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Venice Film Festival · 2019

Venice Film Festival 2019

Competition

Programme

21 films · 12 reviews

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About Endlessness (Om Det Oandliga)

Review preview for About Endlessness

There is more melancholy in About Endlessness, however, than in his preceding 'Living Trilogy', as despite moments of humour and hopefulness, its dominant themes are regret and loss.

Amber Wilkinson · 4 out of 5
Guided by a Scheherazade-like narrator, the film reflects on human life through a series of vignettes - from war-torn Cologne to smaller incidents like the tying of shoelaces.

(Country: Sweden, Germany, Norway; Year: 2019; Director: Roy Andersson; Writer: Roy Andersson; Stars: Lesley Leichtweis Bernardi, Tatiana Delaunay, Ania Nova, Gloria Ormandlaky, Martin Serner, Lesley Leichtweis Bernardi, Tatiana Delaunay, Ania Nova, Gloria Ormandlaky, Martin Serner)

Full review See: Interview with Fred Scott about Being A Human Person and director Roy Andersson

Ad Astra

Review preview for Ad Astra

Gray's film is so visually stunning in places, you'll wish that Roy would pipe down a bit and let you enjoy it.

Amber Wilkinson · 3.5 out of 5
An astronaut travels to the outer edge of the solar system in a bid to find his missing father and ensure the survival of the planet.

(Country: Brazil, US, China; Year: 2019; Director: James Gray; Writer: James Gray, Ethan Gross; Stars: Brad Pitt, Liv Tyler, Tommy Lee Jones, Donald Sutherland, Ruth Negga, Loren Dean, John Ortiz, Greg Bryk, Kimberly Elise, Anne McDaniels, Kimmy Shields, LisaGay Hamilton, John Finn, Alyson Reed, Halszka Kuza)

Full review

An Officer and a Spy (J'Accuse)

Drama based on French political scandal the Dreyfus affair.

(Country: France, Italy; Year: 2019; Director: Roman Polanski; Writer: Robert Harris, Robert Harris, Roman Polanski; Stars: Emmanuelle Seigner, Jean Dujardin, Louis Garrel, Mathieu Amalric, Melvil Poupaud, Damien Bonnard, Denis Podalydès, Vincent Grass, Grégory Gadebois, Wladimir Yordanoff, Didier Sandre, Hervé Pierre, Eric Ruf, Michèle Clément, Clément Jacqmin)

Babyteeth

Review preview for Babyteeth

Milla might be dying but she's also, paradoxically, finding her way in the world and working out what she wants, even if time is short.

Amber Wilkinson · 4 out of 5
Comedy, sees a family whose seriously ill daughter falls for a drug dealer discover that it might not be such a terrible thing after all.

(Country: Australia; Year: 2019; Director: Shannon Murphy; Writer: Based on the play by Rita Kalnejais; Stars: Ben Mendelsohn, Essie Davis, Eliza Scanlen, Toby Wallace, Andrea Demetriades, Emily Barclay, Charles Grounds, Justin Smith, Arka Das, Priscilla Doueihy, Georgina Symes, Zack Grech, Eugene Gilfedder, Quentin Yung, Jack Yabsley)

Full review

The Domain (A Herdade)

Review preview for The Domain

Despite its reliance on the crutch of cliche in terms of plotting there is much to admire here stylistically.

Amber Wilkinson · 3 out of 5
Chronicle of a Portugese family who own a large estate on the banks of the Tagus, tracking them down the decades.

(Country: Portugal; Year: 2019; Director: Tiago Guedes; Writer: Rui Cardoso Martins, Tiago Guedes, Gilles Taurand; Stars: Albano Jerónimo, Sandra Faleiro, Miguel Borges, Ana Vilela da Costa, João Vicente, João Pedro Mamede, Rodrigo Tomás, Beatriz Brás, Diogo Dória, Ana Bustorff, Victoria Guerra, Filipe Vargas, Luís Garcia, Teresa Madruga, Cândido Ferreira)

Full review

Ema

Review preview for Ema

Di Girolamo has a compelling intensity in the role but it's still hard to believe that everyone would fall quite so hard and fast for Ema's devil may care charms and unpredictability, especially with so much on the line.

Amber Wilkinson · 3.5 out of 5
A dancer and her choreographer husband find themselves trying to stop their lives falling apart after an adoption goes awry.

(Country: Chile; Year: 2019; Director: Pablo Larraín; Writer: Guillermo Calderón, Alejandro Moreno; Stars: Santiago Cabrera, Gael García Bernal, Giannina Fruttero, Mariana Di Girolamo, Mariana Loyola, Antonia Giesen, Eduardo Paxeco, Catalina Saavedra, Paola Giannini, Josefina Fiebelkorn, Paula Hofmann, Susana Hidalgo, Paula Luchsinger, Santiago Cabrera, Gael García Bernal)

Full review

Gloria Mundi

In Marseille, a family gathers for the birth of baby Gloria. But despite the joy, they have fallen on hard times. However Gloria’s ambitious uncle has a new business idea, which could be a way out of their tough situation.

