After a crucial mauling for Roman Polanski, there was a hotter reception on the Venice Film Festival on Monday for an additional blacklisted director — Woody Allen — who insisted he supported the #MeToo motion “when it’s beneficial”.
The competition additionally noticed the darkish aspect of Elvis Presley with Sofia Coppola’s well-received biopic of the rocker’s spouse, “Priscilla”.
But there was specific adulation for Allen’s fiftieth movie, “Coup de Chance” (“Stroke of Luck”), underlining that he’s now much more common in Europe than the United States.
His first film totally in French is a basic Allen morality story about love, infidelity and homicide.
Most evaluations known as it his finest work in a decade, following a weak run of movies from the prolific director.
“I thought to myself: it’s my 50th film and I love Paris so much that I’ll make it in French… And then I could think I’m a genuine European filmmaker,” he advised reporters.
The 87-year-old has been shunned by Hollywood because the #MeToo motion emerged, resulting from allegations he molested his adopted daughter within the Nineteen Nineties, which he says had been fabricated by his ex-partner Mia Farrow.
He advised Variety that he backed #MeToo “the place it does one thing optimistic.
“I read instances where it’s very beneficial… for women,” he mentioned, however added: “When it’s silly, it’s silly.”
The competition has drawn flak for together with Allen and Polanski, who has a baby intercourse conviction and faces different unresolved assault allegations, in its out-of-competition part.
Allen’s movie fared much better than Polanski’s slapstick comedy “The Palace”, which was torn to shreds by critics after its premiere on Saturday.
Set in a flowery Swiss resort on the flip of the century, and with jokes that embrace a canine humping a penguin, critics known as “The Palace” a “laughless debacle” (Variety) and “soul-throttlingly crap” (The Telegraph).
“It beggars belief, but, at the age of 90, Polanski may have actually cancelled himself with a film that will probably never see the light of day in any English-speaking countries,” wrote Deadline.
Meanwhile, Priscilla Presley joined Coppola on the purple carpet for the biopic of her life.
There had been sturdy evaluations, although many mentioned it made disturbing viewing, exhibiting Elvis wooing a 14-year-old when he was 24 — “an insecure narcissist fixated on a teenage girl and unwilling to allow his young wife any independence,” in response to The Independent.
Priscilla herself advised reporters “Sofia did an amazing job”, however added: “It’s very difficult to sit and watch a film about you, about your life and your love.”
She defended their relationship, saying they”never had sex” after they had been first collectively throughout Elvis’s navy service in Germany.
“He was very kind, very soft, very loving, but he also respected the fact that I was 14 years old,” she mentioned.
Coppola gained the highest prize Golden Lion in Venice in 2010 for “Somewhere” — controversially awarded by her ex-boyfriend, Quentin Tarantino.
Her new movie stars Cailee Spaeny (“Mare of Easttown”) as Priscilla, and Jacob Elordi, well-known because the heartthrob in Netflix present “Euphoria”, because the rock ‘n’ roll legend.
There are 23 movies competing for the Golden Lion, to be introduced on Saturday.
Frontrunners embrace “Poor Things”, with Emma Stone as a sexually voracious reanimated corpse, and “Maestro”, through which Bradley Cooper transforms into legendary conductor and composer Leonard Bernstein.
David Fincher’s “The Killer”, starring Michael Fassbender as a cold-blooded murderer dropping management, and Michael Mann biopic “Ferrari”, had been additionally well-received by critics.
Many of the celebrities have been unable to attend the competition resulting from strikes by Hollywood actors and writers, primarily over pay within the streaming period and the potential menace of AI.
© 2023 AFP