Parade of stars at the Lido, starting with a bang with Benigni-Almodovar, Sorrentino first Italian in the competition

Kristen Stewart, Matt Damon, Penelope Cruz, Javier Bardem, Antonio Banderas, Timothée Chalamet, Isabelle Huppert, Oscar Isaac, Jessica Chastain, Zendaya, Jason Momoa, Rebecca Ferguson, Jamie Lee Curtis, Kirsten Dunst, Vincent Lindon, Tim Roth, Adam Driver , Olivia Colman, Dakota Johnson, Anya Taylor-Joy, Jodie Comer. A parade of Hollywood stars is expected from 1st to 11th September at the Venice Film Festival, which from 3pm today is selling tickets online to attend public screenings. Of course, the rules on spacing remain (with a capacity of 50%, 4,000 seats out of the 8,000 available will be occupied) and the obligation to wear a mask in the hall. In the same way, even if there has not yet been official communication, it seems obvious that along the red carpet the ‘wall’ that shelters the view from the outside will return, to prevent gatherings of fans and autograph hunters along the barriers. . But the presence of the stars, to the delight of photographers, TV, press officers and journalists, will still be very abundant. Already on the opening day, the first of September, the Pedro Almodovar-Roberto Benigni duo will ensure very bright spotlights on the exhibition. The godmother Serena Rossi will conduct an opening ceremony that will extend this year for the awarding of the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement to Roberto Benigni, with an unmissable acceptance speech by the Oscar-winning Tuscan actor and director. Almodovar will arrive soon after with his opening film in competition ‘Madres Paralelas’ and the two protagonists Penélope Cruz and Milena Smit. ‘It was the hand of God’ by Paolo Sorrentino, with Filippo Scotti and Toni Servillo. The other Italians competing for the Leone d’Oro will parade on Saturday 4 September (‘Il Buco’ by Michelangelo Frammartino), Tuesday 7 (‘Qui rido io’ by Mario Martone), Wednesday 8 (‘Freaks out’ by Gabriele Mainetti) and Thursday 9 (‘Latin America’ by the D’Innocenzo twins). Also on 2 September, on the second day of the exhibition, two important international titles will be in competition with two stories of revenge: ‘The card counter’ by Paul Schrader, with Oscar Isaac, Tiffany Haddish, Tye Sheridan and Willem Dafoe, and ‘The power of the dog ‘by Jane Campion, with Benedict Cumberbatch, Kirsten Dunst and Jesse Plemons. On 3 September the highly anticipated ‘Dune’ by Denis Villeneuve will arrive out of competition, with Timothée Chalamet, Rebecca Ferguson, Oscar Isaac, Josh Brolin. While in competition will pass ‘Spencer’, the film by Pablo Larraìn about Lady Diana with Kristen Stewart in the role of the princess, and ‘The lost daughter’ by Maggie Gyllenhaal (based on the novel by Elena Ferrante ‘The dark daughter’), with Olivia Colman , Jessie Buckley and Dakota Johnson. Saturday 4 September will be the turn of the second Italian film in competition, the doc ‘Il buco’ by Michelangelo Frammartino about the exploit of two speleologists in the Pollino Park. On the same day, the competition will also show ‘Competencia oficial’ by Gastón Duprat and Mariano Cohn, with Penélope Cruz, Antonio Banderas and Oscar Martínez: a film about cinema that tells the story of a millionaire greedy for fame who wants at all costs to produce a hit movie. While out of competition, Edgar Wright’s ‘Last night in Soho’ will be presented with Anya Taylor-Joy and Thomasin Harcourt McKenzie, which will be preceded by the delivery to Marcus Rowland of the Campari Passion for Film Award. French Xavier Giannoli (based on the novel of the same name by Honoré de Balzac) with Benjamin Voisin, Cécile de France, Vincent Lacoste, Xavier Dolan, Salomé Dewaels, Jeanne Balibar and Gérard Depardieu. The other two films in competition of the day are Ana Lily Amirpour’s American ‘Mona Lisa and the blood moon’ starring Kate Hudson as a young woman with unspecified paranormal powers, who escapes from an asylum, and