Elisa's Venice Diary #1: Almodovar, Campion. Here are lions.
Friday, September 3, 2021 at 6:57AM by Elisa Giudici
What a start! There's a way of saying in Italian: il buon giorno si vede dal mattino. It means you can tell if something is remarkable from the very beginning, as you can judge how a day will be by the way it begins. Well, the first day of my fifth year as a press pass holder in Venice was so amazing I am not going to tell you if I liked what I saw, but how much I enjoyed every single title.
PARALLEL MOTHERS by Pedro Almodóvar
I was unsure about the opening movie of Venezia 78 due to Pain and Glory: how to follow up such an intimate, powerful, memorable movie (the kind of film a director puts his entire life in it, and that he or she can only make once or twice in a career). How can the follow up be anything but a disappointment? Happy to report Pedro Almodóvar is far from having finished the meaningful things he wants to say while endlessly rearranging his favorite themes and actresses...
Madres Paralelas lures Almodóvar fans with a story of motherhood and sisterhood, as in his most memorable titles. What matters here is a political stance the director is taking, asking his nation "still at war" to remember its recent, violent past. The parallel mothers of the title are symbols of the two sides people took during dictatorship: one who can not forget the family members who disappeared during the war and the other, daughter and nephew who should "consider which side took her family". I still don't like how Almodóvar's colors look when digitally shot, but I really want to live in one of the houses he decorated for this movie. I was also fascinated by the explicit yet elegant way he includes a lot of product placement in his movie, even if I was buffered by the wardrobe of the enchanting Milena Smit: how can a girl running away from home without money afford such attire?
LES PROMESSES by Thomas Kruithof
Isabelle Huppert plays an idealistic mayor who wants to fund a project to revitalize a housing complex as her last mandate. I will always "vote" for Huppert but the show-stealer here is the amazing Reda Kateb, giving a superb performance as her Chief of Staff. He grew up in the same buildings she wants to renovate, and admires her morality that he could not afford to survive in his younger years. In recent years French cinema has reflected a lot on ideals and illusions in the world of contemporary politics. In Les Promesses a person who lives politics as a mission discovers her own "addiction to politics" after a glimpse of a higher level of power and responsibility is promised to her. It is a little more optimistic than Alice and the Major, but the two movies share the ambiguity of bourgeois, well-intended politicians who attempt to help needy people while living afar, more than comfortable life. Last note: I loved the sexual tension between Huppert and Kateb: palpable, yet unspoken.
MADELEINE COLLINS by Antoine Barraud
They sold me to see this movie with "Virgine Efira in "Vertigo but told from Kim Novak's perspective "...the first was enough. Well, it is a good psychological thriller for sure, played on the ambiguity of why the protagonist has two lives and two families (with kids). We know how she manages to joggle her double life, we will slowly understand why. In a day without so amazing contenders I would have spent more words and praises on this one, but Antoine Barraud is not Almodóvar or Campion. If anything, Madeleine Collins proves - after Benedetta - that Lea Seydoux can no longer take for granted her position of 'best femme fatale of french cinema'. Efira here does all the (double) work and will take all the credit.
SCENES FROM A MARRIAGE (HBO series)
I saw the first two episodes and what a jewel! I should rewatch the original one because my memories from Bergman's version are faint but HBO production is exquisite. I am curious to see the rest of the episodes before giving too definitive an opinion but, quite predictably, Oscar Isaac and Jessica Chastain are amazing. It is emotionally challenging to see them suddenly realizing all the little, terrible truths about their relationship. I don't know that it is as heartbreaking as the original, but during the climax of one of the episodes, even the futile sounds of a can of soda opening sound like a betrayal.
THE POWER OF THE DOG by Jane Campion
This will surely be a hit this fall, but I predict a divisive one. I loved it and I will defend Campion latest to death. A damaged Yale graduated turned rancher (Benedict Cumberbatch) haunts a widow (Kirsten Dunst) nd her young son (Kodi Smit-McPhee) in a sadistic way because he sees in them the same sensibility for beauty and art that he so desperately tries to suppress, and it's shot in New Zealand passing for Montana in 1925? Yes, thank you. I'm the ideal audience for this. May I have another one, please?
