Nathaniel in Venice: "Power of the Dog" and "Madeleine Collins"

Nathaniel reporting from Venice, day 1 part 2

Day 1 (continued). I didn’t expect death to linger so completely over Parallel Mothers and curiously my opening night at the fest kept on inviting the grim reaper in. The first day of screenings ended with Jane Campion’s The Power of Dog in which death is far less of a subject but clouds the vast Montana skies.  But first I took in Madeleine Collins, a French addition of our favorite subgenre here at The Film Experience, Women Who Lie To Themselves™  in which everyone in the film avoids talking about a death they probably should have spent lots more time processing.  

Madeleine Colllins (Antoine Barraud)
Elisa already hit the highlight of the film in her brief capsule, but it bears repeating: Virginie Efira! Virginie Efira! Virginie Efira!

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Nathaniel in Venice: "Parallel Mothers" and city impressions

Nathaniel reporting from Venice - Day 1, Part 1

"Dont Look Now" .. the most famous Venice movie?

Dearest readers, what's the first thing you think of when you think of Venice? My first memory of the city,  vicariously, is Madonna's gyrating gondola ride in the "Like a Virgin" music video. Nothing as seismically sexy is likely to occur in pandemic 2021 (tourists and masks kinda kill that vibe) but I did witness the paparazzi chasing a celebrity the literal minute I exited the airport to board a boat to my airbnb. Seeing paparazzi in the country that invented the word was fun but I didn't recognize the celebrity (short girl with black hair and baggy clothing with heavily tatted tall boyfriend?). Auspicious beginnings. 

Venice is one of the most beautiful cities you'll ever see this side of Copenhagen, and that's surely due to all the canals; Oh to live on the water! Travelling to the movies each morning by boat is going to be heaven. Coming back to the main island at night to sleep, though, is as eery as any shot from Don't Look Now (1973), since every street feels like walking down a dark alley, even in the middle of the day. The buildings are uncomfortably close together  -- sometimes you have to turn sideways for other pedestrians -- and the streets are utterly mazelike. With the caveat that I have a terrible sense of direction, I was lost four times in the first 24 hours. 

My first screening was the opening night film Pedro Almodóvar's Parallel Mothers so the festival began, figuratively, with Penélope Cruz asking the audience to smize...

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Review: "Shang-Chi" soars through action and chemistry

by Nathaniel R

Father vs Son in Shang-Chi

Many years ago I was at the movies with my best high school girlfriend. I had convinced her to see The Piano, which was not her usual sort of film. At the exact moment that mute Holly Hunter lost her little finger to her husband’s axe, I let out a non-mute yelp. My bestie and I were both deep in the story onscreen and at the film’s most violent moment she had dug her fingers into my arm so tightly offscreen that I was in pain. What does that have to do with the latest Marvel Cinematic Blockbuster, you might, very sensibly, ask? It is only that this long-forgotten sense memory came rushing back to me in two winning ways, the first of which occurred as Shang-Chi’s action mettle was put to the test.

While the film takes its time getting there — blame the familiar slow pacing of flashback heavy origin stories— the story properly takes off as soon as Sean (Simu Liu) and his best girlfriend Katy (Awkwafina) are suddenly beset by assassins on a San Francisco city bus, One of them, Razor Fist (Florian Munteanu)  is so extra he has a blade where his arm should be. This particular action sequence is as shocking to us as it it is to Katy but for different reasons...

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Elisa's Venice Diary #1: Almodovar, Campion. Here are lions.

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...

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Almost There: Shirley MacLaine in "Madame Sousatzka"

by Cláudio Alves

The Venice Film Festival is upon us and, this year, The Film Experience has two writers attending – Nathaniel and Elisa. For those at home, though, it might help satiate some of the FOMO to look back at the festival's long history. Indeed, these next two Almost There write-ups will focus on actors who won the Volpi Cup, managed to capture some Oscar buzz, but still failed to catch the Academy's attention. Today's example is exciting, for it comes from a rare tie. In 1988, the jury presided by Sergio Leone decided to award two performers with the Best Actress prize, an ex-aequo honor. They were Isabelle Huppert for her breathtaking tour de force in Chabrol's Story of Women and, our present subject of analysis, Shirley MacLaine in John Schlesinger's Madame Sousatzka…

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