Continuing the Lido theme of the last few posts, today we head down the beach a ways to the Venice Film Festival with some exclusive photos--available only on this site!--by photographer Federico Roiter, who was previously kind enough to provide photos of the the Spettacolo dei Burattini (or traditional Italian puppet show) from the Festa di San Pietro di Castello (
http://veneziablog.blogspot.com/2011/07/festa-di-san-pietro-di-castello.html).
 |
| photo credit: Federico Roiter |
I'm no expert on film, but I think Madonna is one of the worst actors I have ever seen. Thankfully, she's at this year's festival as a director--of a story based upon the romance of Wallis Simpson and Edward VIII. The film itself hasn't gotten very good reviews, but the woman does know how to make an entrance.
 |
| photo credit: Federico Roiter |
|
I don't know if Federico was in a tree to get the above shot of the director with two of her stars (Andrea Riseborough, Abbie Cornish) behind the scenes, but I find it an interesting contrast to the photo below, as she approaches the press conference stage with the determination of General Patton.
 |
photo credit: Federico Roiter
|
Matt Damon and Gwyneth Paltrow co-star in Steven Soderbergh's
Contagion, which, like the Madonna film
W.E., is being shown "Out of Competition" at the festival. That is, as an "important work by a director already established in previous editions of the festival." If anyone has any ideas about what Mr. Damon may be showing to Ms. Paltrow on his iPhone I'd love to hear them.
 |
| photo credit: Federico Roiter |
George Clooney is at the festival this year as the director and co-star of the in-competition film
Ides of March, in which a young campaign press secretary played by Ryan Gosling finds out just how nasty American presidential campaigns can be. Evan Rachel Wood, pictured above, also stars.
 |
| photo credit: Federico Roiter |
Kate Winslet stars in no less than three films being screened at this year's festival: Todd Haynes'
Mildred Pierce, Steven Soderbergh's
Contagion, and Roman Polanski's
Carnage, set amid the "mean streets" of our old neighborhood of Park Slope, Brooklyn. Actually,
Carnage involves a meeting between two pairs of parents who get together to discuss what should be done about a playground act of bullying perpetrated by one couple's son against the other couple's son. In such gentrified surroundings and with such civilized intentions everything should work out just fine--but this is a Polanski film... And one that I'm eager to see.
 |
| photo credit: Federico Roiter |
Finally, who is this man? He looks so very familiar, I'm fairly sure he's a director, but Federico did not label the photo and I haven't gotten in touch with him yet to find out. Help...
P.S. For even more candid--much much more candid--glimpses of three major Hollywood leading men (and lovers of Venice), I refer you to one of the early posts of this blog:
http://veneziablog.blogspot.com/2011/02/il-sputinato-di-venezia.html
No comments:
Post a Comment