Reviews, news and analysis from 80 Venice International Film Festival, Venice, 30.08 - 09.09 2023

A selection of the most important films from the popcinema.org editorial team.

Autore Shane Virunphan

Click Here for Italian Version

VENEZIA 80 COMPETITION

BASTARDEN

Directed by Nikolaj Arcel

Starrings Mads Mikkelsen, Amanda Collin, Simon Bennebjerg, Melina Hagberg, Kristine Kujath Thorp, Gustav Lindh / Denmark, Germany, Sweden / 127’

“He is an odd master.”

In the eighteenth century, the Frenchman Antoine Augustin Parmentier used the qualities of potatoes as an excellent substitute for cereals. He organized a plantation and spread the consumption of the tubers. Due to its characteristics and its growth below ground, the potato has decreased the deadly famine and hunger problems in the world. Filmmaker Nikolaj Arcel directs a costume film set in eighteenth-century Denmark. The steppe is barren, and the conceited retired army captain, Ludvig von Kahlen, challenges the court bureaucracy. He undertakes to make it fertile by cultivating potatoes. It is a difficult task. The obstacles are many: ghettoized nomads, rich landowners, jealousy among women, inclement tempests, armed assaults and weak justice. A stubborn, combative film with unlimited infinity, like the Danish steppe.

DOGMAN

Directed by Luc Besson

Starrings Caleb Landry Jones, Jojo T. Gibbs, Christopher Denham, Clemens Schick, Grace Palma / France / 114’

“They trust humans.”

Luc Besson is a master of action films, capable of depicting stories of different calibre but never boring. Douglas is a middle-aged man. He moves in a wheelchair. He loves being a drag queen. The police stopped him in a van. Inside, there is his hidden mystery, his terrifying weapon: a pack of dogs. Defeated by life, beaten and locked away by his father, betrayed by his brother, he has had to face a solitary existence since he was a teenager. The director's anthropomorphic portrayal of his dogs creates a rational discomfort. However, Edith Piaf helps him with a cathartic finale.

MAESTRO

Directed by Bradley Cooper

Starrings Carey Mulligan, Bradley Cooper, Matt Bomer, Maya Hawke, Sarah Silverman, Josh Hamilton, Scott Ellis, Gideon Glick, Sam Nivola, Alexa Swinton, Miriam Shor / Usa / 129’

“I miss terribly.”

Leonard Bernstein and his wife Felicia were, unintentionally, the founders of radical chic. In their home on Park Avenue in New York, journalist and writer Tom Wolfe also attended a party in favour of the Black Panthers. He mocked their hypocritical respectability with contempt.

Time passes and the liberal Bradley Cooper exalts their personalities, their disgusting human relationships, their parties, their social approaches, in a dull film, devoid of emotions, draining the spectators with a tsunami of cerebral chatter.

A modern-day radical chic Democrat pays tribute to his illustrious ancestor.

PRISCILLA

Directed by Sofia Coppola

Starrings Cailee Spaeny, Jacob Elordi, Dagmara Dominczyk / Usa, Italy / 110’

“You are just a baby.”

The film Priscilla narrates the birth of love between Elvis Presley, already famous in America, and an underage girl, Priscilla, the daughter of an army officer. Both Elvis and Priscilla are immature and foolish. Elvis is spoiled, followed by authoritarian managers.

There is nothing new. Film subjects ran out, causing abuse in other biographies. Once the theme was exhausted, the screenwriters devour secondary characters: wives, daughters, friends, gardeners, chauffeurs, etc.

It is all monotonous, already seen, already done, useless and overestimated.

THE KILLER

Directed by David Fincher

Starrings Michael Fassbender, Tilda Swinton, Charles Parnell, Arliss Howard, Kerry O’Malley, Sophie Charlotte, Emiliano Pernía, Gabriel Polanco / Usa / 118’

“I am what I am.”

It’s not easy being a professional killer. There are numerous occupational diseases. He needs tenacious study, meditation as an anchorite, a plan detailed in every small nuance. In spite of the precautions, something is not going well. One mistake and the killer becomes the target of a ruthless boss, unable to forgive even a single error.

Eliminating the source of the threat is a relentless and bloody struggle.

Tension and apprehension in an interesting linear film with some uncertainties but never soporific.

AKU WA SONZAI SHINAI (IL MALE NON ESISTE)

Directed by Ryusuke Hamaguchi

Starrings Hitoshi Omika, Ryo Nishikawa, Ryuji Kosaka, Ayaka Shibutani / Japan / 106’

“You're too forgetful.”

Rural Japanese society has always been reluctant to welcome newcomers. Medieval legacy of collective responsibility for personal crimes. The events of the film Aku wa sonzhai shinai take place in a village that is surrounded by a lush forest and free animals. The inhabitants are proud and possessive of their land. The proposal to build a tourist complex is interpreted as a risk to their closed area. The defence of the territory is inflexible.

Fortunately, it is not an eco-terrorist film according to the current dogmas of religious ecology, but a portrait of a community reflected in a divine landscape but equally complicated.

