28/07/2005

"A festival reduced to the essential, simplified". Marco Müller, director of the Mostra Venice International Festival , admitted that the 2004 version was too exhaustive, with increased numbers of titles in every section, which was largely responsible for complicating the festival. This morning, in Rome, Müller presented the list of films that would turn green with envy even the largest of world festivals. Among the titles in competition, we find a great number of European works, as well as three other main sections ("Out of competition", "Horizons" and "Short, very short") presenting the best of Asian and American cinema. "There are 54 features overall, added the director, on average 5 films per day, which match the current requirements of security measures against terrorism".

Among the European countries present on the Lido Island, Belgium and Spain will not be represented in competition, despite the marked renewal of the latter, with notably the success of (Jury Grand Prize and best male actor) of Mar adentro by Alejandro Amenabar last year. "We saw 45 Spanish films, explained Marco Müller, and we greatly appreciated the reflection in them". Müller revealed that La vida secreta de las palabras by Isabel Coixet will open the "Horizons" section. Fragile by Jaume Balaguer˜ will be screened out of competition.
On the contrary, Italy and France will have pride of place at the 62nd Mostra. The first, playing at home, has no less than three films in competition: La seconda notte di nozze by Pupi Avati, La bestia nel cuore by Cristina Comencini and I giorni dell’abbandono by Roberto Faenza. In the "Horizons"section, we find Musikanten, by musician Franco Battiato, and Texas, by Fausto Paradivino. The special event of this section will be Kill Gil by Gil Rossellini, son of Roberto master of Italian cinema, also documentary maker, screenwriter and producer across the genres. Worth noting too among the Italian productions, the new feature by Abel Ferrara, Mary (in competition) and The Fine Art of Love - Mine Haha, by Englishman John Irving (out of competition), co-produced with the Czech republic and the UK.

For its part, France bring three high-flying directors: Laurent Cantet, who presents Vers le sud (with Charlotte Rampling), Patrice Chéreau who screens Gabrielle (with Isabelle Huppert) and Philippe Garrel who offers up Les Amants réguliers. It was also confirmed that the films by Emmanuelle Bercot and Bruno Podalydes will be screened out of competition, while East of Paradise by Lech Kowalsky and Carmen by Jean-Pierre Limosin take part in the "Horizons" section.

Portugal too takes its place among the competitors with two films: the last masterpiece by the great De Oliveira and O Fatalista by Joao Botelho. Britain is represented by the visionary Terry Gilliam, whose film, The Brothers Grimm tells the story of the most famous writers of fables, the brothers Grimm. The official selection includes also two interesting competitors: John Madden with Proof and Fernando Meirelles with The Constant Gardener. the great German filmmaker Werner Herzog screens his The Wild Blue Yonder in the "Horizons" section, where he will come across his countryman Philip Gröning (Die Grosse Stille) and the Austrian Michael Glawogger (Workingman's Death). Another master, this time from Poland, will also be there: Persona non grata, a story of love in the time of Solidarnosc imagined by Krzysztof Zanussi, is one of the titles in competition.

62nd Venice Film Festival - In competition

Pupi AVATI La seconda notte di nozze Italy 103’
Antonio Albanese, Katia Ricciarelli, Neri Marcorè

João BOTELHO O Fatalista Portugal/France 99’
Rogério Samora, André Gomes, Rita Blanco

Laurent CANTET Vers le sud France/Canada 105’
Charlotte Rampling, Karen Young, Louise Portal

Patrice CHÉREAU Gabrielle Franca/Italy 90’
Isabelle Huppert, Pascal Greggory, Thierry Hancisse

George CLOONEY Goodnight and Good Luck USA 90’
David Strathairn, George Clooney, Jeff Daniels, Robert Downey Jr, Patricia Clarkson

Cristina COMENCINI La bestia nel cuore Italy 112’
Giovanna Mezzogiorno, Luigi Lo Cascio, Alessio Boni, Stefania Rocca, Angela Finocchiaro

Roberto FAENZA I giorni dell’abbandono Italy 96’
Margherita Buy, Luca Zingaretti, Goran Bregovic

Abel FERRARA Mary Italy/USA 83’
Juliette Binoche, Matthew Modine, Forest Whitaker

Philippe GARREL Les Amants réguliers France/Italy 178’
Louis Garrel, Clothilde Hesme, Julien Lucas

Aleksey GERMAN JR Garpastum Rusia 114’
Chulpan Khamatova, Evgeny Pronin, Danila Kozlovsky

Terry GILLIAM The Brothers Grimm UK 120’
Matt Damon, Heath Ledger, Jonathan Pryce, Monica Bellucci

Stanley KWAN Changhen ge China/Hong Kong 120’
Sammi Cheng, Tony Ka Fai Leung, Jun Hu

Ang LEE Brokeback Mountain Canada 134’
Jake Gyllenhaal, Heath Ledger, Michelle Williams, Anne Hathaway

John MADDEN Proof UK/USA 100’
Gwyneth Paltrow, Jake Gyllenhaal, Anthony Hopkins

Fernando MEIRELLES The Constant Gardener UK/Kenia/Germany 128’
Ralph Fiennes, Rachel Weisz, Hubert Koundé, Sidede Onyulo

Manoel de OLIVEIRA Espelho magico Portugal 137’
Michel Piccoli, Marisa Paredes, Leonor Silveira, Ricardo Trepa

PARK Chan-wook Chin-jeol-han Geum-ja-ssi (Sympathy for Lady Vengeance) Korea 112’
Lee Young-ae, Choi Min-sik, Kwon Yea-young, Kim Si-hu, Nam Il-woo

John TURTURRO Romance and Cigarettes USA 115’
James Gandolfini, Kate Winslet, Susan Sarandon, Christopher Walken

Krzysztof ZANUSSI Persona non grata Poland/Rusia/Italy 110’
Zbigniew Zapasiewicz, Nikita Mikhalkov, Jerzy Stuhr, Remo Girone

(Translated from Italian)