The 67th Venice Film Festival, curated by Marco Mueller and his team of selectors, is probably the most packed edition ever seen in the Lido’s long and prestigious history.
An impressive number of titles, particularly Italian ones (47 out of a total of 140), will join those in the fringe sections which are equally important and filled with possible surprises, such as the “International Critics’ Week” and the “Giornate degli Autori “” Venice Days”.
Italy has four films in competition: the debut movie from Ascanio Celestini, “La pecora nera”, “The Solitude of prime numbers” by Saverio Costanzo, “Noi credevamo” by Mario Martone, and “La passione” by Carlo Mazzacurati.
This contribution is emphasized in Controcampo Italiano and repeated in the “˜Out of Competition’ section.
Three titles stand out: “˜Vallanzasca’, to be released by 20th Century Fox on December 22nd, “˜Gorbaciof ‘, distributed by Lucky Red and “˜Sorelle Mai’ by Marco Bellocchio.
Venice’s importance and authority are further confirmed by the wide selection of documentaries which include titles with highcommercial potential such as John Turturro’s “˜La Passione’ (Cinecittà Luce), “˜Niente Paura “” Come siamo, come eravamo e le canzoni di Luciano Ligabue” by Piergiorgio Gay (Bim) and the latest work by Giuseppe Tornatore dedicated to Goffredo Lombardo entitled “˜L’ultimo Gattopardo’.
Having said this, we should also mention the negative effect of this abundance of product aimed at the movie theater market which is obviously unable to absorb such a high number of (high quality) films. Although in recent years the theatrical summer has gradually “˜normalized’, with a series of important releases despite events like the Soccer World Cup, the falling number of Italian movie releases continues to be partly due to the choices made for Venice.
It is evident that, in the era of the Multiplex, films d’auteur will not be able to improve the fortunes of the summer season but, at the same time, it is also clear that in the months following the Venice Film Festival, many movies will be unable to find a space for their theatrical release until the early months of the following year, defeating the possible beneficial promotional effects of the press coverage they received at the Lido.