POOR THINGS

Directed by Yorgos Lanthimos

Starrings Emma Stone, Mark Ruffalo, Willem Dafoe, Ramy Youssef, Christopher Abbott, Suzy Bemba, Jerrod Carmichael, Kathryn Hunter, Vicki Pepperdine, Margaret Qualley, Hanna Schygulla / UK / 141’

“The whore is back.”

Doctor Godwin Baxter had a barbarous childhood, as he was the subject of his father's atrocious medical experiments. Now, he is a famous surgeon. He delights in generating grafting among species. His best test is that of Bella, a dying pregnant woman. Doctor Godwin transplants into her mind the brain of her child still in her uterus.

The purpose of this macabre plot is to humorously depict the genetic manipulation of humans. A brutal eugenics, despite the inequality between images and dialogues, depressing and insensitive.

FERRARI

Directed by Michael Mann

Starrings Adam Driver, Penélope Cruz, Shailene Woodley, Sarah Gadon, Gabriel Leone, Jack O’Connell, Patrick Dempsey / Usa / 130’

“I would rather rearm Germany than give that woman a gun.”

The film Ferrari is set in Italy after the disasters of the Second World War. The brand Ferrari represented and represents a model, a glorified myth to recreate confidence and power. Ferrari's history is long. The director prefers to focus on the financial difficulties of the company and the catastrophic races on ruined countryside roads. The cars run fast, but the safety is poor.

Simultaneously, Enzo Ferrari divided himself between his wife and his lover, between a deceased son and a living one.

Rhythm, tension, deafening engine noise and many deaths are the main features.

FUORI COMPETIZIONE

COUP DE CHANCE

Directed by Woody Allen

Starrings Lou de Laâge, Valérie Lemercier, Melvil Poupaud, Niels Schneider / France, UK / 93’

“It makes the rich even richer.”

The films of Woody Allen portray rich bourgeois. They are wealthy persons but also arrogant, evil, cruel. Thanks to his ironic and pungent vision, he is the author of elegant, luxurious and dangerous habitats. In Coup de Change he describes a Parisian background, like a crime story.

There is a duel between fate and planning. Who will be the winner? To whom do Woody Allen’s sympathies go?

The pleasant and unexpected epilogue reveals it.

THE CAINE MUTINY COURT-MARTIAL

Directed by William Friedkin

Starrings Kiefer Sutherland, Jason Clarke, Jake Lacy, Monica Raymund, Lance Reddick / Usa / 108’

William Friedkin's latest film is an example of skill and intelligence. He uses the successful subject of the 1954 film, The Caine Mutiny with Humphrey Bogart. He converts it into a film about a trial by locking up a dozen actors in a room. No flashbacks, no shots of ships, no image references, but just vibrant, exciting dialogues. In the meantime, the camera turns on the defendants, on the jurors, magnifying agitation, passion, secrets, discord.

HIT MAN

Directed by Richard Linklater

Starrings Glen Powell, Adria Arjona, Austin Amelio, Retta / Usa / 113’

"Living dangerously."

A philosophy professor has an anomalous second job. Infiltrating on behalf of the New Orleans police as a fake killer. When the police are informed of someone looking for a hitman, they send the disguised teacher and at the moment of payment, they capture the perpetrators.

The film progresses with self-irony, between bizarre and extravagant events. The arrests follow one another until the teacher has some doubts provoked by the meeting with a beautiful woman.

The film is hilarious and eccentric, with personalities both strange and hilarious.

THE PALACE

Directed by Roman Polanski

Starrings Oliver Masucci, Fanny Ardant, John Cleese, Bronwyn James, Joaquim De Almeida, Luca Barbareschi, Milan Peschel, Fortunato Cerlino, Mickey Rourke / Italy, Switzerland, Poland, France / 100’

What can destroy the reputation of a brilliant director like Roman Polanski, who dedicated his artistic life to depicting pain, inhuman miseries, injustices, misfortunes? Directing a funny and cheerful film. No matter the result, the very idea constitutes an annoying atrocity for purists. Yet, Polanski devotes himself with intensity to representing a sample of crazy humanity: criminals, exploiters, uncouth, mafia killers, scammers, whores, decayed porn actors, corrupt employees, heiresses, refugees, drunks.

It is New Year's Eve 2000 in an opulent hotel in the Swiss mountains. The guests leave and all that remains is debris, confusion, broken bottles and dirt. The performance would require greater concentration and criticism, but without prejudices.

HOLLYWOODGATE

Directed by Ibrahim Nash’at

Germany, Usa / 89’

“I don't like journalist.”

Kabul, grainy footage of an escape. It is another American escape, defeated after causing slaughter and devastation. The Taliban are checking the accumulated and abandoned weapons. The documentary accompanies a general and his staff in the task of controlling the arsenal. They are sophisticated arms that are intricate to use. They often have no instructions. They are too refined for a popular army, born from a revolt against oppression. The director is lazy, idle. He films with a snobbery comparable to an English colonialist sipping tea in the shade while he watches his workers picking cotton under the scorching sun. Blame Afghanistan destruction? Obviously, from that year under the Taliban government. And the ten years of governments under NATO? Was it a cultural renaissance? The film is a missed and politically correct opportunity.

