Festivals DISPATCHES FROM THE 75TH VENICE FILM FESTIVAL
The Favourite
Yorgos Lanthimos’ The Favourite is set in the early 18th century. England is at war with France and yet duck races and pineapple consumption are going strong. In this caustic scenario the vulnerable Queen Anne (Olivia Colman) sits on the throne while her intimate friend Lady Sarah Churchill, Duchess of Marlborough (Rachel Weisz), governs the country in her place and, at the same time, takes care of the ill health and the fickle temperament of the sovereign. (…)
The Greek filmmaker who rose to stardom thanks to the powerful way he explores the intricacies of clinical psychology — with works such as Dogtooth, The Lobster, and The Killing of a Sacred Deer — delves into history, to show modern audiences how certain social dynamics thrive through time. “When you make a film set in another era, it’s always interesting to see how it relates to our times — and you realize how few things have changed, apart from the clothes and the fact that today we have electricity or internet. There are many similarities in behavior, society and power ,” said Yorgos Lanthimos
Besides the universality of human conducts, The Favourite effectively reconstructs how the Duchess of Marlborough was famous for telling the Queen exactly what she thought, without succumbing to gratuitous flattery. (…)
Lanthimos directs with efficacy the talented cast — that includes the likes of Olivia Colman, Emma Stone, Rachel Weisz, Nicholas Hoult, Joe Alwyn, James Smith, and Mark Gatiss — plunging spectators into a vortex of manipulations and emotions that epitomize the expression “palace intrigue.” The Favourite turns out to be a witty black comedy period film, that explores the subtleties of mind games women play.
Capri-Revolution
A scene from director Mario Martone’s historical drama, ‘Capri-Revolution.’
Title: Capri-Revolution
Director: Mario Martone
Cast: Marianna Fontana, Reinout Scholten van Aschat, Antonio Folletto, Gianluca Di Gennaro, Eduardo Scarpetta, Jenna Thiam, Ludovico Girardello, Lola Klamroth, Maximilian Dirr, Donatella Finocchiaro.
The poetic film director, Mario Martone, provides an insight in the boot-shaped land at the beginning of the 20th century, within the bewitching island of Capri.
‘Capri-Revolution’ begins with a quote by the Neapolitan author Fabrizia Ramondino, whose work has been said to observe the “mores of the middle and upper bourgeoisie, with the class consciousness of a materialist.”
Viewers will be haunted and enthralled by the incantation of the setting that Martone so brilliantly portrays, inspired by Ramondino’s words: “This island appears and disappears constantly, and everyone’s view of it is different. In this world that is too well known, it’s the only place that is still virgin and which always waits for us, but only to slip away again.”
The film describes the encounter between Lucia (Marianna Fontana), the commune, headed by Seybu (Reinout Scholten van Aschat), and the young village doctor (Antonio Folletto). The captivating cinematic tale describes a unique island, acting as a magnet for all those driven by ideals of liberty and progress.
‘Capri-Revolution’ brings to the big screen the real experience of the commune that painter Karl Diefenbach established on Capri between 1900 and 1913, the year he died. However, the director took artistic license, since the action is pushed to the year preceding World War I, 1914. Martone shows us how some Northern Europeans choose Capri as the ideal spot to live in the name of spiritualism, naturism, vegetarianism and peace, whilst establishing their artistic Symbolism on the island. But Capri also withholds its own powerful identity, epitomized by a young woman, the goatherd named Lucia.
The choices made many years earlier by Diefenbach and the Monte Verità group became a collective phenomenon in the ‘60s and ’70s and can be followed up until today. This attests how history is cyclical in all social phenomena. ‘Capri-Revolution’ although it is set a century ago, vividly brings to the attention current issues such as humans’ rekindling with nature, gender politics and the urge of humanity to end all wars.
22 July is a Must-See
On the 22nd of July 2011, 77 people were killed when Anders Behring Breivik, a far-right extremist, detonated a car bomb in Oslo before carrying out a mass shooting at a leadership camp for teens on the island of Utøya. The Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Paul Greengrass tells the true story of the aftermath of Norway’s deadliest terrorist attack.
22 July is a must-see film that will be available on Netflix, that is based upon the book One of Us: The Story of an Attack in Norway – and Its Aftermath by Åsne Seierstad. Greengrass chooses to narrate the harrowing event through the perspective of one survivor’s physical and emotional journey (Viljar Hanssen), as an allegory of Norway’s path to healing and reconciliation.
Like in his previous films — Captain Phillips, Bloody Sunday and United 93 — the director portrays real people and real events on the silver screen. This is to convey what he calls the “DNA of our times,” and he truly provides goosebumps to viewers who observe how the cinematic tool remains connected to the real world and addresses it unflinchingly.
The bloodshed in the film is restrained, although there are a few graphic depictions of violence. But they involved the story of Viljar Hanssen, and were included with his permission — since the boy’s confrontation with Breivik in court was a moment that many people remembered.
Following his cinema verité approach, Greengrass selected an all-Norwegian cast and crew, as he explained “It was vital that the film had a Norwegian soul. A Norwegian identity. In my mind what I wanted was Norway’s wonderful rich and diverse creative community to tell Norway’s story to the world. That in essence is what they have done.”
