fixer" who does a major corporation's dirty work, Italy's "Il Dolce e L'Amaro" about the mafia, and Egypt's "Heya Fawda" investigating police brutality. The annual festival, whichon Sept. 8, is both a key showcase of art house cinema and an early marker ahead of the Oscars in February. Ang Lee's "Brokeback Mountain" won the Golden Lion for best film in 2005, and went on to garner eight Oscar nominations. The long list of stars expected this year will be hoping to generate similar early buzz. Other highlights in competition include Brad Pitt in "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford". Critics have questioned Mueller's decision to choose so many Hollywood productions this year, but some see it as the result of increasing competition from film festivals like Toronto and Rome. "The most obvious aspect of the festival this year is the fact that there is such a huge bias towards English and American cinema, I mean we have 15 American films, seven British films in official competition followed by a handful of European films, a few Asian films, and some big gaps on the world map as well. For example there's nothing from Latin America apart from one Portuguese film a couple of Mexican films again Latin America is an area which has been quite exciting in recent years in terms of cinema. Argentina for example, Uruguay have come up with some really, quite powerful films. There is nothing from Africa, there are no Scandinavian films this year," Lee Marshall, 'Screen International' film critic told Reuters.

ITN Source | August 30, 2007

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