Movie News
The 83rd Venice International Film Festival opened this week on the Lido, running from September 2 to 12. It's one of the most prestigious film festivals in the world, second only to Cannes, and technically the oldest — it was established in 1932 by La Biennale di Venezia, originally as a non-competitive event, and has grown into the launchpad for some of the year's biggest awards contenders.
Actor and director Maggie Gyllenhaal is presiding over this year's main competition jury, which includes Kaouther Ben Hania, Daniel Blumberg, Xavier Giannoli, Shahrbanoo Sadat, and Johnnie To. This year's festival opened with Danny Boyle's Ink and will close with Giovanni Veronesi's God Laughs, with the Golden Lion and other top prizes to be announced on September 12.
Given the festival's decades-long track record of premiering films that go on to sweep the Oscars, we thought it was a good time to dust off our own Venice-related collections. If you want to relive past glory, check out the Golden Lion Winners collection, tracing the top prize back through the decades. And for something a little more chaotic, take a look at the Booed at Venice collection, celebrating the films that got a rowdier reception from the notoriously vocal Lido audiences.
Criticker News
Another reason to check out those Venice Film Festival collections might be to see the latest improvements we've brought to the collection pages. If you haven't seen the news, we've recently brought a variety of views to the collection page, allowing you to show them in poster, compact, list and database views, with full filtering and sorting.
Collections You Might Want to Check Out
A television series that presents a different story and a different set of characters in each season.
Graffiti, busking, sculpture, theatre/performance, any art that's found in the streets.
Winners of the Best Foreign Film Oscar
Games included in the 2020 Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality from itch.io.
Created on 26 Sep 2021 by
howabe
Serial Killer
Created on 24 Sep 2008 by
td888
Recent Mini-Reviews Getting Love
I do really love Lars von Trier so much, the most serious but the most tricksterish of all filmmakers, and above all the most courageous. He probably also has the greatest cultural knowledge of any filmmaker, and this is amply on display in this captivating documentary made by his daughter Agnes Trier, who is also the interviewer.
Features the best/only "death by golden retrievers" scene you'll ever see.
The plot definitely kept me guessing more than I was expecting. Surprisingly still relevant depiction of office culture I think, and has some pretty funny moments and lines ("Atta girl!"), but it's stretched pretty thin overall, especially once it takes a turn towards the more ridiculous at the midpoint and feels like it kind of loses focus. Everyone does a good job in their roles, and Dolly Parton is super endearing in her acting debut, but I do think there's some missed potential here.
One of the movies that did not really stand the test of rewatch for me. It’s elegant and fun, and it has a great soundtrack by Reznor / Ross, but i feel the pulpy material could have been realized in a more pulpy, lascivious style so it would feel rightly silly, and less prestigious. Also, these plot twists are only fully enjoyed once of course. Even i, with a memory like a river barge shot up by the Vietcong, remembered it all. I add 5 pts for the music, especially during the credits
A thoroughly mixed bag - individual scenes are strong and memorable, but the transitions between them are weak and the editing is too fast and choppy. Can we actually see some of the beautiful practical effects you used, Nolan? Has a nice message and seeing Odysseus grappling with what he did makes the story stronger, but the climax is sloppy because Nolan still can't shoot action. His writing skills also seem to be degrading. Now excuse me before my age of bronze collapses all over the place.
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