In the Venetian Lido, in front of the famous Palazzo del Cinema, in other words, the Cinema Palace, and next to the red carpet, more and more groups of young people are taking up positions … of battle. Some of them boarded the first boat at 6:45 am. in order to find the best place and camp normally: spread out mats or newspapers, a portable refrigerator, umbrellas, small stairs (to get a better view), picnic supplies. They will stay there all day until sunset when the movie stars arrive. An autograph or, even better, a selfie is their reward, but for most, just seeing them up close is enough.

After all, this “ritual” has been going on for three years. Last year, the stars came to the red carpet, but they were separated from the assembled fans by a high fence so that there was no crowding. However, this year the organizers of the Film Biennale have removed almost all the restrictions associated with the pandemic: no fences, no express tests, no temperature readings, no masks. Using the latter is “highly recommended” indoors, but most people don’t pay attention to it. Instead, they seem very happy to be able to enjoy the festival again as they remember it. The ever-growing enthusiasm of the crowd is expressed in hundreds of happy selfies and videos that are sure to make their way to social media with “I’m there too” posts. A little further on, some normal models participating in the campaign of a famous alcoholic look much more bored…

What is certain, however, is that we are never bored. Screenings in the Lido theaters have already started from Wednesday lunch, and despite the fuss with accreditations, we managed to see our first films. We open the brackets to say that from an organizational point of view, this is generally some kind of mess; too many professionals, including ourselves, were inconvenienced for an hour and lost views on Wednesday due to a system crash and an inability to issue credentials. The other system, the e-booking system, annoys everyone and forced the president of the festival, Alberto Barbera, to give (not very convincing) explanations.

End of parentheses – and grumblings – as the rest of Mostra this year has started off very promisingly so far where it really counts, which is on screen. It was the first time we saw Todd Field’s TAR, where Cate Blanchett gave an amazing performance, which does not rule out the presentation of the appropriate award to her at the closing ceremony on September 10th. The great Australian actress plays Lydia Tarr, an eminent conductor who is preparing to perform a major work by Mahler with the renowned Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, which she conducts. However, somewhere out there, both her personal life and public image are plummeting after a series of unpleasant incidents and revelations.

The 79th Venice Film Festival is gaining momentum and approaching the first weekend of great films and long-awaited novelties.

Cancellation culture

Without saying much about Field’s film, which, despite being overly long (over 2.5 hours), cleverly tackles the contemporary issue of cancellation culture, we should definitely stop at Cate Blanchett. Having already won two Oscars, the actress is simply amazing here, speaking different languages, including music, and playing with her face, her body, her very soul.

A few tens of meters away from the TAR press show, distinguished guests of the event gathered for a brilliant opening ceremony. “I love cinema. I love going to the cinema. I want to be in the cinema with people I don’t know. It’s not just the sound. It’s the atmosphere. At home, everything is very different. You don’t feel the same,” said the great Catherine Deneuve, who 55 years after her first appearance on Mostra – she won with Buñuel’s “Beauty of the Day” – was awarded this year for all her contribution to Art Seven.Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky appeared in the room with a video message, and immediately after hundreds of names of young children who have so far died in the war in Ukraine flashed across the screen, setting off “ice storms” inside and outside the room.

Outside the Palace, however, it was young stars that caught the eye, most notably the ever-rising Adam Driver. The American actor starred in the opening film of the festival, based on the novel of the same name by Don DeLillo “White Noise”, which was filmed for Netflix by Noah Baubach. Driver plays Jack Gladney, a university student who raises an army of kids in 1980s America with his wife, Babette (Greta Gerwig). Using bright colors in photography and plenty of dark humor in the script, Baubach depicts the everyday life of the family, punctuated by various paradoxes. The culmination is a sudden accidental contamination of the atmosphere (parallels with a pandemic are inevitable), forming a black and red cloud, also suspiciously similar to those in Stranger Things. Either way, the real monster here is the horror of death, which the film explores more in hindsight to 2022 than through DeLillo.

All this as the 79th Venice Film Festival is now gaining momentum, approaching the first weekend full of great films and long-awaited visits to Mostra. Of course, traffic on the Lido is also increasing, but that’s nothing compared to the chaos that reigns in the rest of Venice. There is no reason for a pandemic.