by Nathaniel R
The Venice jury and I agree on a Screenplay prize for THE LOST DAUGHTER
Elisa's already shared the official winners of Venice (and her take on those choices since she saw the whole competition slate). I admire her completism at festivals but my habit is instead to sample a bit from each program. I saw twenty-one films which is a very low number to see over eight days at a major fest — blame Venice’s absurd ticketing system this year which encouraged people to be on their phones securing tickets WHILE watching movies -- i met several people who had set timers for themselves! -- since they sold out in seconds after becoming available every few hours. Since I refused to play on my phone during movies I missed two crucial movies (Spencer and Dune) but here are my favorite achievements from the films I did catch from all programs (Competition, Out of Competitions, Orizzonti, Biennale Collage Cinema, and Critics Week)
RULES: In true festival jury fashion (even though it’s just myself) I’m only allowing one prize per film. And rather than giving out a Best Actress and Best Actor prize (don't make me decide this early!) I’m listing my 15 favorite performances after the jump. What, too much? Acting is magic so I shan't apologize….
JURY OF ONE PRIZES
FILM The Power of the Dog (New Zealand)
Runners up: Happening (France), 107 Mothers (Slovakia)
My favourite among the subcategory of "films i didn't hear *anyone* talking about
DIRECTION: 107 Mothers (Peter Kerekes)
Runners up: Power of the Dog (Jane Campion), Happening (Audrey Diwan)
ADAPTED SCREENPLAY: The Lost Daughter (Maggie Gyllenhaal)
Runner up: Happening (Marcia Romano & Audrey Diwan)
ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY Parallel Mothers (Pedro Almodóvar)
Runner up: 107 Mothers (Peter Kerekes) White Building (Daniel Mattes and Kavich Neang)
CINEMATOGRAPHY: Mother Lode (Patrick Tresch)
Runners up: Power of the Dog (Ari Wegner), Atlantide (Yuri Ancarani)
PRODUCTION DESIGN: White Building (Kanitha Tith)
Runners up: Power of the Dog (Grant Major), Once Upon a Time in Calcutta (Jonaki Bhattacharya)
EDITING: Madeleine Collins (Anita Roth)
Runners up: Happening (?), The Lost Daughter (Affonso Gonçalves)
Penelope Cruz and cast in "Official Competition"
COSTUMES: Official Competition (Wanda Morales)
Runner up: Power of the Dog (Kirsty Cameron), L'Evenement/Happening (Isabelle Panettier)
SOUNDSCAPE/ADAPTED SCORE: Atlantide
Runner up: Mona Lisa and the Blood Moon
SCORE: Happening (Evgueni and Sacha Galperine)
Runner up: Power of the Dog (Jonny Greenwood)
15 FAVOURITE PERFORMANCES (alpha order)
And yes I missed Spencer so don't say "where's Kristen Stewart?"
Piseth Chhun as "Samnang" in White Building
In some ways he's a cypher, our proxy window into this world of poor people driven out of their apartments by gentrification. But he also resonates in the specifics, a caring but not forceful enough son of a stubborn couple, and a lonely kid whose best friend has moved away. Chhun won the best actor prize from the Horizons jury led by Bosnian director Jasmila Žbanić whose film Quo Vadis, Aida? was Oscar-nominated last season.
Olivia Colman AND Jessie Buckley as "Leda" in The Lost Daughter
Counting this as one perfomance because the two actresses really due feel like the same person... which is not the usual case with split age performances. It's easy to see all the seeds of Colman's work in Buckley, and all the calcified Buckley in Colman. This is a true actor's movie and everyone delivers.
Penélope Cruz as "Janis" in Parallel Mothers AND "Lola" in Official Competition
Almodóvar and Cruz continue to be a heavenly match and she's great again here, effortlessly conveying the drama, dreams, and guilt of a first-time mother in a strange situation. She also deftly navigates Janis's non-committal vibes around lovers. In an embarrassment of riches in one week from the Volpi Cup Best Actress winner, we also got a 180 showing off her comic skills as a hugely egotistical lesbian auteur who, in a funny contradiction, loves crushing the ego from actors.
