Venice Diary: Ghosts in Mostra

This year, Elisa is once again covering the Venice Film Festival for The Film Experience, writing a daily diary of her cinematic experiences from the Lido. The two opening films that inaugurated the 81st edition—one from the main competition and the other from the Orizzonti section—create a surprising and unexpected dialogue.

BEETLEJUICE BEETLEJUICE (2024). Credit: Warner Bros Entertainment Inc)

by Elisa Giudici

BEETLEJUICE BEETLEJUICE by Tim Burton
Gossip has revealed that much has changed recently in Tim Burton's personal life. He has a new woman by his side, both personally and professionally and a young muse who perfectly embodies his signature gothic aesthetic. Surprisingly, this shift has had a positive impact on Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, the sequel that, 36 years after the original, finds a legitimate reason to exist. It’s moderately entertaining, offers some successful sequences, and proves itself more than worthy of opening the 81st Venice Film Festival...

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Interview: Valerio Mastandrea on Completing Italy's Oscar Submission After the Untimely Death of Its Director

Jose here. One could argue that most films go through an interesting trajectory, since it’s never easy to turn the initial pages on a script into moving images projected on a screen. However, few films in recent years have gone through the journey of Claudio Caligari’s Don’t Be Bad, which not only was the director’s third film in thirty years (take that Terrence Malick), but sadly turned out to be his last. Caligari, who had been diagnosed with terminal cancer, shot the film and had completed most of its editing, when he died at the age of 67 never seeing the final product. What followed was a true labor of love, as Caligari’s colleagues, led by actor Valerio Mastandrea who had starred in his second film, The Scent of the Night, completed the project and made sure it became available to audiences.

Don’t Be Bad made its debut at the 2015 Venice Film Festival and was subsequently selected as Italy’s submission for the Best Foreign Film Oscar. With a plot that seems inspired by Pasolini and Steinbeck, Don’t Be Bad, is a heartbreaking reminder that we won’t see any more films by Caligari, but it’s also a testament to his unique brand of sociopolitical filmmaking. I had the chance to attend a screening of the film in New York and listening to Mastandrea’s sincere admiration and love for Caligari and the film were awe-inspiring.

Read the interview after the jump...

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