This morning, the lineup for the 2012 Venice Film Festival arrived with a selection worthy of a once over. The non-Toronto titles of note include Olivier Assayas‘ Something in the Air, Ramin Bahrani‘s At Any Price starring Dennis Quaid and Zac Efron, Amos Gitai‘s Carmel, Harmony Korine‘s Spring Breakers and the two I’m most upset won’t be playing Toronto, Susanne Bier‘s Love Is All You Need and Brian De Palma‘s Passion.
Spike Lee, Jonathan Demme and jury president Michael Mann all arrive with documentaries; Mann with Witness: Libya, Demme with Enzo Avitabile Music Life and Lee with his Michael Jackson documentary, Bad 25, taking a look at the making of Jackson’s 1987 album “Bad” 25 years later, which includes appearances by Martin Scorsese, Usher Raymond, Mariah Carey, Kanye West, Quincy Jones, Cee-Lo and Sheryl Crow.
Name titles that will also play Toronto include Terrence Malick‘s To The Wonder, Takeshi Kitano‘s Outrage:Beyond, Mira Nair‘s opening night feature The Reluctant Fundamentalist, Stephen Fung‘s Tai Chi 0, Robert Redford‘s The Company You Keep and Ariel Vromen‘s The Iceman.
Early reports pegged Paul Thomas Anderson‘s The Master as part of the lineup, but those later proved wrong.
Beyond all the prestige titles what I found most interesting begins with a quote from Festival President, Alberto Barbera, telling Variety, “In preparing Venice I have very much admired and envied my friend and colleague [Cameron Bailey] who heads the Toronto Film Festival. He has an easy job: he can take 350 movies and therefore accept almost anything. We have chosen a much tougher path, in which, after lots of discussions, we had to say ‘no’ a lot. And it was very tough.”
In that case, I wonder what he said “No” to when he ends up saying yes to Kimble Rendall‘s Shark (Bait 3D)? What cinematic masterpieces did Barbera have to turn down to make way for a tsunami traps a group of people in a grocery store and the waters soon become infested with man-eating great white sharks. All of this, mind you, in 3D!
I sure hope he didn’t have to say “No” to anything too good.
That said, here is the complete lineup for the fest which will run from August 29 – September 8.
COMPETITION
- To The Wonder (dir. Terrence Malick) – U.S.
- Something in the Air (dir. Olivier Assayas) – France
- Outrage:Beyond (dir. Takeshi Kitano) – Japan
- Fill The Void (dir. Rama Bursztyn and Yigal Bursztyn) – Israel
- Pieta (dir. Kim Ki-duk) – South Korea
- Dormant Beauty (dir. Marco Bellocchio) – Italy
- E’ stato il figlio (dir. Daniele Cipri) – Italy
- At Any Price (dir. Ramin Bahrani) – US, UK
- La Cinquieme Saison (dir. Peter Brosens, Jessica Woodworth) – Belgium, Netherlands, France
- Un Giorno Speciale (dir. Francesca Comencini) – Italy
- Passion (dir. Brian De Palma) – France, Germany
- Superstar (dir. Xavier Giannoli) – France, Belgium
- Spring Breakers (dir. Harmony Korine) – US
- Thy Womb (dir. Brillante Mendoza) – Philippines
- Linhas de Wellington (dir. Valeria Sarmiento) – Portugal, France
- Paradise: Faith (dir. Ulrich Seidl) – Austria, France, Germany
- Betrayal (dir. Kirill Serebrennikov) – Russia
OUT OF COMPETITION
- The Reluctant Fundamentalist (dir. Mira Nair) – U.S.,Qatar [Opening Night Film]
- L’homme qui rit (dir. Jean-Pierre Ameris) – France
- Love Is All You Need (dir. Susanne Bier) – Denmark/Sweden
- Cherchez Hortense (dir. Pascal Bonitzer) – France
- Sur un fil (dir. Simon Brook) – France/Italy
- Enzo Avitabile Music Life (dir. Jonathan Demme) – Italy/U.S.
- Tai Chi 0 (dir. Stephen Fung) – China
- Lullaby to My Father (dir. Amos Gitai) – Israel/France
- Shokuzai (Penance (dir. Kiyoshi Kurosawa) – Japan
- Bad 25 (dir. Spike Lee) – U.S.
- The Reluctant Fundamentalist (dir. Mira Nair) – India/Pakistan/U.S.
- O Gebo e a Sombra (dir. Manoel de Oliveira) – Portugal/France
- The Company You Keep (dir. Robert Redford) – U.S.
- Shark (Bait 3D) (dir. Kimble Rendall) – China
- Disconnect (dir. Henry-Alex Rubin) – U.S.
- The Iceman (dir. Ariel Vromen) – U.S.
OUT OF COMPETITION – Special Events
- Anton tut ryadom (Anton’s Right Here (dir. Lyubov Arkus) – Russia
- Ya Man Aach (It Was Better Tomorrow (dir. Hinde Boujemaa) – Italy
- Sfiorando il muro (dir. Silvia Giralucci & Luca Ricciardi) – Italy
- Carmel (dir. Amos Gitai) – Israel/France/Italy
- El impenetrable (dir. Daniele Incalcaterra & Fausta Quattrini) – Argentina/France
- Witness: Libya (dir. Michael Mann) – U.S.
- Medici con l’Africa (dir. Carlo Mazzacurati) – Italy
- La nave dolce (dir. Daniele Vicari) – Italy/Albania
CLOSING FILM
- L’homme qui rit (dir. Jean-Pierre Ameris) – France
