Dr. De Luca Attends the Venice Film Festival and Shares Her Highlights
81st Venice Film Festival, 2024
Professor of Italian Film Giovanna De Luca is just back from the Venice Film Festival, where she rubbed elbows with movie stars, filmmakers, and survived the frenzy of the hectic festival schedule. Pedro Almodóvar took home the Golden Lion with his drama The Room Next Door, while Nicole Kidman left with the Best Actress award for Babygirl, director Halina Reijn.
Read Dr. De Luca’s account of the festival experience and her festival favs:
The festival has a great atmosphere, with many international stars, filmmakers, and industry professionals. It was the usual perfectly organized chaos that only the first international film festival could create.
A short list of my favorite films:
*“The Order” by Justin Kurzel, based on Gary Gerhardt’s book, The Silent Brotherhood, about an American white supremacist group in the eighties. It was well written with an exceptional performance by Jude Law.
* Vermiglio by Maura Delpero is about the consequences of the Second World War in a small town on the Italian mountainside that was not directly involved in the war but could not escape its consequences. Delpero reveals how the small-town inhabitants’ social and religious attitudes win over the young generation’s natural, sentimental behavior. She does it with a slow pace and great cinematography that emphasizes the beauty of the rural landscape of Vermiglio.
*Maldoror by Fabrice Du Welz is inspired by a judicial scandal about a child abuser/serial killer and a young policeman trying to solve the case but is defeated by the power games of political/ police/ criminal games in Belgium at the time. The actor Anthony Bajon, through powerful expressionistic movements, reflects the strength, uncontaminated idealism, and passion of the youth, the intelligent and young policeman is slowly destroyed by the power system.
– Dr. Giovanna De Luca