Venice, Venice, Venice

The lineup for this year's Venice Film Festival (the 66th of its kind) was announced yesterday. It runs from September 2-12, and I'll be attending this year (yay!). All the headlines were for Michael Moore, whose new documentary about the world's economic meltdown, Capitalism: A Love Story will premiere there, and Werner Herzog's "remake" of Bad Lieutenant starring Nicholas Cage will also be shown. An even juicier element is that Abel Ferrara, Lieutenant's original director, who upon hearing of Herzog's version stated that he hoped everyone connected with the film would be "blown up", is bringing his own film Napoli, Napoli, Napoli to the festival.

On a personal note the most appetising of the in-competition films is probably Tom Ford (former creative director of Gucci) debuting with the story of a grieving gay man, played by Colin Firth and co-starring none other than Julianne Moore! John Hillcoat's long-awaited The Road will also be premiering, and films from favourites such as Steven Soderbergh, Jacques Rivette, Claire Denis, Patrice Cherau, and Todd Solondz will feature. George Clooney and Ewan McGregor may be there in support of Clooney's Goodnight and Good Luck co-writer Grant Heslov, who directs the pair in the political comedy The Men Who Stare At Goats, which I assume is pushing for some buzz and a release in time for awards season.

Here is the full lineup:-

Venezia 66
International competition of feature films, presented as world premieres.

36 VUES DU PIC SAINT LOUP - JACQUES RIVETTE
France, 84'
Jane Birkin, Sergio Castellitto, André Marcon, Jacques Bonnaffé


AHASIN WETEI (BETWEEN TWO WORLDS) - VIMUKHTI JAYASUNDARA
Sri Lanka, 80'
Thusitha Laknath, Kaushalya Fernando, Huang Lu


BAARÌA - GIUSEPPE TORNATORE
Italy, 150'
Francesco Scianna, Margareth Madè, Raoul Bova, Enrico Lo Verso, Michele Placido, Vincenzo Salemme, Monica Bellucci, Laura Chiatti


BAD LIEUTENANT: PORT OF CALL NEW ORLEANS - WERNER HERZOG
USA, 121'
Nicolas Cage, Eva Mendes, Val Kilmer, Michael Shannon


CAPITALISM: A LOVE STORY - MICHAEL MOORE
USA, 120'
(documentary)


EL MOSAFER (THE TRAVELLER) - AHMED MAHER
Egypt, 125'
Omar Sharif, Cyrine AbdelNour, Khaled El Nabawy


IL GRANDE SOGNO - MICHELE PLACIDO
Italy, 101'
Riccardo Scamarcio, Jasmine Trinca, Luca Argentero, Laura Morante, Silvio Orlando


LA DOPPIA ORA - GIUSEPPE CAPOTONDI
Italy, 95'
Ksenia Rappoport, Filippo Timi, Giorgio Colangeli

LEI WANGZI (PRINCE OF TEARS) - YONFAN
China - Taiwan, Hong Kong, 120'
Chih-Wei Fan, Terri Kwan, Joseph Chang, Kenneth Tsang


LEVANON (LEBANON) - SAMUEL MAOZ
Israel, 92'
Yoav Donat, Itay Tiran, Oshri Cohen


LIFE DURING WARTIME - TODD SOLONDZ
USA, 92'
Ciarán Hinds, Emma Hinz, Charlotte Rampling


LO SPAZIO BIANCO - FRANCESCA COMENCINI
Italy, 96'
Margherita Buy, Guido Caprino, Salvatore Cantalupo


LOURDES - JESSICA HAUSNER
Austria, 99'
Sylvie Testud, Léa Seydoux, Bruno Todeschini


MR. NOBODY - JACO VAN DORMAEL
France,
Jared Leto, Diane Kruger, Sarah Polley


PERSÉCUTION - PATRICE CHÉREAU
France, 100'
Romain Duris, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Jean Hugues Anglade, Alex Descas


THE ROAD - JOHN HILLCOAT
USA, 112'
Charlize Theron, Viggo Mortensen, Guy Pearce, Robert Duvall


A SINGLE MAN - TOM FORD
USA, 99'
Colin Firth, Julianne Moore, Matthew Goode

SOUL KITCHEN - FATIH AKIN
Germany, 99'
Adam Bousdoukos, Moritz Bleibtreu, Birol Uenel