(Country: France; Year: 2019; Director: Robert Guédiguian; Writer: Robert Guédiguian, Serge Valletti; Stars: Ariane Ascaride, Jean-Pierre Darroussin, Gérard Meylan, Anaïs Demoustier, Robinson Stévenin, Lola Naymark, Grégoire Leprince-Ringuet, Angelica Sarre, Pauline Caupenne, Yann Trégouët, Mathilde Ulmer, Diouc Koma, Adrien Jolivet, Karine Angeon, Ferdinand Verhaeghe)

Guest Of Honour

Psychological drama about a father and his relationship with his daughter who is in jail, accused of having a sexual relationship with a student.

(Country: Canada; Year: 2019; Director: Atom Egoyan; Writer: Atom Egoyan; Stars: David Thewlis, Luke Wilson, Sima Fisher, Rossif Sutherland, Tennille Read, Gage Munroe, Alexandre Bourgeois, Laysla De Oliveira, Sugith Varughese, Tamara Podemski, John Bourgeois, Isabelle Franca, Juan Carlos Velis, Sochi Fried, Joyce Rivera)

Joker

Review preview for Joker

Phoenix strips the skin off your eyeballs. What happens next is a gasp away from easy.

Angus Wolfe Murray · 5 out of 5
Origin story of Batman's arch nemesis.

(Country: US, Canada; Year: 2019; Director: Todd Phillips; Writer: Todd Phillips, Scott Silver; Stars: Joaquin Phoenix, Robert De Niro, Zazie Beetz, Marc Maron, Shea Whigham, Brian Tyree Henry, Frances Conroy, Bryan Callen, Brett Cullen, Bill Camp, Isabella Ferreira, Douglas Hodge, Glenn Fleshler, Josh Pais, Jolie Chan)

Full review

The Laundromat

Thriller about the Panama Papers scandal.

(Country: US; Year: 2019; Director: Steven Soderbergh; Writer: Jake Bernstein, Scott Z Burns; Stars: Meryl Streep, Gary Oldman, Antonio Banderas, Melissa Rauch, Sharon Stone, James Cromwell, David Schwimmer, Alex Pettyfer, Matthias Schoenaerts, Robert Patrick, Will Forte, Chris Parnell, Jeffrey Wright, Nonso Anozie, Rosalind Chao)

The Mafia Is No Longer What It Used to Be (la Mafia Non è Più Quella Di Una Volta)

Documentary, looking at present-day Palermo through the eyes of photographer Letizia Battaglia (Shooting The Mafia)

(Country: Italy; Year: 2019; Director: Franco Maresco; Writer: Uliano Greca, Francesco Guttuso, Giuliano La Franca, Franco Maresco, Claudia Uzzo; Stars: Letizia Battaglia, Ciccio Mira, Letizia Battaglia, Ciccio Mira)

Marriage Story

Review preview for Marriage Story

The film is at its best when it is portraying conflicted emotions - as old love underlies fresh acrimony.

Amber Wilkinson · 3.5 out of 5
A couple find themselves in a messier divorce than they imagined.

(Country: US; Year: 2019; Director: Noah Baumbach; Writer: Noah Baumbach; Stars: Scarlett Johansson, Laura Dern, Adam Driver, Ray Liotta, Merritt Wever, Mark O'Brien, Alan Alda, Julie Hagerty, Kyle Bornheimer, Mickey Sumner, Ayden Mayeri, Matthew Maher, Brooke Bloom, Azhy Robertson, Mary Hollis Inboden)

Full review

Martin Eden

Review preview for Martin Eden

Luca Marinelli is excellent in the lead, balancing intensity with intelligence, convincing at every stage of Martin's journey.

Jennie Kermode · 5 out of 5
A man struggles to better his circumstances, motivated by his love for a woman from a bourgeois family.

(Country: Italy, France, Germany; Year: 2019; Director: Pietro Marcello; Writer: Maurizio Braucci, Pietro Marcello, based on the novel by Jack London; Stars: Luca Marinelli, Carlo Cecchi, Jessica Cressy, Vincenzo Nemolato, Marco Leonardi, Denise Sardisco, Carmen Pommella, Autilia Ranieri, Savino Paparella, Elisabetta Valgoi, Pietro Ragusa, Giustiniano Alpi, Dario Iubatti, Anna Patierno, Vincenza Modica)

Full review See: Pietro Marcello in conversation on his film Martin Eden and Jack London’s novel

The Mayor Of Rione Sanità (El Sindaco Del Rione Sanità)

A mayor who dispenses justice according to his own rules finds his moral code thrown for a loop when a man asks for help to kill his father.