Benedict Cumberbatch as "Phil" in Power of the Dog
Some critic friends of mine found Cumberbatch too broad in this complex role of a former Ivy leaguer closet-case who is now a hyper-masculine disdainful rancher. I thought the effortful facade and oversize pitch of his menace was just right for the character. His best work on film if you ask me.
Dagmara Dominyzk as "Callie" in The Lost Daughter
I always love Mrs Patrick Wilson when she shows up (which is too rarely!) and she steals her every scene as an aggressive matriach (though not yet a mom) of a large unruly clan. When Paul Mescal's character describes her extended family as "not good people" you know exactly what he means via Dagmara's subliminally dangerous performance. Even when she's being nice there's a 'you'll owe me' maneuvering undertow.
Kirsten Dunst as "Rose" in Power of the Dog
People will surely argue about whether she belongs in lead or supporting when it comes to the forthcoming Oscar race but for now let's just say she's strong either way as a lonely widow who is completely disarmed in ways both lovely (Jesse Plemons) and upsetting (Benedict Cumberbatch) by her new family. Plus drunk scenes for extra Oscar bait.
Virginie Efira as "Judith" in Madeleine Collins
Both Elisa and I praised her in our reviews. The whole film rests on her expressive compartmentalization as a constantly deceitful woman trying to live two lives. What a year Efira is having with this and Benedetta.
Jose Luis Gomez as "Producer" in Official Competition
All the men are fun in Official Competition (shout out to Antonio Banderas and Oscar Martinez in the large male roles) but for me Gomez has the highest per minute of screen time laugh ratio in the film. Whether he's doing deadpan buffoonery (deciding to finance a film for immortality reasons, or showing a complete lack of understanding about anything arts-related in every scene) or broad buffoonery with oversized discomfort as when he's watching his niece play love scenes, he's so so funny.
Kate Hudson as "Bonnie" Mona Lisa and the Blood Moon
Is she borrowing from JLo in Hustlers? Probably. Did I care? Not so much. She's a lot of fun as a foul-mouthed single mother stripper who doesn't look at supernatural powers with fear or even much in the way of "holy shit" awe but with dollar signs in her eyes. She navigates the characters emotions well filtered through her survive/thrive default instincts.
Reda Kadeb as "Yazid" in Les Promesses
Both Elisa and I focused on him in our capsules. Loved his rapport with Isabelle Huppert and all the nuances of his right-hand man with his own mind. A film-stealing performance.
Kodi Smit McPhee as "Peter" in Power of the Dog
Let'a not say too much about this performance yet because Smit McPhee and Campion are giving us some wonderful ambiguities here. Can't wait to argue with people about what exactly is going on with Peter in this movie, and how in control he is or not within the turns of the plot. Nice to see The Road and Let Me In's child star finally get a meaty role again after wasting his time on marginal unchallening roles in X-Men and Dolemite is My Name.
Anna Mouglalis as "Abortionist" in L'Evenement
This performance feels like a Mike Leigh film performance -- and this is not because its a similar time frame as Vera Drake, Leigh's own abortion drama -- but in the fact that the abortionist, feels like a fully imagined three-dimensional character with a life outside of the scenes we're seeing. All from a few severely controlled unsentimental glimpses we get of her the two times we see her.
Hatzin Naverrete as "Hatzin" in The Box
A total natural onscreen. It helps of course to have a strong director but the pitch of his most dramatic moments feels exactly right. He's too young to understand the situation he's in fully but too old to not understand how dangerous and irrevocable decisions can be.
Anamaria Vartolomei as "Anne" in Happening
It was actually surprising to see her lose the Best Actress Volpi Cup (which people expected her to win) but Bong Joon-Ho's jury had the Golden Lion in mind for this film and festival juries like to spread the wealth. She's wonderfully commanding, sympathetic, and nuanced as a desperate young woman who knows her own mind but feels the clock ticking without any resources or knowledge of how to end her pregnancy. She's especially good at delineating sexual desire from defiance and absolutely convincing in the film's most viscerally painful moments.