SURVIVAL OF THE DEAD - GEORGE ROMERO
USA, 90'
Alan Van Sprang, Kenneth Walsh, Devon Bostick, Kathleen Munroe


TETSUO THE BULLET MAN - SHINYA TSUKAMOTO
Japan, 80'
Eric Bossick, Akiko Monou, Shinya Tsukamoto


WHITE MATERIAL - CLAIRE DENIS
France, 100'
Isabelle Huppert, Nicolas Duvauchelle, Isaach De Bankolé


YI NGOI (ACCIDENT) - POU-SOI CHEANG
China - Hong Kong, 89'
Louis Koo, Richie Jen, Michelle Ye


ZANAN-E BEDUN-E MARDAN (WOMEN WITHOUT MEN) - SHIRIN NESHAT
Germany, 95'
Pegah Feridon, Shabnam Tolouei, Orsi Tóth, Arita Shahrzad

Out of Competition
Important works by directors already established in past editions of the Festival.



ANNI LUCE - FRANCESCO MASELLI
Italy, 91'
Roberto Herlitzka, Ennio Fantastichini, Valentina Carnelutti, Arnoldo Foà, Lucia Poli


BROOKLYN’S FINEST - ANTOINE FUQUA
USA, 140'
Richard Gere, Don Cheadle, Ethan Hawke, Wesley Snipes, Ellen Barkin


CHENGDU, WO AI NI (CHENGDU, I LOVE YOU) - FRUIT CHAN, CUI JIAN
China, 78'
Tao Guo, Anya Wu, Weiei Tan


DELHI-6 - MEHRA RAKEYSH OMPRAKASH
India, 110'
Om Puri, Waheeda Rehman, Abhishek Bachchan, Sonam Kapoor, Rishi Kapoor


DEV D - ANURAG KASHYAP
India, 144'
Abhay Deol, Mahie Gill, Kalki Koechlin


EHKY YA SCHAHRAZAD (SCHEHERAZADE, TELL ME A STORY) - YOUSRY NASRALLAH
Egypt, 135'
Mona Zakki, Mahmoud Hemeda, Hassan El Raddad, Sawsan Badr


GULAAL - ANURAG KASHYAP
India, 140'
K K Menon, Aditya Srivastav, Piyush Mishra, Mahi Gill


THE HOLE - JOE DANTE
USA, 98'
Chris Massoglia, Haley Bennett, Natham Gamble, Teri Polo, Bruce Dern


THE INFORMANT! - STEVEN SODERBERGH
USA, 108'
Matt Damon, Melanie Lynskey, Scott Bakula, Joel McHale


L’ORO DI CUBA - GIULIANO MONTALDO
Italy, 74'
(Documentary)


THE MEN WHO STARE AT GOATS - GRANT HESLOV
USA, 90'
George Clooney, Ewan McGregor, Jeff Bridges, Kevin Spacey


NAPOLI NAPOLI NAPOLI - ABEL FERRARA
Italy, 102'
Luca Lionello, Ernesto Mahieux, Shanyn Leigh, Giuseppe Lanzetta


PROVE PER UNA TRAGEDIA SICILIANA - ROMAN PASKA, JOHN TURTURRO
Italy, 77'
(Documentary)


REC 2 - JAUME BALAGUERÓ, PACO PLAZA
Spain, 85'
Manuela Velasco, Jonathan Mellor, Andreas Ros Mire, Ariel Casas, Pablo Rosso


SOUTH OF THE BORDER - OLIVER STONE
USA, 102'
(Documentary)


TOY STORY 3-D - JOHN LASSETER
USA, 80'
(Animation)


TOY STORY 2 3-D - JOHN LASSETER, LEE UNKRICH, ASH BRANNON
USA, 94'
(Animation)


VALHALLA RISING - NICOLAS WINDING REFN
Denmark, 90'
Mads Mikkelsen, Alexander Morton, Stewart Porter


YONA YONA PENGUIN - RINTARO
Japan, 87'
(Animation)

Orizzonte
The new trends in world cinema.



