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Sabrina Friedman, Staff Writer
Venice is always filled with tourists, but the red carpet rolls across the
city each September, just in time for the annual world-famous Venice Film
Festival. At this time each year, Venice sees a rush in tourist traffic. But
it's not just the tourists that turn heads. In September, you can walk down
the street and bump into anyone from Selma Hayek to Ben Affleck, Warren
Beatty to Sean Penn, Madonna to Pamela Anderson Lee.
In 1932, Luciano De Feo, the general secretary of the Institute of
Educational Cinema, came up with the idea for an international film festival
in Venice. His goal was to expose Italians to films from across the globe
and, in the meantime, launch Italian films worldwide. It was also in 1932
that the Earl Volpi of Misurata was looking to turn the Lido resort into an
upscale tourist destination. The two combined their visions to satisfy those
needs, and the Venice International Film Festival was born.
In August 1932, the first Festival was organized by Biennale, local
authorites and the Film Institute. At this time, however, the event was
depicted as more of an upscale social gathering -- complete with kings and
ladies, sirs and dukes ñ although the Festival did include important,
politically and artistically independent, original films.
Only two years after the Festival began, the backing of the Institute of
Educational Cinema ended, leaving the State to control the Festival.
Unfortunately, this began the ìembarrassmentî years of the Festival, for the
theme each year took on a decidedly propagandic and agenda-driven event.
Political messages overshadowed those of artistic superiority, and the once
fiercely independent jurors lost the autonomy that had brought such respect
to the Festival proceedings. Many believe this period was culminated ñ and
at its worst ñ during the ìWar yearsî; all French and American movies were
banned from entry, leaving mainly German and Italian films as the only
viewing options.
Although this mentality carried into the 1960s, by the early 1970s the
Festival seemed back onto its original track. In the 1990s, however, many
proprietors of the Festival felt that the true meaning of the event was
again being overshadowed, this time by the incredible ìstar powerî that the
Festival seemed to command. The Festival committee then designed the ìnewî
Festival for 1997.
Prior to the ìnewî Venice Film Festival, director Felice Laudadio commented
in August 1997 that ìin making our final decisions we were guided by a
common denominator to be found in nearly all the films to be screened: "a
concern with quality and a taste for discovery, the identification of an
innovative film idea which has the potential to meet the expectations of
public, critics and filmmakers alike."
She continued, saying that ìthis is how I would sum up the "philosophy" of
the 54th Venice Film Festival, which rejects all forms of external
"influence", be it indirect or open. No one (or almost no one) tried to
exert pressure to influence the decisions made by myself and my
collaborators - except, that is, the producers and directors who had every
right to push their own films (and this absence of pressure showed me just
how much things have changed since I was on the Committee of Experts in the
80s). Certainly, our decisions were in no way affected by the star system.
In fact, we often rejected modest works containing performances by big stars
(we aren't interested in a festival of photo opportunities), just as we did
not automatically accept a work by a recognized "auteur." In the competition
section above all, we had, at times, to make the painful decision to reject
films by renowned - indeed "legendary" - directors whose work on this
occasion was below par. Though, in all honesty, I would have to admit that
we have made the odd small compromise, we definitely did not let ourselves
be overwhelmed by the production companies and the cinema legends that their
reputation evokes.î
ìSo this will be an innovative, at times surprising, festival. There will be
unexpected discoveries and happy revelations: some of the films in the
competition section - which is rigorously limited to works getting their
world premiere - will, I am sure, earn a place for themselves in the history
of cinema. They are here at Venice for our colleagues to discover, for the
Jury to discover,î Laudadio finished proudly.
After the celebrity glitz again shrouded the Italian town in 1998, Laudadio
spoke with Reuters about the chaos. "The director of the film festival
insists that the celebrity-heavy list, a stark contrast to smaller films
competing last year, is not an attempt to make the event more commercial,î
Reuters reported. ìVenice is not a festival of stars,î Laudadio told
Reuters. ìThis year there were good quality films with well-known names.
There's no change of direction."
This year, the 57th Venice Film Festival is scheduled August 29 -
September 08, 2000. Although final details have not been released, we do
know that the 2000 Golden Lion Lifetime Achievement Award will go to Clint
Eastwood.
For more information about the festival, check the
Venice Film Festival Official Web site.
The Venice Film Festival
CaGiustinian, S Marco 1364A, 1-Venice 30124 Italy
Tel. (011) (39-41) 521-8711 Fax. (011) (39-41) 522-7639
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