Venice heats up with Clooney, Stone premieres

VENICE:

George Clooney plays a famous actor on a soul-searching journey and Emma Stone makes a turn as the CEO of a pharmaceutical company in two of the films premiered at the Venice Film Festival on Thursday evening.

Clooney and Stone are among the many Hollywood actors, including Adam Sandler, Laura Dern and Jesse Plemons, to grace the red carpet with the world premieres of Noah Baumbach's "Jay Kelly" and Yorgos Lanthimos's "Bugonia."

Both films are vying for the coveted Golden Lion prize, the winner of which often goes on to get Oscar nominations and even wins. Lanthimos is a Venice veteran, having just recently won the festival's top prize for "Poor Things."

The new film, "Bugonia," is an English-language adaptation of a South Korean film, about two conspiracy-minded men — one of which is played by Plemons — who believe Stone's character is an alien and kidnap her.

Baumbach, too, was on the Lido recently with his Don DeLillo adaptation "White Noise," which went on to a less decorated awards run. "Jay Kelly," he said in his director's statement, "is about a man looking back at his life and reflecting on the choices, the sacrifices, the successes, the mistakes he's made."

The film features a large ensemble cast, including Sandler as the actor's manager, Baumbach's wife and oft-collaborator Greta Gerwig, Dern, Billy Crudup and Riley Keough.

Like "White Noise," "Jay Kelly" is a Netflix-produced film. After taking a year off from the festival, the streaming giant is back with three major films playing in competition, including Guillermo del Toro's "Frankenstein" and Kathryn Bigelow's political thriller "A House of Dynamite."

The festival kicked off Wednesday on the Lido. Paolo Sorrentino's "La Grazia" opened the 82nd edition of the show with the Oscar-winning director revealing that his latest movie was inspired by a real-life political dilemma that raised profound moral questions.

Starring Sorrentino's longtime collaborator Toni Servillo and Anna Ferzetti, the film follows the final months in office of a fictional Italian president who must decide whether to approve a law allowing euthanasia and whether to pardon two prisoners convicted of murder.

Sorrentino told reporters the story was prompted by President Sergio Mattarella's 2019 decision to grant clemency — "grazia" in Italian — to a man who killed his Alzheimer's-afflicted wife.

"It immediately seemed like an interesting moral dilemma to tell," Sorrentino said. "For years I've thought that moral dilemma was a formidable narrative engine, more than any other narrative tool usually used in cinema."

Although the main character shares many traits with the highly popular Mattarella, Servillo said it was fusion. "There are countless widowed presidents of the republic, several presidents of the republic who are men of law, several presidents of the republic with only one daughter," Servillo said.

Sorrentino won the Oscar for best foreign language picture in 2014 for "The Great Beauty" and took the Silver Lion runners-up prize in Venice in 2021 for "The Hand of God" about his childhood in Naples — both of which also starred Servillo.

Many of his films are sensual, opulent and even surreal. "La Grazia" by contrast is often austere and sparse as it follows the elderly president grappling with his conscience, sparring with his intellectual daughter and mourning his late wife.

Sorrentino described his protagonist as a man who, behind his rigorous exterior, embodies "a high idea of politics", which he said was increasingly hard to find in real life.

Amid the drama come trademark flashes of Sorrentino comedy, with the president learning the lyrics to a rap song, much to the surprise of a ceremonial guard, and seeking counsel from a black, scooter-driving pope.

But the core themes are dealt with sensitively and Sorrentino said he hoped his movie might help convince politicians in Italy to finally draw up a law on assisted dying.

"It's well known that (cinema) no longer has the devastating impact of popularity it once had, but it can still try. So I can simply hope that a film, in this case my film, can bring attention back to a theme that ... is fundamental," he said.

"La Grazia" is one of 21 films competing for the prestigious Golden Lion prize, alongside works by Guillermo del Toro, Kathryn Bigelow and Yorgos Lanthimos. The festival runs through to September 6. The festival runs until September 6.