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This year, the 69th Venice Film Festival is taking on a new theme; it is focusing more on quality film-making rather than showcasing high-budget Hollywood blockbusters. This year’s director, Alberto Barbera is responsible for the festival’s makeover, cutting the showcase of films to just 60, about half of last year’s amount and the competition film choices to only 18 as opposed to 23 last year. Barbera was the Venice Film Festival director from 1998-2002 and upon his return is determined to promote Venice as an artistic and legitimate platform for showcasing worthwhile independent films, removing the glitz and glamour of the previous years. This year also sees a growth in the number of female directors involved, with 20 female film-makers being featured. These changes are hoped to encourage more visitors to the Venice Film Festival, which corresponds with the Toronto Film Festival, an event that features a total of 300 films.There are two films causing a stir this year, Terrence Malick’s ‘To The Wonder’ and Paul Thomas Anderson’s ‘The Master’; both films are tipped as possible winners, however if the audience reaction is anything to go by it is Anderson’s offering that will take home the festival’s most prestigious prize, The Golden Lion Award. ‘The Master’ received a generous applause from the audience following its screening on the third day of the festival, while ‘To The Wonder’ was met with a mixed response that included more boo-ing than cheer-ing. Nevertheless, it was Malick’s entry last year, ‘The Tree of Life’ that took home the coveted prize, despite it receiving a similar reaction to this year’s entry. However, despite the possibility of a pattern emerging, ‘The Master’ still seems to be the film that everyone is tipping as this year’s favourite.‘The Master’ is loosely based around the life of Ron Howard, the controversial founder of Scientology. The role of Freddie Quell is beautifully interpreted by Joaquin Phoenix, whose hunch-backed character develops a friendship with Lancaster Dodd, the character based around Ron Howard, whose role is played by Philip Seymour Hoffman. Quell is taken in by Dodd’s theories on the world, which involve the Earth being trillion of years old with its inhabitants having lived numerous lives since the beginning of time. The idea is that once we come to terms with this and deal with the issues carried with us from our past lives, we will become capable of the unimaginable. Quell’s scepticism begins to kick in eventually and it is revealed that Dodd is in fact making the whole story up. It was this aspect of the film that apparently offended Tom Cruise, who was present at a private screening of the film in LA and has worked with Andeson in the past on the film ‘Magnolia’...
To visit Venice for yourself, check out these Tours of Italy by Holiday-n-Adventure!
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