ORIZZONTI

A CIELO ABIERTO

Directed by Mariana Arriaga, Santiago Arriaga

Starrings Theo Goldin, Federica Garcia, Maximo Hollander, Julio Cesar Cedillo, Sergio Mayer Mori, Julio Bracho, Cecilia Suarez, Manolo Cardona / Mexico, Spain / 117’

“Ya olvidalo.”

Two brothers and a haldsister begin a journey into the Mexican desert. It is not a holiday. As in all journeys, there is hope, an individual and collective analysis, and a reason to exist. For the siblings, the explanation is dramatic. They want revenge for their father, who was killed in a car accident. He was hit by a truck and the driver fled without helping him. The film is linear, purifying but the finale is more noble: they are a family now.

OURA EL JBEL (DIETRO LE MONTAGNE)

Directed by Mohamed Ben Attia

Starrings Majd Mastoura, Samer Bisharat, Walid Bouchhioua, Selma Zeghidi, Helmi Dridi, Wissem Belgharek / Tunisia, Belgium, France, Italy, Saudi Arabia, Qatar / 98’

“You saw me fly, right?”

Nowadays, it is tiring and perhaps impossible to fly to Tunisia. Too much exploitation, violent adversity. A split coexistence, an inexorable economic crisis, a bankruptcy to avoid, an immigration of youth. The origins are from the past, result from external invasions, from those who believed an inhuman attitude to carry out revolutions with poisoned flowers.

Raek makes a reckless gesture. He storms into his office with a bat and smashes everything. Once released from prison, he kidnaps his little son. Raek can fly and wishes to display his gift to the child.

SER SER SALHI (CITTÀ DEL VENTO)

Directed by Lkhagvadulam Purev-Ochir

Starrings Tergel Bold-Erdene, Nomin-Erdene Ariunbyamba, Bulgan Chuluunbat, Ganzorig Tsetsgee, Tsend-Ayush Nyamsuren / France, Mongolia, Portugal, Netherlands, Germany, Qatar / 104’

“Your death is distant.”

In present-day Mongolia, a conflict is being fought. It is a battle similar to those of the glorious compatriot Genghis Khan. What future will it have? Two teenagers, who have different personalities and cultures, and their families are from different classes, examine each other and fall in love.

Ze is a handsome guy who lives in a yurt with his parents and a sister. He is studious, brilliant, but at the same time, aware of the natural and spiritual forces of a fascinating and violent territory.

Maralaa belongs to the nascent bourgeoisie. Her father immigrated to South Korea. Maralaa is disagreeable and unfriendly. He accuses Ze of being a cheater, while the cheater is uniquely Maralaa. Skyscrapers are built suddenly, and tents will be uninhabited. Which Mongolia will survive?

HOKAGE (OMBRA DI FUOCO)

Directed by Shinya Tsukamoto

Starrings Shuri, Ouga Tsukao, Hiroki Kono, Mirai Moriyama / Japan / 95’

“Would you like to be my bodyguard?”

Shinya Tsukamoto presents a fragment of antimilitarism in the film Hokage. Hokage is more delicate, less evil, more sensitive than in his previous films but is equally determined to narrate the war's wickedness. In Hokage, the Second World War is over but the terrible consequences continue. Families are demolished, females mourn their husbands and children. The children have become orphans and wander alone in search of food and above all affection. The soldiers return from the front dazed, with nights full of nightmares while in the daytime they face ghosts. Other troopers justified their torture by attributing responsibility to their superiors.

Everyone is a loser, defeated by war and greed. Only the child on the market can be a symbol of optimism.

YURT (DORMITORY)

Directed by Nehir Tuna

Starrings Doğa Karakaş, Can Bartu Arslan, Ozan Çelik, Tansu Biçer, Didem Ellialtı, Orhan Güner, Işıltı Su Alyanak / Türkiye, Germany, France / 116’

“Not everything Arab is sacred.”

1996. There is strong political instability in Turkey. The disagreement between secularists, supported by the military, and intransigent religious groups is conflictual. The factions quarrel without mediation, even involving adolescents. The latter must choose between a secular school and theological congregations. Ahmet, a boy from a good family, outlines these two human dimensions. He attends a public boarding school but sleeps in a dormitory run by fundamentalist Muslims. The father is a prominent member of an authoritative Islamic congregation. The school instead marginalizes and offends him.

The film has references to Truffaut for intense and emotional black and white. Colour comes when Ahmet and his roommate Hakan decide to find a hidden treasure.

STOLEN

Directed by Karan Tejpal

Starrings Abhishek Banerjee, Shubham, Mia Maelzer, Harish Khanna, Sahidur Rahaman / India / 92’

“She bought my uterus.”

Stolen has a dichotomous plot, with distinct languages and structures. The torment of the disappearance of a few-month-old baby girl at a train station turns into the social plague of renting the uterus. Two brothers are implicated in the trouble and in shootouts, chases, fights and beatings, a Western show in a contrasted India.