Campion herself seems intrigued by the physicality of a role that requires Benedict Cumberbatch to spay a bovine barehanded and at the same time being so ashamed by his own body to ride well into the wood to a secret place to wash (he also states: "I stink and I like it"). So lots of scenes with a naked Cumberbatch and an almost unbearable level of sensual subtext here. I already want to see it again because it is a movie that revolves around absence and things left unsaid around "l'amour", obsessions and human solitude. It is so subtle, yet other times brutally direct. I am already eager to discuss the implication of the character psychology of Kodi Smit-McPhee's character. Prediction: a particular scene with Cumberbatch and a trunk will become a popular gif as soon as the film lands on Netflix.
More Venice coverage
- Elisa's Diary #1 Parallel Mothers and Power of the Dog
- Elisa's Diary #2 The Card Counter, Hand of God, The Lost Daughter
- Elisa's Diary #3 Spencer, A Plein Temps, Il Buco
- Eiisa's Diary #4 Sundown, Official Competition, etc...
- Elisa Extra Dune - full review
- Elisa's Diary #5 L'Evenement, Lost Illusions, Mona Lisa...
- Elisa's Diary #6 Reflection, Captain Volkonoff Escaped, Old Henry, etc...
- Nathaniel in Venice #1 Parallel Mothers
- Nathaniel in Venice #2 Power of the Dog, Madeleine Collins
- Nathaniel in Venice #3 Atlantide, Les Promesses, The Lost Daughter
- Nathaniel in Venice #4 107 Mothers, Official Competition, Miracle, etc...
- Nathaniel in Venice #5 Last Night in Soho, Mona Lisa and the Blood Moon
- Nathaneil in Venice #6 Catholic School, A Hole in the Fence, La Caja
Reader Comments (11)
I am looking forward to Power of the Dog. Most of the reviews I have read are very positive.
I wonder about Cumberbatch's casting in The Power of the Dog. It's hard for me to see him as credibly American, much less a cowboy, much less someone who could spay a bovine barehanded. But we'll see.
Of these films, I am most looking forward to Parallel Mothers. Pedro and Penelope always create something special together.
Thank you Elisa, can't wait for your next diary :)
Is Kateb supporting or a co-lead in Les Promesses ?
Any word on when Madeleine Collins is coming to the US?
Might Jessica Chastain win an Oscar and Emmy in the same year? If anything Scenes From a Marriage keeps her in the conversation.
I also have a hard time seeing Cumberbatch as an American. He can't really shake the British-ness off of his performances. But if there are gifs and conversation about him- and appearances on TV this year- then maybe his hype helps get him a win. He seems like the kind of actor who would get more then one nomination.
PS- Elisa, I'm enjoying reading about the festival very much.
After The Mauritanian I have no problem accepting Benny C as an American. Looking forward to the Dog.
I so want to see Parallel Mothers and Power of the Dog as I'll watch anything by Almodovar and Campion as they're ELITE.
I so want to see Parallel Mothers and Power of the Dog as I'll watch anything by Almodovar and Campion as they're ELITE.
I love the efficiency of your dispatches, Elisa. Somehow in so few words you convey so much (and so vividly) about a movie and your reaction to it - I envy you that gift!
Anyway, it sounds like you're rolling around in an embarrassment of cinematic riches. I can't wait to see any/all of these. And I think Cumby's proven he can pull off an American role just fine, even though I don't like the way he flattens his voice (normally one of his best features) when he does the American accent.
Thanks, Elisa. Any thoughts on Kirsten Dunst? :)
@Charlie
I would say supporting.
@Philip H.
She is good but the focus is on Cumberbatch. She plays a side character.
About Cumberbatch playing an American rancher: unfortunately I am not a good judge in English vs American accents, but I think Nathaniel can give you an answer on this topic.