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Venice places bets as countdown to awards begins
2005-09-10
VENICE - Venice placed its bets ahead of an evening of red carpets and glittering Golden Lions on Saturday, preparing to wrap up a film festival that closes on an Asian note with lavish Chinese musical "Perhaps Love".Hong Kong director Peter Ho-sun Chan's offering, the first Chinese musical film in four decades, includes some of Asia's biggest names, from award-winning Jacky Cheung to "House of Flying Daggers" star Takeshi Kaneshiro. As festival-goers prepare their evening glad rags, George Clooney is still the favourite to take the top Venice prize with "Good Night. And, Good Luck", a black-and-white tale of broadcasting courage in the McCarthy era. But Clooney, hugely popular in Italy where he has a home, faces tough competition from movies including Ang Lee's "Brokeback Mountain" and Park Chan-wook's visually stunning "Sympathy for Lady Vengeance", the last film in the Korean director's revenge trilogy. Abel Ferrara, whose film "Mary" met mixed reactions, could be another contender. One Italian daily reported on Saturday that he had been asked to return to Venice for the awards. Venice came under fire last year after a blunder-prone competition that resulted in delays, middle-of-the-night red carpet arrivals and stars left without seats at their own premieres. This year's slimmer line-up has helped keep the organisation on track, while Venice has not lost its variety. VENICE AHEAD The competition line-up went from a gay cowboy love story with "Bareback Mountain" to John Turturro's working class musical "Romance & Cigarettes". "A lot of it is down to chance, down to what films are ready. But this year there were more U.S. premieres than ever before," said Screen International critic Lee Marshall. "Even when compared to Cannes, it has done well. It may not have the commercial razzmatazz but in terms of film quality, Venice probably came out ahead." Asia has been honoured at a festival that has included Chinese and Japanese classic cinema retrospectives, with a top career award for Japanese cartoonist Hayao Miyazaki. And it will fall to Hong Kong's Chan to wrap up the party, 11 days after the film competition opened with Tsui Hark's martial arts spectacular "Seven Swords". "Perhaps Love", set to screen after the awards ceremony, is another blockbuster, packed with striking tunes and spectacular crowd dances led by Bollywood choreographer Farah Khan. Billed as the first Chinese musical film since the "Red" operas of the Cultural Revolution, Chan's movie is probably closer to Hollywood's own big budget musical revival after Baz Luhrmann's "Moulin Rouge". The film tells the tale of two long-separated lovers -- played by Kaneshiro and diva Zhou Xun -- who meet again while filming a circus-themed 1930s musical picture. Chan is best known as the director of the critically acclaimed romantic comedy "Comrades, Almost a Love Story". Reuters
Jet Li breaks record with $13 mln paycheck (2007-11-26)Hong Kong artists tipped to sweep Chinese "Oscars" (2006-11-25)Venice places bets as countdown to awards begins (2005-09-10)Sony Classics takes a stab at Chinese 'Daggers' (2004-05-20)Chinese director hailed for martial arts epic (2004-05-19)
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