TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Venice film fest launches with Adam Driver 'toxic event'
Change Size
(From L) US actor Adam Driver, US director Noah Baumbach, US actor Don Cheadle, US actress Greta Gerwig and British actress Jodie Turner-Smith pose on August 31, 2022, during a photocall for the film 'White Noise', presented in the Venezia 79 competition on the opening day of the 79th Venice International Film Festival at Venice Lido. (AFP/Marco Bertorello)
T
he Venice Film Festival kicked off on Wednesday with Adam Driver starring in a topical opening film about a deadly health crisis, misinformation and prescription drugs.
White Noise is the first of four Netflix-produced films competing for the top prize Golden Lion over the 11-day festival, as the streaming service seeks to burnish its artistic credentials.
It stars Driver as a Hitler studies professor in a small college town, which experiences an "Airborne Toxic Event".
The story is adapted from a famous 1985 novel by Don DeLillo that dissects US consumer culture. It reunites Driver with director Noah Baumbach following their lauded Marriage Story.
Netflix has become a key backer of more intellectual directors as traditional Hollywood studios fixate on superhero and franchise blockbusters.
Later in the festival, the streamer is premiering the highly anticipated Blonde, a dark retelling of Marilyn Monroe's tragic life, with rising star Ana de Armas in the lead role.
It is also behind Bardo, the latest from Mexican director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, who launched his previous films Birdman and The Revenant in Venice on their way to Oscar glory.
Award-winning directors
The world's longest-running film festival, first held 90 years ago, takes place on the beach-lined Lido island.
It is well-timed to launch Academy Award campaigns, with a particularly strong track record for directors in recent years.
Eight of the last 10 Best Director Oscars have gone to films that premiered at Venice, including the most recent winner Jane Campion for Power of the Dog -- another Netflix production.
Also gracing the Lido on Wednesday was iconic French actress Catherine Deneuve, who wore a Ukrainian flag pinned to her jacket as she arrived to pick up a lifetime achievement award.
The coming days will see fans trying to catch a glimpse of Timothee Chalamet, who stars as a love-sick cannibal in road movie Bones and All, which reunites him with Call Me By Your Name director Luca Guadagnino.
There is early buzz, too, for The Whale starring Brendan Fraser -- who has been largely absent from the screen since his heyday in films like The Mummy two decades ago -- as a morbidly obese man trying to reconnect with his daughter.
Its director, Darren Aronofsky, won the Golden Lion in 2008 for The Wrestler and launched his Oscar-winning Black Swan in Venice.
Hollywood and Western Europe dominate the selection of 23 films competing for the hearts of a jury led by US actress Julianne Moore.
One notable exception is Iran's award-winning filmmaker Jafar Panahi, whose No Bears is premiering barely a month after he was imprisoned in Tehran amid a crackdown on dissident directors.
But the movie most likely to get tongues wagging is Don't Worry Darling, playing out of competition on Monday, which features music megastar Harry Styles in his first leading role, directed by his girlfriend Olivia Wilde.
