Clooney: “Biden’s resignation? Most selfless act since George Washington”
Brad Pitt and George Clooney arrived on the Lido yesterday with the hilarious action comedy Wolfs directed by Jon Watts. The two actors and producers reunited on screen 15 years after Burn After Reading with a project that felt ‘right’ immediatly. “Jon Watts came up with this funny idea and it immediately felt like a good reason to come back and make movies with George,” Pitt recounted. “Working with people I enjoy spending time with has become my prerogative. We liked the idea, read the draft script and said, “Nice. Let’s do it!” It’s not often that we go and shoot the first draft, usually rewrites go by and it takes years.”
The film will be released on September 27 via streaming on Apple TV+, although only a month ago a theatrical release with Eagle Pictures had been announced but then faded. On the issue, it is Clooney who explains, “We would have liked a wide theatrical release, we’re going to have a limited one before streaming, these things happen.” And on the streaming-cinema conflict: “Our industry needs streaming, it’s part of what we do, and streaming also benefits from cinema releases. There is no clear picture yet, we are going through a revolution, but young actors are given so many opportunities.” “We’re all romantic about theaters, but streaming,” Pitt adds, ”allows us to see more stories and more talent. It’s a delicate balance for now, we’ll see what happens.”
In closing, the political question to Clooney, who praised President Joe Biden for stepping down as Democratic presidential candidate to make way for Kamala Harris. “He did the most selfless thing that’s been done since George Washington. All the machinations that got us there don’t matter. What should be remembered is the selfless act of someone who did the hardest thing to do: let go of power.”
Richard Gere plays with his voice actor in the conversazioni di Biennale
Elegant, timeless in his 75 years, ironic, and brilliant, Richard Gere offered memories and confessions yesterday in the Biennale Conversation for the cycle The Art and Craft of Cinema organised with Cartier. His son Homer also attended a packed Match Point Arena. ‘I vaguely remember a small and unpopular film I starred in. I think it was called Pretty Woman,’ he joked, recalling the iconic piano scene with Julia Roberts that was improvised. He was then joined on stage by his Italian double, dubbing actor Mario Cordova, Gere’s Italian voice: ‘How many women I have conquered on the phone,’ Cordova joked, ‘only to lose them when I met them in person’. The two talked about the eternal dilemma: to dub or not to dub, and then interpreted some scenes from Gere’s films together. ‘I know my Italian voice is more popular than mine,’ the actor concluded, shaking Cordova’s hand.
Patti Smith between Cinema and Poetry
Patti Smith, rock icon (‘But my dream was to become an opera singer’, she confessed) writer, painter, musician and photographer, acted in a multimedia performance under the banner of poetry and cinema in a celebration of art that brought together the icons painted by Andrej Rublëv with the cinema of Andrei Tarkovsky (who made a film about the painter in 1966), the divine Callas who became Medea for Pasolini and Pasolini himself in the movie dedicated to him by Abel Ferrara.
The event organized by Isola Edipo and Venice Days, in collaboration with Fondation Cartier Pour l’Art Contemporain, was part of the Cinema of Inclusion section between vision and education.
Stephan Crasneanscki, the creative force behind Soundwalk Collective, joined Patti Smith on this audiovisual journey. Their collaboration, which began with the Correspondences project, is a unique blend of sound and poetry that started in a truly unconventional manner.
Crasneanscki’s process involves recording soundscapes and fragments from various parts of the world. After editing and arranging these sounds, he plays them for Patti Smith. It’s on the emotional wave of these sounds that Smith composes her poems. The performance is further enriched by the images projected behind the artists.
Thus, from the 2018 recording of the sounds of a Moscow monastery during Easter comes the homage to Andrej Rublëv, of whom we saw some icons projected. The sound of the water of the Black Sea, of the mountains on the border between Georgia and Chechnya and from the communications between boats intercepted by seven scanners tuned to as many frequencies, there is the sound carpet on which Patti Smith pays homage to the figure of Medea, while cut and solarised sequences from Pasolini’s film appear on the screen. The recordings on the Roman set of Abel Ferrara’s Pasolini, accompanied by cut and solarised images of the film and the set, allowed Smith to deliver a rousing rendition of Pasolini’s arrival in the Afterlife, ready to shoot his never-made movie with an unlimited budget.
At the end of this more than hour-long performance, Patti Smith, confirming her Pasolinian passion, sang an homage to the Virgin Mary in Cappella style, while images of Il Vangelo Secondo Matteo (1964) scrolled on the screen because, ”I discovered Pasolini with that movie.”
From Venice to Turin, cinema meets video games
From Harmony Korine’s new experiment, Baby Invasion, to the immersive reinterpretation of the famous Riven, Venezia 81 confirms the increasingly close relationship between film and the world of video games. It is no coincidence that Turin’s Museo del Cinema (in collaboration with the city college) has opened a Video Game Zone, a permanent area dedicated to video games in the Temple Hall of the Mole Antonelliana. A way to open up to ‘new languages that can dialogue in a transversal manner,’ says Museum President Enzo Ghigo, while Director Domenico De Gaetano, curator of the space with Fabio Viola, emphasises how between the two media ‘the intersections and reciprocal influences are innumerable and increasingly evident. The area includes screenings of gaming-related films and series, materials such as trailers and making of games, and much more. Content selection is also available on the Museum’s streaming platform, InTO Cinema.