the Mexican ‘Sundown’. by Michel Franco, appreciated last year at the Lido with ‘Nuevo orden’, which earned him the Grand Jury Prize. In this new film he directs among others Tim Roth and Charlotte Gainsbourg. Monday 6 September two films in competition: the Mexican ‘La Caja’ by Lorenzo Vigas, a reflection on the theme of identity with Hernán Mendoza and Hatzín Navarrete, and the French ‘L’événement’ by Audrey Diwan, a difficult story about abortion in the France in the Sixties, with Anamaria Vartolomei and Kacey Mottet-Klein. But for the Italians, the most awaited film on Monday will be out of competition, where Stefano Mordini’s ‘The Catholic School’ will pass, based on the novel by Edoardo Albinati on the context in which the Circeo crime matured and interpreted by Benedetta Porcaroli and Giulio Pranno Third Italian film in competition on Tuesday 7 September, when Mario Martone will bring ‘Qui rido io’ to the Lido, the story of the playwright and actor Eduardo Scarpetta, played by Toni Servillo. Also in competition is the Ukrainian ‘Vidblysk (Reflection)’ by Valentyn Vasyanovych: a political film set in eastern Ukraine where a doctor is taken prisoner by the Russian military. ‘Old Henry’, the western by Potsy Ponciroli with Tim Blake Nelson and Scott Haze, is expected out of competition. On Wednesday 8 September, the expected return of Gabriele Mainetti, fourth Italian title in competition, played by Claudio Santamaria and Aurora Giovinazzo. Also in competition will come ‘Kapitan Volkonogov bezhal (Captain volkonogov escaped)’ by Natasha Merkulova and Aleksey Chupov which tells the story of a repentant captain of the Russian National Security Service. While David Gordon Green’s ‘Halloween Kills’ will arrive from the US out of competition, with Jamie Lee Curtis receiving the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement before the screening. On Thursday 9 September, the last of the five Italian titles competing for the Golden Lion, ‘Latin America’ by Damiano and Fabio D’Innocenzo, who find Elio Germano, will arrive in competition. Also in competition ‘Żeby nie było śladów (Leave no traces)’ by Polish director Jan P. Matuszyński, based on a black page in the history of the country: the death of a high school student in 1983 due to the beatings received by the Communist militia of the Republic Popular Polish. While out of competition, the French ‘Les choses humaines’ by Yvan Attal will pass, based on the novel of the same name by Karine Tuil, which brings to the big screen the intricate legal and media machine linked to the different truths about a rape complaint. On the last day of the Venetian competition, Friday 10 September, two titles in competition: the first is ‘Un autre monde’ with which the French director Stéphane Brizé concludes his trilogy on work, this time bringing to the screen the perspective of an executive of company forced into dramatic choice and starring Vincent Lindon; the second is ‘On the Job: The Missing 8’ with which Filipino director Erik Matti continues his work of denouncing the censorship and corruption that gag the media in the country. But to dominate the day will be the out-of-competition passage of ‘The last duel’, the historical drama by Ridley Scott with Matt Damon, Adam Driver, Jodie Comer and Ben Affleck, set during the Hundred Years War, which will follow the delivery of the Cartier Glory to the Filmmaker Award to the American director. Saturday 11 September, after the awards ceremony and the proclamation of the Leone d’Oro 2021, the closing film out of competition will be screened, which this year is Italian: ‘The hidden child’ by Roberto Andò with Silvio Orlando in the role of a solitary piano teacher at the Naples conservatory who decides to protect the neighbors’ teenage son from the violence of crime. On the other hand, in a situation in which the release in the room is still an unknown factor, many see in Venice, even more than in previous years, an essential showcase. by Antonella Nesi