With a bit of delay as I had really nothing to say about the opening movies, here comes my first batch of impressions from Venice 2023.
Let’s first say that for once, the opening ceremony was a quite straight to the point but dignified one. It all came down to Charlotte Rampling handing the lifetime achievement Golden Lion over to Liliana Cavani. Both these ladies are born with elegance and things to say. And both said them right. Such as the fact that, in 80 editions and over 90 years of existence, it is the first time that such an award goes to a female movie director at the Venice Mostra – could do better guys.
As for the movies, I am glad to say that my small nostalgia from the early days does not seem to have affected my movie-acceptance levels. I am pretty satisfied with what I have seen until now.
What I very much liked about Michael Mann’s “Ferrari” is that he did not make it an action movie about racing cars. Though the racing scenes in these beautiful old cars are nicely filmed and quite catchy, the focus is more on the man and the family tragedy in the background – a dead son, another one hidden from the “official” family. These are brought to the screen with a certain delicacy and discretion – not that many words, but the ones spoken are usually meaningful. They sound right, not cliché.
I had a feeling that Adam Driver delivered nicely on this one and made a pretty credible Enzo Ferrari – from the quick reactions I could get from my movie buddies yesterday, I don’t think all agree with this statement. But as usual, all of this is very personal.
Conclusion: although I would not say it is the movie of the year, it is a pretty pleasant and enjoyable watch.
Before I start with movie 2, let me express my immense gratitude to these directors who finally seem to have understood that you don’t need to put everything in a movie and make it a 2:30-3:00 hours long crusade by default. Both yesterday’s screenings lasted less than 2 hours and I really did not feel that an additional hour was stolen from me or could have added anything to my experience. On the contrary. Grazie mille, people.
As for Luc Besson’s “Dogman”, from what I could read this morning, it seems that it is not being very well received by professionals. I would tend to agree that it is a bizarre creation and not necessarily one that I would pay for to watch back home in the movie theatre. Many things don’t make sense in it and one struggles slightly to understand the point of it. I mean. Dogs entering rich peoples’ houses and stealing their pretty diamonds for their own master? Like, really? Really, really, Luc?
We however stayed (almost) until the end. And my only explanation for this is acting performance – Caleb Landry Jones. He incarnates a fragile but powerful, sensitive but frightening Dogman, that kind of made it worth watching although everything around him was bizarre, bizarre and… bizarre.
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