|
'Atonement' kicks off 75th anniversary Venice film festival
2007-08-29
Movie "Sun Also Rises" poster: Kong Wei |
|
British psychological drama "Atonement", starring Keira Knightley, opened the 75th anniversary Venice film festival on Wednesday. With a preponderance of British and US entries this year, the festival will also provide a first glimpse of the new erotic spy thriller from Oscar-winning Taiwanese director Ang Lee. Lee joined "Atonement" director Joe Wright, Knightley and co-star James McAvoy on the red carpet for the gala opening of the prestigious film fest, the world's oldest. British director Kenneth Branagh and the stars of the detective thriller "Sleuth," Michael Caine and Jude Law also attended. Tony Gilroy, director of the legal drama "Michael Clayton" starring George Clooney, also attended. "Atonement", based on the best-selling novel by Ian McEwan and directed by Joe Wright, follows the consequences of an impressionable girl's tragic misreading of events at an upper-class English home in the years leading up to World War II. The girl Briony, the younger sister of Knightley's character Cecilia, sentences herself to a lifetime of guilt after getting her childhood idol and Cecilia's lover Robbie Turner (played by James McAvoy) sent to prison before he leaves to fight in the war. Working from novels "makes my work much easier," said Knightley, who also worked with Wright in his adaptation of "Pride and Prejudice." McEwan's novel is "a beautifully drawn character study," she told reporters. Vanessa Redgrave, who plays Briony as a successful novelist late in life, said: "The feeling of guilt is inescapable for the child and lasts all through her life. ... Doing damage to people you love -- that's awful." Ang Lee was to unveil "Se, Jie" (Lust, Caution), set in Shanghai in the 1940s and based on a short story by Eileen Chang. "No story of Eileen Chang's is as beautiful or as cruel as 'Se, Jie,'" said Lee, whose "Brokeback Mountain" took the top prize in Venice in 2005. Although this year marks the 75th year of La Mostra's existence it is the 64th festival here since some war years were skipped. All 22 of the films in competition will be world premieres, a feat achieved only once before -- last year. Nine of the films are British or American, including Kenneth Branagh's mystery thriller "Sleuth" with Michael Caine and Jude Law. Ken Loach will also present his latest film "It's a Free World." But the programme remains true to its traditional eastward orientation. Chinese director Jiang Wen will offer "Taiyang Zhaochang Shengqi" (The Sun Also Rises), a quartet of stories that dovetail together in the end, while from Japan there is Miike Takashi's "Sukiyaki Western Django," a complex tale of dirty tricks, betrayal, desire and love. Another 22 films will vie for prizes in the avant-garde Horizons and Horizons Documentaries categories, while 13 will be screened out of competition during the festival, which runs through September 8. George Clooney stars in "Michael Clayton" by Tony Gilroy, while Brad Pitt plays Jesse James in Andrew Dominik's "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford." The Iraq war inspired Brian De Palma's "Redacted," which portrays the rape and murder of an Iraqi teenager by US soldiers, as well as Paul Haggis' "In the Valley of Elah," in which a career military man played by Tommy Lee Jones investigates the disappearance of his soldier son in Iraq. Co-starring with Jones are Susan Sarandon and Charlize Theron. The out-of-competition menu will offer Woody Allen's "Cassandra's Dream," a drama set in London, "La Fille Coupee en Deux" by French veteran Claude Chabrol and a new comedy by Japanese director Takeshi Kitano, "Kantoku Banzai!" (Glory to the Filmmaker!). Chinese director Zhang Yimou, who won Golden Lions for "The Story of Qiu Ju" (1992) and "Not One Less" (1999), will head the jury. All but six of the 57 films will be world premieres, including an unusually large number of the 19 American selections: 15. Welsh director Peter Greenaway will offer "Nightwatching," which revolves around Rembrandt's most famous work.
Iraq war films among favorites at Venice (2007-09-04)Venice film festival's 75th anniversary edition kicks off (2007-08-29)'Atonement' kicks off 75th anniversary Venice film festival (2007-08-29)Italy's Bertolucci to get special Venice film festival award (2007-06-18)Gangster, art-house films tipped to win Hong Kong awards (2007-04-13)
| 
