THE 66TH VENICE FILM FESTIVAL
September 2 – 12, 2009  
 

God and gays. Both featured prominently in the opening days of the 66^th Venice Film Festival, which was so well organized that you’d think you were in Germany. Even before the opening night, actress Maria Grazia Cucinotta (Il Postino), the festival’s hostess, bluntly proffered her support for gay rights: “The world is full of morons. The love between two consenting people should be respected. Homosexual or not matters little. I will bring to the Venice festival this message.”

The message was echoed in Stefano Consiglio’s documentary L’amore e Basta. He gently cross-examines nine European gay couples—where was the first kiss, who took the first step, are you a couple or a family, do you want children? Because each disarming couple allows their privates lives to be scrutinized, the film becomes less issue oriented and more personal; their gender becomes superfluous.

This is one of the 14 films under consideration for the third annual Queer Lion award, Venice’s answer to the Berlin Film Festival’s Teddy Award. However, the jury of this award can choose any of the films in the entire festival. Also under consideration (mostly for its depiction of male rape) is Valhalla Rising, a great title, but a plodding and an almost unbearably bleak depiction of the waning days of paganism in Northern Europe as Christianity encroaches. It stars Denmark’s biggest international star, Mads Mikkelsen, as the appropriately named One Eye, a mute fighter with superman strength. In one instance, he single-handedly disembowels an opponent.

You don’t have to look far and wide for other films with gay themes. Prince of Tears, a glossy love quadrangle set against the 1950s Taiwanese witch hunt for communist spies, has a surprising and effective gay plot twist. The melodrama is in contention for the festival’s biggest award, the Golden Lion, but it’s doubtful it will claim victory. The sumptuously filmed and soapy Lust, Caution won just two years ago, but, more crucially, Prince of Tear’s story of love and betrayal relies more on telling (and narration) rather than showing.

With so many awards to hand (besides the film in the main competition and an honor for best debut feature), the festival may be spreading the wealth too thin, trying to please one and all. For the first time, the Fiuggi Family Festival (never heard of it either) and the Movimento per la Vita will bestow a “pro life” award, vaguely described in a press release as a recognition for a film that “best contributes to promoting the support of human life.”

Certainly one film that achieves this distinction is the spiritual Via delle Croce with its Christian yet universal message. In modern-day Venice, a man portraying Christ, with the crown of horns, drags a cross through the streets, catching the attention of curious onlookers, and followed by a procession of followers and Roman soldiers. The participants are also residents of St. Alvise House for the Homeless, a Venetian shelter for men from all over the world. The interwoven testimonies from the residents come across as public service announcements, and at only 60 minutes, the film’s a thoroughly idealized look of communal life, where the residents have a purpose—to help one another. Director Serena Nono’s low budget and the use of nonprofessionals in the tableaux vivants depicting the Passion of Christ (inspired by paintings of the Renaissance and not the brutality of Mel Gibson) make the film personal, approachable, and almost like a home movie.

And in the main competition section, Austrian filmmaker Jessica Hausner’s luminous Lourdes has a real shot at winning the top prize. Hauser’s direction is extremely precise (turn away and you may miss the smallest gesture, on which an entire scene is centered). The static camera and the long takes, with characters frequently facing away from the viewer, may be too austere for some, but as the film moves forward, it becomes gripping, even suspenseful, without shedding its coherence or credibility when a miracle, or at least an eyebrow-raising turnabout, occurs among a group of pilgrims to Lourdes, France.

Unquestionably, the use of nonprofessional actors with infirmities and the filming on the location where St. Bernadette claimed to have seen the Virgin Mary in 1858, as well as the many real-life religious services, lend a strong dose of reality. Hausner’s biggest achievement, though, is creating subtle yet fleshed-out characters. Her film is neither condescending, irreverent, nor reverent, much like the main character with multiple sclerosis, Christine (Sylvie Testud, never better), who is neither pious nor irreligious, and not entirely selfless. (Her main reason for coming to Lourdes is that it’s one of the few excursions available for the wheelchair-bound.) The film is not really about miracles or faith, but more about the acceptance of change. As an officious character points out, what’s more important is the healing of the soul, rather than the body. Lourdes is one of five new films that made a strong impression in the first half of the festival. For the others, read on. Kent Turner
September 11, 2009