A SnagFilms company
Trending: Cannes Film Festival
Celebrating 16 Years of Film.Biz.Fans.
more
Festivals
by Indiewire Staff
August 29, 2012 12:35 PM
6 Comments
  • |

10 Films To Watch at the 69th Venice Film Festival

"At Any Price"
The 69th Venice Film Festival kicks off today, leading into eleven days that feature some of the most anticipated premieres of the year. Indiewire is offering up a list of 10 films to watch (or watch out for, as it's likely the case if you're reading this you're not actually at the Venice Film Festival).

The festival runs through September 8th, closing down with the world premiere of Jean-Pierre Ameris's "L'homme qui rit." Check out our picks below:

"At Any Price"
Ramin Bahrani has been a noteworthy American filmmaker ever since his first feature, the skillful neorealist effort "Man Push Cart," but in subsequent features he has gradually increased his ambition. His progress is unquestionably on display with this drama, which stars Zac Efron as an aspiring race car driver who locks horns with his father (Dennis Quaid), a farmer potentially involved in shady business dealings. Looking beyond the star power, the movie suggests a more thematically complex work than anything else in Bahrani's career, and the time has certainly come for him to broaden his scope. [Eric Kohn]

“The Company You Keep"
Sundance icon Robert Redford makes a trip to the Venice Film Festival for the world premiere of his latest directorial effort, "The Company You Keep." Screening out of competition, the film -- adapated from Neil Gordon's 2003 novels -- follows a former Weather Underground radical who is flushed out 30 years after his activist youth by a young journalist that discovers his identity. Screening out of competition, the film offers an incredible ensemble cast in Redford, Shia LaBeouf, Brendan Gleeson, Chris Cooper, Nick Nolte, Stanley Tucci, Susan Sarandon, Brit Marling, Anna Kendrick and Richard Jenkins. Here's hoping they can help Redford outdo underwhelming recent efforts like "The Conspirator" and "Lions for Lambs." [Peter Knegt]

"Dormant Beauty"
French icon Isabelle Huppert has already had a great run this year with strong turns in festival favorites from Hong Sang-Soo ("In Another Country"), Brilliante Mendoza ("Captive") and Michael Haneke ("Amour"), so it's with great anticipation that we look forward to catching her latest vehicle, "Dormant Beauty," which boasts her meatiest role of the four features. In the drama directed by Italian helmer Marco Bellocchio ("Vincere"), Huppert plays a famous singer (and devout Catholic) who spends her days caring in her home for her daughter who is living in a vegetative state. Inspired by the true story of a woman named Eluana Englaro who spurred the euthanasia debate in Italy in 2009 after her passing, "Dormant Beauty" uses this case as a point of departure to examine the controversy via three separate narratives.  [Nigel M. Smith]

"Love Is All You Need" Sony Pictures Classics

"Gebo and the Shadow"
Some people think Manoel Oliveira is a vampire. Others say it's just the water in Portugal that has enabled this restless 103-year-old filmmaker to continue making movies at such an advanced stage of his career. Whatever he's doing, he shouldn't stop; one of more endearing avant garde directors bringing work to major festivals, Oliveira's "The Strange Case of Angelica" made a lot of top 10 lists in 2010. Now he's back with "Gebo and the Shadow," an adaptation of Raul Brandao's play that follows a patriarch desperately intent on saving his fugitive son. As always with Oliveira, plot only tells you part of the story. Expect something deliciously strange and philosophical from the world's oldest director, who has already begun prepping another movie to follow this one. Seriously! [Eric Kohn]

"Love Is All You Need"
After winning the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film for her searing drama "In a Better World," Danish director Susanne Bier has switched gears completely to helm "Love Is All You Need," a romantic comedy about two families brought together for a wedding in Italy. To those familiar with Bier's recent output -- including the powerful dramas "Open Hearts" and "Brothers" -- "Love Is All You Need" might come as a huge surprise, but go back to her breakthrough film, "The One and Only," and it's clear Bier has a knack for light-hearted fare too. Reuniting with her "In a Better World" star Trine Dyrholm, "Love Is All You Need" stars Dyrholm as grief stricken woman who heads to Sorento alone to attend her daughter's wedding, after discovering that her husband had been cheating on her. It's there that she forms a bond with her daughter's soon-to-be father-in-law, Philip (Pierce Brosnan). Bier's frequent star Paprika Sheen also makes an appearance. [Nigel M. Smith]

Festivals
get email updates on Festivals
  • |
TAGS: Venice Film Festival
You might also like:

6 Comments

  • Chris | August 29, 2012 7:01 PMReply

    I would be super jacked for To The Wonder, but I have a feeling that Ben Affleck will ruin this movie...

  • alex | August 29, 2012 4:11 PMReply

    the first comment stupid.
    I'm excited about venice, except for some, but will be great:)

  • Jules | August 29, 2012 1:13 PMReply

    you either are too stupid or too "clever to try hide"... classy, zac efron? how is that classy? besides maybe his dolce and gabana suit? i would say that yes spring breakers features the girls in bikinis for a big ammount of time, but the story goes deep, way deep... efron on the other hand had this "boxer clad" scenes on paperboy that doesnt let him shred his clean cute disney boy image... what i mean, its his performance is still nothing next to CLASSY SHIA LABEOUF. THEN why do you want to confront Vanessa to zac, besides the fact that you too love clean boy images? i have seen more challeging on her than him... And once more... do i really need to talk about at any price and pack efron getting dirty with grass but trying to stay as a clean independent boy who shows his arms, biceps and eyes, with two cute girls around?

  • MARIO | August 29, 2012 10:51 PM

    I see Zac, Shia, Vanessa actually all in the same situation, both young actors, teen idols with something to prove, trying to win some respect of the industry and a more diverse audience, I see no “challenge” for Vanessa in “Spring Breakers” that can’t be seen in “The Paperboy” for Zac, I’m saying about the risk of being a teen idol and get involved with a “dark” themed movie, because you can’t say about a “challenge” from a performance point of view without knowing at least a little more about the film, challenge for actors is play characters, not deal with some subjects in movies, the movie is not "deep" just because have drugs, sex, violence and bored teenagers complaining.

  • jules | August 29, 2012 8:49 PM

    no, i actually say that efron isnt classy or hudgens or gomez... shia is just another level, but i dont particularly like people talking bad about girls or even not seeing the film and already thinking about that, and what i mean by disney clean image is not as in get dirty with grass, but doing risky things, efron keeps doing the same, and i totally hate the fact thhat every movie he does is with less clothes than the one before. is just that... and efron hasnt done anything really worth, his paperboy is actually bad, and so was his lucky one

  • Mario | August 29, 2012 2:10 PM

    What you said didn't make any sense, you're one of those neurotic fans of Vanessa Hudgens?

fresh from the blogs

browse the blog network »
Skinny Matthew McConaughey Talks New Approach to Roles: 'Mud,' 'Dallas Buyer's Club,' 'Magic Mike' [EXCLUSIVE VIDEO]'

the network

indiewire

categories