Nathaniel in Venice: "Atlantide" and "The Lost Daughter"

Nathaniel reporting from Venice. Day 2

"Atlantide" is a stunner. And better yet, Venice specific!

My second day of the fest was a day of high highs and low lows. The high (other than the movies) was that it was a full social day. That doesn't always happen at festivals but it is like a shot of energy for extroverts like myself. The fun began meeting two Spanish journalists on the ferry to the Lido who introduced themselves since they read The Film Experience. We had a great conversation about the new Almodóvar and they totally sold me on the idea of the San Sebastian Film Festival -- new goal! Then between films a quick drink with longtime friend Boyd van Hoeij (who you've heard on the podcast a couple of times) and then a late night very Italian dinner with our own Elisa Giudici. She's been our Italian correspondent at TFE for a year now (kicking it off with last year's Venice summary) but this was our first time actually meeting in person. She's such a delight in person, as personable and fun as her writing. I'm really quite chuffed to be sharing this Venice experience with her.

The low was very low realizing that this full day of screenings wasn't going to be the norm...

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Elisa's Venice Diary #2: Lost Daughter and lost souls: Sorrentino, Schrader and Gyllenhaal

by Elisa Giudici

Day two, three movies: a luxury, considering how difficult it is to get tickets this year. Usually, the Venice way is to queue outside the screening hoping to be able to get inside. If you have a red or blue pass you are reasonably sure to see everything you want, even when you arrive only 5 minutes before the beginning of the show. If you are a green or yellow pass holder, you need to show up early and hope red or blue pass holders are busy somewhere else. Due to Covid-19 safety rules and social distancing, only one-third of available seats can be occupied. It means you have to be really quick to book a seat online, 74 hours before the show. The hot movies sold out in mere seconds so I am incredibly lucky to be able to review three major movies from the main competition today.

The Card Counter (Paul Schrader)
Knowing how austere and morally inflexible Paul Schrader is about cinema (and life) I think The Card Counter is his most  accessible recent movie by pure accident. I really enjoyed it and I think the general public will like this thriller about poker, gambling, and the casino world...

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Links

• Bloody Disgusting design for a new steelcase edition of American Psycho
• Screen Crush Sonny Chiba, legendary martial arts star, has passed away at 82 from COVID related pneumonia
• IndieWire Cinematographers speaking out about unsafe working conditions
• Deadline turns out Disney released that petty victim blaming statement against Scarlett Johansson when she was in labor delivering her new baby
• AV Club ...and perhaps to prevent another lawsuit, Emma Stone obviously got a *very* sweet deal for Cruella 2 aka... um, a second live-action 101 Dalmatians remake.

Julianne Moore, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Eternals, Anthony Mackie, Billy Eichner, Manny Jacinto, Gloria Swanson, Denzel Washington, and The White Lotus after the jump...

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74th Cannes. Red Carpet from Days 1-3

by Nathaniel R

We already covered opening night fashion so let's check in on days 2 and 3. Unfortunately we can't be as comprehensive as we once were in previous years. We used to live on the site Zimbio when they released enormous day-by-day galleries including basically every celebrity, whether they were famous internationally or not and every red carpet shot, whether or not it was a particularly good one including non-glam people like old film directors. They've done away with that section and now you have to look for specific people (so you have to magically know who might have attended each screening). Otherwise you can only see highlights (like every other site) which means you see the same very famous celebrities over and over again. And you lose some of the coolest sightings of rising stars or obscure stars from various countries who are not that famous outside of their home country. Which sucks for internationally minded cinephiles like us...  Ah well. On to the red carpet premiere lewks we did see...

Who gets your vote for best dressed from the first few days?

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74th Cannes: Red Carpet Opening Night

by Nathaniel R

Who gets your vote as Best Dressed at Cannes today? More photos are after the jump...

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