Venice (AFP)
The start of the Golden Lion race was given on Wednesday evening by an emblematic duo of Spanish cinema, Pedro Almodovar and Penelope Cruz, prelude to a Venice Film Festival which mixes auteur cinema and big names in Hollywood.
"Madres Paralelas", in which the 71-year-old filmmaker reunites with his favorite actress, should not confuse his fans, with the story of the fate of two women who give birth on the same day and in the same maternity hospital.
The Spanish star plays Janis (a nod to singer Janis Joplin), a forty-something photographer.
She becomes pregnant with an archaeologist and married friend, who has promised to help her find the burial place of her great-grandfather, who disappeared at the start of the Spanish Civil War, and to exhumate it in his native village.
The director and his muse, all dressed in black, walked the red carpet of the cinema palace, unrolled on the Lido of Venice facing the sea, under the flashes of photographers but in the absence of the public, anti-Covid measures oblige .
During the opening ceremony, a Golden Lion of Honor was awarded to Italian filmmaker Roberto Benigni, the unforgettable author of "La vie est belle".
For this 78th Mostra, Almodovar faces 20 films in competition to seduce a jury chaired by the South Korean Bong Joon-Ho, Palme d'Or 2019 with "Parasite".
South Korean director Bong Joon-ho, president of the jury of the 78th Venice Film Festival on September 1, 2021 MIGUEL MEDINA AFP
"The directors have gone through a very difficult period this year and last year, but in a way if you look back it is as if it had been a test and it showed the vitality of cinema," said director.
Its jury brings together the Franco-Belgian actress Virginie Efira and the American director of Chinese origin Chloé Zhao, who with "Nomadland" triumphed at the Oscars a few months after winning the Golden Lion last year.
- Five directors -
A trajectory that can dream of the directors in competition, the most confirmed like the New Zealander Jane Campion ("La part du Chien"), Palme d'Or in 1993 with "The piano lesson", like the newer ones, at the Like American actress Maggie Gyllenhaal, who makes her debut behind the camera adapting bestselling author Elena Ferrante ("The Lost Daughter").
Director and actor Roberto Benigni receiving a Golden Lion of Honor at the 78th Mostra, in Venice on September 1, 2021 MIGUEL MEDINA AFP
Three French films are in the running: "Another World", a social drama by Stéphane Brizé, "Lost Illusions", where Xavier Giannoli adapts Balzac, and "L'Evénement", an adaptation of a novel by Annie Ernaux on the abortion.
Only five films are signed by female directors, the Festival not reproducing the effort of parity started last year, where eight of the 18 films in competition were signed by women.
The winners will be unveiled on September 11, at the end of this second edition since the start of the pandemic.
Last year, the festival was held in low key, before the arrival of vaccines against Covid-19.
- The "Dune" event -
Change of atmosphere in this return, even if health measures continue to apply: the Mostra marks the comeback of the big names of cinema on the Lido.
From here on the charts, many stars are expected, from Kristen Stewart as Lady Di in "Spencer" by Pablo Larrain, to Benedict Cumberbatch, via Antonio Banderas.
Spanish actress Penelope Cruz at the Venice Film Festival on September 1, 2021 Filippo MONTEFORTE AFP
"Everyone wanted to come, start traveling again to promote films, see them come out in cinemas and finally return to normality", welcomed the director of the Mostra, Alberto Barbera, in an interview with AFP.
"No one was difficult to convince!"
"The quality of the films is very high this year, as if the difficult circumstances had stimulated the creativity of the directors," he enthused.
The event will also be held out of competition, where "Dune" will be presented, a new version of the legendary space-opera to which the Canadian Denis Villeneuve has tried out, with a procession of stars in the credits, from Timothée Chalamet to Oscar Isaac, passing by the reveal of the series "Euphoria", Zendaya.
Statue of the winged lion, symbol of Venice, near the Mostra festival palace, August 31, 2021 in Venice Filippo MONTEFORTE AFP
Ridley Scott will also occupy the poster, with "The last duel", which marks the reformation on the screen and the screenplay of the duo Matt Damon / Ben Affleck, a quarter of a century after "Will Hunting".
© 2021 AFP