1428 - HAIBIN DU
China, 115'
(documentary)


AADMI KI AURAT AUR ANYA KAHANIYA (THE MAN’S WOMAN AND OTHER STORIES) - AMIT DUTTA
India, 78'
Ashok Kumar, Nitin Goel, Shubham Vardhan, Pushpendra Singh


ARMANDO TESTA - POVERO MA MODERNO - PAPPI CORSICATO
Italy, 50'
(documentary)


BLOKADNJE DNEVNIKI (READING BOOK OF BLOCKADE) - ALEKSANDER SOKUROV
Russia, 96'
(documentary)


CHOI VOI (ADRIFT) - THAC CHUYEN BUI
Vietnam, 110'
Yen Hai, Pham Linh-Dan, Khoa Dui


THE DEATH OF PENTHEUS - PHILIP HAAS
USA, 18'

DESERTO ROSA - LUIGI GHIRRI - ELISABETTA SGARBI
Italy, 70'
(documentary)

DOHAWA (BURIED SECRETS) - RAJA AMARI
Tunisia, 91'
Hafsia Herzi, Soundess Belhassen, Wassila Dari

DOU NIU (COW) - HU GUAN
China, 105'
Huang Bo, Yan Ni


ENGKWENTRO - PEPE DIOKNO
Philippines, 60'
Felix Roco, Zyrus Desamparado, Daniel Medrana


FACES OF SEOUL – GINA KIM
USA, 93'

FRANCESCA - BOBBY PAUNESCU
Romania, 96'
Monica Birladeanu, Doru Boguta, Teo Corban

HUGO EN AFRIQUE - STEFANO KNUCHEL
Switzerland, 91'
(documentary)


IL COLORE DELLE PAROLE - MARCO SIMON PUCCIONI
Italy, 70'
(documentary)


INSOLAÇÃO - DANIELA THOMAS, FELIPE HIRSCH
Brazil, 100'
Paulo José, Simone Spoladore, Leonardo Medeiros


IO SONO L'AMORE (I AM LOVE) - LUCA GUADAGNINO
Italy, 120'
Tilda Swinton, Edoardo Gabbriellini, Alba Rohrwacher, Pippo Delbono


KOROTKOYE ZAMYKANIYE (CRUSH) - PETR BUSLOV, ALEXEI GERMAN JR., BORIS KHLEBNIKOV, KIRILL SEREBRENNIKOV, IVAN VRYPAYEV
Russia, 95'
Yuriy Chursin, Ivan Dobronravov, Alexei Filimonov, Karolina Grushka, Karim Pakachakov

LA BOHÈME - WERNER HERZOG
Great Britain, 4'

LA DANSE - LE BALLET DE L'OPÉRA DE PARIS - FREDERICK WISEMAN
USA, 159'
(documentary)

MUDANZA - PERE PORTABELLA

Spain, 20'

THE ONE ALL ALONE - FRANK SCHEFFER
Netherlands, 89'
(documentary)


PARAISO (PARADISE) - HECTOR GALVEZ
Peru, 87'
Yiliana Chong


PEPPERMINTA - PIPILOTTI RIST
Switzerland, 80'

REPO CHICK - ALEX COX
USA, 90'
Jaclyn Jonet, Miguel Sandoval, Chloe Webb, Karen Black, Rosanna Arquette


TOTÒ - PETER SCHREINER
Austria, 128'
(documentary)


TOUXI (JUDGE) - JIE LIU
China, 100'
Dahong Ni, Ting Mei, Dao Qi

TRIS DI DONNE & ABITI NUZIALI - VINCENZO TERRACCIANO
Italy, 138'
Martina Gedeck, Sergio Castellitto, Flavio Parenti


VIA DELLA CROCE - SERENA NONO
Italy, 60'
(documentary)


VIAJO PORQUE PRECISO, VOLTO PORQUE TE AMO (I TRAVEL BECAUSE I HAVE TO, I COME BACK BECAUSE I LOVE YOU) - MARCELO GOMES, KARIM AÏNOUZ
Brazil, 75'
(documentary)


VILLALOBOS - ROMUALD KARMAKAR
Germany, 110'
(documentary)


WAHED-SEFR (ONE-ZERO) - KAMLA ABOU ZEKRI
Egypt, 105'
Elham Shahin, Nelly Karim, Ahmed El Fishawy


WOMEN CENGJING DE WUCHANZHE (ONCE UPON A TIME PROLETARIAN: 12 TALES OF A COUNTRY) - XIAOLU GUO
China, 76'
(documentary)


ZARTE PARASITEN (TENDER PARASITES) - CHRISTIAN BECKER, OLIVER SCHWABE
Germany, 87'
Robert Stadlober, Sylvester Groth, Maja Schöne