(Country: Italy; Year: 2019; Director: Mario Martone; Writer: Eduardo De Filippo, Mario Martone, Ippolita Di Majo; Stars: Massimiliano Gallo, Adriano Pantaleo, Daniela Ioia, Francesco Di Leva, Ernesto Mahieux, Roberto De Francesco, Giuseppe M. Gaudino, Gennaro Di Colandrea, Armando De Giulio, Domenico Esposito, Lucienne Perreca, Salvatore Presutto, Viviana Cangiano, Morena Di Leva, Daniele Baselice)

No.7 Cherry Lane

Animation telling the story of a love triangle.

(Year: 2019; Director: Yonfan; Writer: Yonfan; Stars: Voiced by, Sylvia Chang, Zhao Wei, Alex Lam, Kelly Yao)

The Painted Bird

Review preview for The Painted Bird

Smutný gives us faces that will stories even when they're still, the weight of long experience etched into every line.

Jennie Kermode · 5 out of 5
A lone Jewish boy has to fend for himself in Nazi-occupied eastern Europe.

(Country: Czech Republic, Ukraine, Slovakia; Year: 2019; Director: Václav Marhoul; Writer: Jerzy Kosinski, Václav Marhoul, Václav Marhoul; Stars: Stellan Skarsgård, Harvey Keitel, Barry Pepper, Julian Sands, Udo Kier, Aleksey Kravchenko, Tim Kalkhof, Jitka Cvancarová, Pavel Kríz, Petr Vanek, Lech Dyblik, Petr Kotlar, Radim Fiala, Milan Simácek, Filip Kankovský)

Full review

The Perfect Candidate

Review preview for The Perfect Candidate

The film generates a feel-good vibe even if beneath the pleasant froth lies a rather predictable polemic against the patriarchy.

Amber Wilkinson · 3.5 out of 5
A young female Saudi doctor decides to run for election.

(Country: Saudi Arabia, Germany; Year: 2019; Director: Haifaa Al-Mansour; Writer: Haifaa Al-Mansour, Brad Niemann; Stars: Mila Al Zahrani, Nora Al Awadh, Dae Al Hilali, Mila Al Zahrani, Nora Al Awadh, Dae Al Hilali)

Full review

Saturday Fiction

Story of an actress who is also an undercover agent for the Allies in 1941 Shanghai.

(Country: China; Year: 2019; Director: Lou Ye; Writer: Ma Yingli; Stars: Gong Li, Tom Wlaschiha, Mark Chao, Pascal Greggory, Joe Odagiri)

The Truth (La Verite)

Review preview for The Truth

In less sensitive hands than Kore-eda's, it could have come across as cloyingly introverted but instead there is wit and warmth in the observed relationship between the two women.

Richard Mowe · 4 out of 5
A reunion between a French cinema star and her daughter descends into confrontation.

(Country: France, Japan; Year: 2019; Director: Hirokazu Kore-eda; Writer: Hirokazu Kore-eda, Léa Le Dimna; Stars: Catherine Deneuve, Juliette Binoche, Ethan Hawke, Clémentine Grenier, Manon Clavel, Jackie Berroyer, Ludivigne Sagnier.)

Full review See: Juliette Binoche on working with Catherine Deneuve on The Truth , Venice Film Festival report - The Truth, Only The Animals, Joker and more

Opening film

Waiting For The Barbarians

Review preview for Waiting For The Barbarians

Rylance is superb throughout in a role perfectly suited to his talents.

Jennie Kermode · 4 out of 5
A magistrate in a colonial town suffers a crisis of conscience about the regime he works for.

(Country: Italy, US; Year: 2019; Director: Ciro Guerra; Writer: Ciro Guerra, based on the novel by JM Coetzee; Stars: Johnny Depp, Robert Pattinson, Greta Scacchi, Sam Reid, Harry Melling, Mark Rylance, David Dencik, Bill Milner, David Moorst, Gana Bayarsaikhan, Joseph Long, Clem So, Wil Coban, Faical Elkihel, Nayef Rashed)

Full review

Wasp Network

The true story of Cuban spies in America during the Nineties, who carried out military attacks on Cuba and the network that struck back.

(Country: France, Spain, Belgium, Brazil; Year: 2019; Director: Olivier Assayas; Writer: Olivier Assayas; Stars: Ana de Armas, Penélope Cruz, Edgar Ramírez, Wagner Moura, Gael García Bernal, Harlys Becerra, Ruairi Rhodes, Michael Vitovich, Gisela Chipe, Julian Flynn, Brannon Cross, Steve Howard, Johanna Sol, Julio Gabay, Stephen W Tenner)