Venice Lines Up With Samurais, Dissolute Actors and Midlife Threesomes

Posted by Alison Willmore on July 29th

The stars at night are big and bright, deep in the heart of… festival season. Two days ago Toronto announced a big chunk of its line-up, and now the Venice Film Festival has unveiled its own. Joining Darren Aronofsky ballerina drama “Black Swan,” announced earlier as the opening night film, are Sofia Coppola’s Hollywood saga “Somewhere” (trailer); Takashi Miike’s samurai tale “13 Assassins” (trailer); “Meek’s Cutoff,” Kelly Reichardt’s new film, once again starring Michelle Williams; Vincent Gallo’s long-awaited follow-up to “The Brown Bunny” “Promises Made In Water,” reportedly a 16-millimeter black-and-white tale of a girl with a terminal illness; “Road to Nowhere,” a thriller from Monte Hellman (!); and “Three,” the latest from “Run, Lola, Run”‘s Tom Tykwer, about how the two halves of a middle-aged couple fall in love with the same man.

Out of competition, the Affleck brothers will screen Ben’s “The Town” and Casey’s Joaquin Phoenix mockumentary, while Hong Kong’s Pang brothers will be there with “The Child’s Eye 3D.” Julie Taymor’s “The Tempest” will close the festival.

In Competition:

“Black Swan,” Darren Aronofsky (U.S.) (opening night film)

“La Pecora Nera,” Ascanio Celestini (Italy)

“Somewhere,” Sofia Coppola (U.S.)

“Happy Few,” Antony Cordier (France)

“The Solitude of Prime Numbers,” Saverio Costanzo (Italy, Germany, France)

“Silent Souls,” Aleksei Fedorchenko (Russia)

“Promises Written in Water,” Vincent Gallo (U.S.)

“Road to Nowhere,” Monte Hellman (U.S.)

“Balada Triste de Trompeta,” Alex de la Iglesia (Spain, France)

“Venus Noir,” Abdellatif Kechiche (France)

“Post Mortem,” Pablo Larrain (Chile, Mexico, Germany)

“Barney’s Version,” Richard J. Lewis (Canada, Italy)

“We Believed,” Mario Martone (Italy, France)

“La Passione,” Carlo Mazzacurati (Italy)

“13 Assassins,” Takashi Miike (Japan)

“Potiche,” Francois Ozon (France)

“Meek’s Cutoff,” Kelly Reichardt (U.S.)

“Miral,” Julian Schnabel (U.S., France, Italy, Israel)

“Norwegian Wood,” Tran Anh Hung (Japan)

“Attenberg,” Athina Rachel Tsangari (Greece)

“Detective Dee and the Mystery of Phantom Flame,” Tsui Hark (China)

“Three,” Tom Tykwer (Germany)

Out of Competition

“The Town,” Ben Affleck (U.S.)

“I’m Still Here: the Lost Year of Joaquin Phoenix,” Casey Affleck (U.S.)

“Sorelle Mai,” Marco Bellocchio (Italy)

“Niente Paura — Come siamo come eravamo e le canzoni di Luciano Ligabue,” Piergiorgio Gay (Italy)

“Dante Ferretti — Production Designer,” Gianfranco Giagni (Italy)

“Notizie degli Scavi,” Emidio Greco (Italy)

“The Last Movie” (1971), Dennis Hopper

“Gorbaciof,” Stefano Incerti (Italy)

“That Girl in Yellow Boots,” Anurag Kashyap (India)

“Showtime,” Stanley Kwan (China)

“The Return of Chen Zhen,” Andrew Lau (China, Hong Kong) (opening night, tribute to Bruce Lee)

“Sei Venezia,” Carlo Mazzacurati (Italy)

“Zebraman” (2004), Takashi Miike (Japan)

“Zebraman 2: Attack on Zebra City,” Takashi Miike (Japan)

“The Child’s Eye 3D,” Oxide Pang and Danny Pang (China, Hong Kong)

“Vallanzasca – Gli angeli del male,” Michele Placido (Italy)

“All Inclusive 3D,” Nadia Ranocchi and David Zamagni (Italy, Austria)

“Raavan” (Hindi version), Mani Ratnam (India) (Jaeger-LeCoultre Glory to the Filmmaker Award)

“Raavan” (Tamil version), Mani Ratnam (India)

“Machete,” Robert Rodriguez (U.S.) (opening night, midnight)

“1960,” Gabriele Salvatores (Italy)

“La prima volta a Venezia,” Antonello Sarno (Italy)

“A Letter to Elia,” Martin Scorsese and Kent Jones (U.S.)

“Shock Labyrinth 3D,” Takashi Shimizu (Japan)

“The Tempest,” Julie Taymor (U.S.) (closing night film)

“L’ultimo Gattopardo: Ritratto di Goffredo Lombardo,” Giuseppe Tornatore (Italy)

“Passione,” John Turturro (Italy)

“Lope,” Andrucha Waddington (Spain, Brazil)

“Reign of Assassins,” John Woo and Su Chao-Pin (China, Taiwan, Hong Kong) (Golden Lion For Lifetime Achievement)

“Space Guy,” Zhang Yuan (China)