On August 29, local time, the 75th Venice Film Festival kicked off on Lido Island in Water city.
Damien Chazelle, the director of the 2016 opening film "City of Philharmonics," has unveiled the Venice Film Festival again this time with her new film, First Man. Returning to the opening red carpet with him was actor Ryan Gosling, and it's no wonder that festival president Paolo Baratta warmly said to them at the opening ceremony: "Welcome back!" In addition, the film's heroine, British actress Claire Foy, also attended the opening ceremony.
"The First Man on the Moon" directors Damien Chazere (third from left), Kai Ryan Gosling (second from right) and Claire Foy (first from right) appear on the opening red carpet of the Venice Film Festival
Based on a biography by American astronaut Neil Armstrong, First Man on the Moon recreates the glorious and shocking moon landings in human history in the 1960s, revealing to the audience what is behind this world-famous feat. Ryan Gosling plays the protagonist Armstrong and Claire Foy plays his wife.
Ryan Gosling
Claire Foy
Earlier, Alberto Barbera, artistic director of the Venice Film Festival, announced "The First Man on the Moon" as the opening film: "This is a work with a distinct personal style, a strong tension, and an unexpectedly wonderful modern epic." Judging from the feedback after the screening of yesterday's film, this is true.
The crew of "The First Man on the Moon" appeared at the premiere
At the screening site, the audience gave a standing ovation for three minutes. Subsequently, film critics have posted articles praising the film, and its "Rotten Tomatoes" praise rate is as high as 92%. The Hollywood Reporter praised the film as "sober and profound", "both emotionally advanced, tense looking, and amazing cinematic craftsmanship" and "extremely intelligent handling of this important historical moment". Variety also praised the film as "a realist revelation, a gritty core, redefining the subject of spaceflight"; and described the difference between the film and the previous moon landing films, just like the difference between "Saving Private Ryan" and its previous war films.
Director Damien Chazere stepped onto the red carpet with his wife
In addition to the screening of "The First Man on the Moon," British actress Vanessa Redgrave received the Golden Lion award for lifetime achievement at the brief opening ceremony, and her latest film, Aspern Papers, adapted from Henry James's novel, will also be screened at the festival, set in Venice.
Today, one of the most closely watched films, "Roma," directed by Mexican director Alfonso Cuarón, will debut. At the previous meeting of the judges of the main competition unit, a reporter asked the chairman of the jury, Gilmour del Toro, whether he would take special care of his Mexican compatriot and friend. He joked: "I'm not alone, I'm not a dictator!" As for the film's failure to qualify for the Cannes Film Festival because of the investor Netflix's unique distribution model, Del Toro commented: "The quality of a film should be determined by the content in the box itself, not other factors." It is also an indirect criticism of Cannes' approach.
In addition to the film competition, this year's Venice Film Festival had to face an issue, that is, "gender equality".
Undoubtedly, "gender equality" has become the hottest issue in the global film industry, and film festivals naturally cannot stay out of it. At the Cannes Film Festival in May, fumao, the head of the festival, made a commitment that in the future, Cannes will strive to achieve gender equality, the so-called 20/20 project. Later, the Locarno Film Festival also followed up, and also signed this commitment letter, promising to be more transparent in the registration and screening of films, and to achieve gender equality in a similar way to "top-level design".
However, this year's Venice Film Festival was criticized for having only one female director in the 21 entries (compared to this year's Cannes, where three of the 17 films were directed). Previously, when asked by reporters about this matter, artistic director Alberto Barbera took a tough attitude and said that everything was based on the film itself as the only criterion, not who watched the film and what gender it belonged to. He insisted that choosing a film only depends on its quality, which is the greatest respect for the art of cinema. "If you add a film to our list of films purely because the director of a film is a woman, it is actually an offense to the director himself." If someone had forced me to do that, I would have quit my job and changed my job. "In his view, to change, we must change from the source, that is, to give more female directors the opportunity to make movies, so that more women have the opportunity to become directors." We can't rely on the film festival to change this situation. According to a set of figures released by this year's Venice Film Festival, only about 21% of the films that signed up for the competition were directed by women.
He also said no to the pledges from Cannes and Locarno. During this year's Venice Film Festival, whether this agreement will be signed can be said to be concerned by the global film community.
In a press conference before the opening, del Toro said of this: "I think the first thing to do is to clarify a goal, which is to do 50/50 by 2020. It would be even better if we could do it a year earlier and in 2019. This is a serious issue that is pervasive in our culture. "But he also said that the problem itself is not that the numbers are up to date." It's not that setting a quota is the end of it, the most important thing is to ask questions, to speak up, to question, to make everyone aware of such problems. I think it's all essential, because no one has raised the issue for decades or even centuries. This is not a controversial issue, it is a real drawback. It must be completely eradicated vigorously and with determination. ”
Del Toro also mentioned the composition of the jury: "We are five women and four men, and this approach is of great significance in itself at a time when the relevant issues are entering an important stage. This is not a deliberate gesture, but a real need. At the same time, he also revealed his efforts in this regard: "I am working on five films at the same time, three of which are directed by women, and two of the three are the first to direct feature films." ”
On the other hand, Barbera's confidence is not entirely unreasonable. This year's Venice film lineup is extremely strong, and he has boasted that it is a grand event that "can only be seen in ten years". It is also true that even compared with the Cannes Film Festival, which is the first of the "three major European film festivals", it is no less than that. It would be a pity to squeeze out one or more of them just to achieve gender fairness.