The Norwegian casting director, Ellen Michelsen, gathered an array of talented Norwegian actors that include: Anders Danielsen Lie, Jon Øigarden, Thorbjørn Harr, Jonas Strand Gravli, Ola G. Furuseth, Ulrikke Hansen Døvigen, Isak Bakli Aglen, Maria Bock, Tone Danielsen, Sonja Sofie Sinding, Turid Gunnes, Kenan Ibrahamefendic, Monica Borg Fure, Ingrid Enger Damon, Seda Witt, Anja Maria Svenkerud, Hasse Lindmo. Several of these performers met the characters they played and discussed their approach for the roles. Only Anders Danielsen Lie did not meet Breivik, who is notoriously imprisoned with particularly high security — though Danielsen did discuss the terrorist with people involved in the case.
The real survivors of the horrific 2011 attacks shaped 22 July, not only by talking with the actors but also with the director. Greengrass met them at the Family Support Group Board, where he explained the reasons that triggered him to make this movie. Furthermore, throughout the filmmaking process he was in regular contact with the victims of the attacks, seeking their advice and keeping them informed on the film’s progress. (…) Xenophobia is trying to sweep away multiculturalism, as political extremism is spreading perilously across the Western world. However there is room for hope, as Paul Greengrass said: “The way the people of Norway responded after the attacks, which is what our film is really about — the way politicians, lawyers and most importantly those families caught up in the violence responded — can inspire all of us with their dignity and their tenacious commitment to democracy.”
A Festival Dominated by Female Characters Culminates with The Nightingale
This year with the #MeToo movement, film festivals have been scrutinized in terms of having enough female representation. The talented and uncompromising director of Mostra Internationale d’Arte Cinematografica di Venezia, Alberto Barbera, who has always been impartial to quality filmmaking was accused by the Hollywood Reporter of reflecting “Italy’s Culture of Toxic Masculinity.” Even Jacques Audiard, presenting his male-oriented film The Sisters Brothers, called out gender inequality at the Venice Film Festival.
But the truth is that only 21% of films submitted were by female directors and Barbera — who opposes the idea of judging a movie by the gender of its director — conscientiously exposed: “You can’t change things from the outcome, they have to change from the start.”
Contrary to all accusations, this 75th edition of the festival had female characters dominate the silver screen: Roma (Alfonso Cuarón), A Star Is Born (Bradley Cooper), The Favourite (Yorgos Lanthimos), Suspiria (Luca Guadagnino), L’Amica Geniale (Saverio Costanzo), La quieted (Pablo Trapero), Napszállta (László Nemes), Acusada (Gonzalo Tobal), Vox Lux (Brady Corbet), Capri-Revolution (Mario Martone). These are just the films in Competition and also the other sections (Out of Competition, Orizzonti, Giornate degli Autori, Settimana della Critica, Sconfini) include many more stories about women.
Male directors who have explored the theme of female empowerment have portrayed an ennobling image of womanhood: strong headed, sympathetic, and temperamentally principled.
The only film in Competition by a female director — The Nightingale — imbues in her protagonist different characteristics. Jennifer Kent conveys the frailty and vulnerability of womanhood, that almost seem to acquire a male perspective on the female worldview, while intertwining a historical snapshot of the Black War.
The story is set in 1825 in Australia. Clare (Aisling Franciosi), a young Irish convict woman, is desperate to be free of her abusive master, Lieutenant Hawkins (Sam Claflin) who refuses to release her from his charge. Clare’s husband Aidan (Michael Sheasby), retaliates and she becomes the victim of a harrowing crime at the hands of the British officers. Seeking her revenge, Clare chases the men who committed a terrible act of violence against her family. To track them down, through the rugged Tasmanian wilderness, the girl enlists the help of the Aboriginal Billy (Baykali Ganambarr), who is also marked by trauma from his own past.
The gentle girl with a nightingale voice, turns from dove to War Hawk, but the character construction does not have the same approach as The Bride in Kill Bill — where Tarantino portrays an unfaltering woman who rises from her ashes. Clare is indecisive, torn between her thirst for vengeance and her compassionate soul. Kent provides a gender-free depiction of what it is to be a woman. It neither glorifies her, nor does it constrict her in stereotyped-hysteria. Clare is contradictory with her emotions, not as a woman but as a human being.
Chiara Isabella Spagnoli Gabardi
Fragments of texts first published in:
http://www.gainsayer.me/dispatches-from-the-venice-film-festival-the-favourite/
http://www.shockya.com/news/2018/09/07/75th-venice-film-festival-capri-revolution-movie-review/
http://www.gainsayer.me/dispatches-from-the-venice-film-festival-22-july-is-a-must-see/
http://www.gainsayer.me/dispatches-from-the-venice-film-festival-a-festival-dominated-by-female-characters-culminates-with-the-nightingale/
Chiara Spagnoli Gabardi, is a film critic, culture and foreign affairs reporter, screenwriter, film-maker and visual artist. She studied in a British school in Milan, graduated in Political Sciences, got her Masters in screenwriting and film production and studied at the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute in New York and Los Angeles. Chiara’s “Material Puns” use wordplay to weld the title of the painting with the materials placed on canvas, through an ironic reinterpretation of Pop-Art, Dadaism and Ready Made. She exhibited her artwork in Milan, Rome, Venice, London, Oxford, Paris and Manhattan. Chiara works as a reporter for online, print, radio and television and also as a film festival PR/publicist. As a bi-lingual journalist (English and Italian), who is also fluent in French and Spanish, she is a member of the Foreign Press Association in New York, the Women Film Critics Circle in New York, the Italian Association of Journalists in Milan and the Federation of Film Critics of Europe and the Mediterranean. Chiara is also a Professor of Phenomenology of Contemporary Arts at IED University in Milan.
