US scores well at world’s oldest film festival
By Jeffrey Jolson
HOLLYWOOD, CA (Hollywood Today) 9/8/07 — After a star-studded and unusually tough competition at the 75th Venice Film Festival, director Ang Lee (“Brokeback Mountain”) has a new Golden Lion for his den as best picture for his latest film, “Lust, Caution.”
Brad Pitt won shot up the competition for best actor behind his take on outlaw Jesse James in his new Western, “The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford.”
Pitt arrived on the next stop on the big festival circuit, the Toronto Film Festival, where he raved about being chosen by the Venice Fest. “The nicest thing is how excited my friends are for me and … to be amongst the lineage of people that have also been bestowed this honor. It’s a really nice honor.”
“I could try to play it down, but it’s great fun,” he said at the Canada megafest where thousands of fans packed the streets looking for a glimpse of the actor following the film’s North American premiere.
“We all have our jobs (to do) and want to be really good at it, and to have this kind of acknowledgment is a real honor,” Pitt said.
Pitt also said he was grateful for his partner Angelina Jolie‘s criticisms of his acting, saying: “I rely on it. She’s the best sounding board I have and I value her opinion. It pisses me off sometimes, but she’s good.”
On fame, he said: “I know the deal. I understand the trade-off. There are great perks, we get to travel and see the world. And we manage it. The only time it gets unmanageable is when it’s a full frontal assault on the kids.”
“Unfortunately, there is no line concerning family these days and that concerns me. This day and age, that’s the only thing that really bothers me.”
While in Venice, a female fan lunged at Pitt. Commenting on the incident, Pitt said: “I hadn’t been jumped like that in some time.”
“I don’t want to change my life because of paranoia. It could be pointed out that we can be very vulnerable in these situations and there are a couple of people out there maybe not playing with a full deck, but I’m not changing a thing.”
Cate Blanchett took home Best Actress for her portrayal of Bob Dylan when he went from acoustic to electric, a very big deal at the time, in Todd Haynes’ “I’m Not There,” which also tied for the Gran Jury Prize. It is a kaleidoscopic biopic of folk icon Dylan in which five actors and an Aussie actress Blanchett — incarnate the phases of his complex life.
“I’m sorry I can’t stand here throwing my arms around Todd, weeping just like a woman,” she said.
Brian De Palma (“Scarface”) won Best Director for his hard-hitting “Redacted,” a dramatization of the rape and murder of an Iraqi girl by US soldiers. It also took the Future Film Festival Digital Award, for the film that makes the best use of animation or visual effects.
TA Grand Jury Prize also went to French film, “La Graine et Le Mulet” (Grain of Life), a detailed portrait of the life of a Tunisian immigrant family in France, has been the critics’ favourite for the past several days at the world’s oldest festival, which opened August 29.
Festival director Marco Mueller told AFP: “The very original, innovative films that we have shown contradict the widespread image of a monolithic American cinema centred on lazy blockbusters. It’s a nice contribution to cultural diversity to see the dominating machine of American cinema contradicted by these new trends.”
The Venice jury, made up of directors only, is headed by China’s Zhang Yimou and includes Jane Campion of New Zealand, Italy’s Roberto Perpignani, American director Frederick Wiseman, Catherine Breillat of France and Turco-Italian director Ferzan Ozpetek.
Meanwhile, the festival’s first Queer Golden Lion for a film with a gay or trans-gender theme was awarded Friday to the out-of-competition film “Speed of Life” by Ed Radtke, while “Sleuth” won a special mention in the category.
“Speed of Life” is about a down-and-out New York youth who steals videocameras containing revealing home videos, and “Sleuth” briefly presents Caine and Law in a dare-driven homoerotic situation.
The International Week of Film Critics meanwhile accorded top marks to Taiwanese director Lin Jingjie for his “Zui Yaoyuan de Juli” (The Most Distant Course).
Friday also saw a documentary portrait by Jonathan Demme of former US president Jimmy Carter tracking his book tour for “Palestine: Peace not Apartheid,” which unleashed a storm of controversy in the United States.