Well, well, well. Where to start? We actually had a really nice day. Venice treated us with a beautiful sunshine, several prosecchi, good food and a quite fun Ai Wei Wei exhibition on San Giorgio.
Whilst we were relaxing very much on the farniente side of life, thousands of teenagers were busy gathering (apparently from 08:00) in front of the Palazzo del Cinema on the Lido. The reason holds in one name: Timothée Chalamet. I have to say it was quite an experience from a sociological point of view, which led me somewhere between bewilderment and a light fear for the future of humanity.
So whilst the kids were sitting on the concrete and frying in the sun, we entered the Excelsior hotel (the festival “headquarters”) from its beach side and treated ourselves with a bellini at the bar – being an adult definitely has many pros. We observed the buzzing cinema world (as well as the very much out of focus and slightly too high on god knows what waiter) from our little bar chairs, sipping slowly from our peachy bubbles – forget about the bottled bellini you can get in supermarkets, people! A real Bellini is made out of fresh peach juice. Even when the waiter struggles with pouring it straight into your glass, definitely worth the (quite long) wait.
As the screening time approached, we moved towards the Excelsior entrance. That is indeed where the movie delegations leave from to head towards the Palazzo del Cinema in nice Lexus cars… for a max 100 meters drive. And this is exactly when the outside kids got impressively out of control. A Lexus with tainted windows appeared from a side street. And hundreds, maybe thousands of kids started running after it, mobile phones in their hands, shouting “Timothyyyyyyyyyy, Timothyyyyyyyy, Timothyyyyyyyy”, some shaking uncontrollably, some crying pretty hysterically.
I don’t believe any one knew who actually WAS in that car. According to me, definitely not the Timothyyyyyy, as he appeared way later on the red carpet (and nope, I did not see a millimeter of his person). But the crowd started moving as one. Me don’t likey crowd movements. But we had a festival buddy wanting a picture situation. Hence, solidarity I showed and off we followed the movement.
Observing this mass hysteria left me quite sceptical. I could not help thinking that yes, the guy is a talented actor and yes, pretty he is. But damn, he is only 25 and only human after all (I suppose; Because seeing these kids’ reaction made me second guess this statement for a moment). And then, I kept wondering why no one follows me and my team to work in the morning. I mean. We are also doing a good job. Maybe we would as well deserve applauses and cheers sometimes, just to help us make it through the day.
But well, Timothée finally made it to the red carpet in his as red little outfit. And the outfit left me with as many questions as the movie I saw in the evening. I’m still unable to say what I exactly thought about it (the movie, I mean… well, the outfit as well, but not as essential an opinion I would say… though the kids would certainly disagree with me).
Guadagnino and I have a love/hate relationship. Love: “Io sono l’Amore” and “Call me by your name”. Hate (very deep, the hate, I must say): “A bigger splash” and “Suspiria”. As we were supposed to watch a cannibal related story, I was betting on the hate side for this one.
As usual, the Mostra surprises you and decides otherwise.
So apparently, my relationship with Guadagnino has evolved in a triangular one from now on: love, hate and, in the middle absolutely nothing, neutral, no love, no hate, basically nothing to say.
It was a pleasant watch. One of these standard American (though Italian in this case, if you see what I mean) road movies with nice sceneries and excellent actors indeed. What did the canibal element bring to it? Honestly, I have no clue. I am still searching for the metaphore behind it but struggle to make sense out of it. Blank my head remains – maybe I am just too relaxed… or too old for this.
I was definitely not bored. But definitely not charmed, surprised nor enchanted either. Hence, in this case, I will have to leave it to you to decide if it’s worth a watch and if there is a meaning behind all this that I was unable to grasp – feel free to enlighten me.
I DID feel slightly sorry though for the kids outside who waited for hours to see most probably nothing of Timothée and his red outfit, when the entire film crew came to say hi to us at the end of the screening. Mission accomplished, a Timothée picture we have.
Klara's cinema 