Glamour & discovery

30/07/2002 - Moritz De Hadeln presents the 59th 'Mostra' and promises a full programme

It will be a festival of variety and discovery. This is the promise of the new director of the Venice Film Festival, Moritz De Hadeln, who today presented the programme for the 59th edition of the event, which will take place from August 28 – September 8. De Hadeln was the director of the Berlin Festival for 22 years and at the last minute, in March, he received the Italian appointment: “It’s a miracle that we’ve put together a programme as interesting, rich and varied as this in just over 4 months”.
De Hadeln stressed the “painful choice” which led to the exclusion of certain films and has admitted that he’s taken some risks, announcing the films with a month to go before the opening of the festival: “Of all the films announced today which are confirmed as of now, some may not be available by the time the exhibition starts”.
The idea of the two parallel competitions has been maintained: “Venezia 59” stays essentially for a more classic type of cinematographic language, whereas “Controcorrente”, is for more innovative works. Along with these two competitions, there’s also the “Nuovi territori” section and a retrospective dedicated to Michelangelo Antonioni.
De Hadeln is said to be especially happy that this year there’ll be 19 first works appearing in the various sections of the festival: “our wish is to help cinema to remain alive, also in the future”. Italian cinema is well represented, with three films in competition. European films include Dirty Pretty Things, by Stephen Frears (GB); Bear's Kiss by Sergej Bodrov (Germany, France, Spain, Italy and Sweden); Nackt by Doris Dörrie (Germany); L'homme du train by Patrice Leconte (France); Un viaggio chiamato amore by Michele Placido (Italy); Nha Fala by Flora Gomes (Portugal, France, Luxemburg).
The guests who’ve so far confirmed their attendance are Harrison Ford, Sofia Loren (who’s been absent from Venice for 20 years), Julianne Moore, Tom Hanks, Salma Hayek, Angelica Huston and Catherine Deneuve.

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VENEZIA 59 – In competition

Julie TAYMOR – Frida (USA) – Opening Feature

Sergej BODROV - Bear's Kiss (Germany; France; Spain; Italy; Sweden)

Winfried BONENGEL - Führer Ex (Germany)

CHANG Tso-Chi - Meili Shiguang (The Best of Times) (Taiwan)

Stephen DALDRY - The Hours (USA)

Michel DEVILLE - Un monde presque paisible (France)

Doris DÖRRIE – Nackt (Germany)

Stephen FREARS - Dirty Pretty Things (UK)

Piergiorgio GAY - La forza del passato (Italy)

Flora GOMES - Nha Fala (La mia voce) (Portugal; France; Luxemburg)

Rolf de HEER - The Tracker (Australia)

Agnieszka HOLLAND - Julie Walking Home (Germany; Canada; Polonia)

Takeshi KITANO – Dolls (Japon)

Andrej KONČALOVSKIJ - Dom Durakov (La maison de fous) (Russia ; France)

Patrice LECONTE - L'homme du train (France)

LEE Chang-Dong - Oasis (Korea)

Tonie MARSHALL - Au plus près du paradis (France ; Spain ; Canada)

Sam MENDES - Road to Perdition (USA)

Peter MULLAN - The Magdalene Sisters (UK)

Michele PLACIDO - Un viaggio chiamato amore (Italy)

Daniele VICARI - Velocità massima (Italy)

Venezia 59 – Out of competition – Special Events

Enzo BALESTRIERI and Stefano MOSER - Clown in' Kabul (Italy)

Kathryn BIGELOW - K-19:The Widowmaker (USA)

Liliana CAVANI - Ripley's Game (Italy; UK)

Giulio CINGOLI - Johan Padan A la descoverta de le Americhe (Italia)

Clint EASTWOOD - Bloodwork (USA)

Manuel GUTIERREZ ARAGON - El caballero Don Quixote (Spain)

Todd HAYNES - Far From Heaven (USA)

John MALKOVICH - Dancer Upstairs (Spain; USA)

Edoardo PONTI - Between Strangers (Canada; Italy)

Godfrey REGGIO – Naqoyqatsi (USA)

Marcel SCHÜPBACH - B comme Béjart (Switzerland; France; Belgium)

Paolo VIRZÌ - My name is Tanino (Italy)

Bernardo BERTOLUCCI, Claire DENIS, Mike FIGGIS, Jean-Luc GODARD, Jirí MENZEL, Michael RADFORD, Volker SCHLÖNDORFF, István SZABÒ - Ten Minutes Older: The Cello (Germany; UK)

Youssef CHAHINE, Amos GITAI, Shohei IMAMURA, Alejandro INARRITU, Claude LELOUCH, Ken LOACH, Samira MAKHMALBAF, Mira NAIR, Idrissa OUEDRAOGO, Sean PENN, Danis TANOVIC - 11’09’’01 - September 11 (France)

Controcorrente - In competition

Fruit CHAN - Renmin Gongche (Public Toilet) (Hong-Kong; Korea)

Larry CLARK e Ed LACHMAN - Ken Park (USA; Hollanda; France)

Claire DENIS - Vendredi soir (France)

Raymond DEPARDON - Un homme sans l'occident (France)

Chus GUTIERREZ - Poniente (Spain)

Manijeh HEKMAT - Zendan-e Zanan (Women's Prison) (Iran)

LU Chuan - Xun Qiang (Missing Gun) (China)

Roviros MANTHOULIS - Lilly's story (Greece; France)

Lukas MOODYSSON - Lilja 4-Ever (Sweden; Denmark)

Arturo RIPSTEIN - La virgen de la lujuria (Spain; Mexico; Portugal)

Sergio RUBINI - L'anima gemella (Italy)