Desperately sorry for all the fashionistas who didn’t see it coming (or rather not coming…), but Black Swan only won Mila Kunis the Marcello Mastroianni Award for emerging actress at the Venice Film Festival, so no major prizes for this film (next time, try to focus more on the plot and on the actors rather than on the popular designers who made the costumes…).
The Golden Lion for Best Film went instead to Sofia Coppola’s Somewhere, the boring and extended version of Federico Fellini's visionary "Toby Dammit" (in Tre passi nel delirio).
As she went on stage to get the award the director kept on saying she couldn’t believe it (neither could I…), while many critics felt rather disappointed at the results.
Somewhere doesn’t indeed shine for originality and freshness, though it manages to alienate its audience pretty well. Easy to wonder if there were any kind of pressures from Medusa or if Louis Vuitton has been giving out little presents to its party (and it's also not always bad to have your ex as the jury chairman…).
For what regards the other prizes, Alex de la Iglesia’s Balada triste de trompeta won the Silver Lion and the award for Best Screenplay; the Jury Prize went to Jerzy Skolimowski’s Essential Killing that also won Vincent Gallo the Coppa Volpi as best actor, while Monte Hellman scooped the Lion for an Overall Work for Road to Nowhere.
Yesterday’s Persol 3-D award went instead to Avatar by James Cameron and How To Train Your Dragon directed by Chris Sanders and Dean DeBlois.
In the end it looked like the Orizzonti section of the Film Festival – with a jury chaired by Shirin Neshat – included fresher and more intelligent ideas that touched upon vital issues and were suspended between documentary and fiction, such as Verano
de Goliat by Nicolás Pereda (Mexico), The Forgotten Space by Noel
Burch, Allan Sekula (Netherlands), Coming Attractions by Peter
Tscherkassky (Austria) and Tse (Out) by Roee Rosen (Israel).
The evening is now closing with Julie Taymor’s The Tempest, a new adaptation of Shakespeare’ play that includes in its cast Helen Mirren, Russell Brand, Alfred Molina and Alan Cumming.
Tonight's world premiere marks the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s play, but Taymor's film presents a twist in the original plot since it features a revengeful and powerful sorceress, Prospera, as main character.
The film also features an orgy of rather dark and interesting costumes designed by three-time Oscar winner Sandy Powell.
Curious to see if The Tempest's gothic grandeur will inspire any fashion designer the mood for future collections.
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