Which film will claim the Golden Lion, and which ones fell flat? Discover all the highlights, surprises and misfires in our ultimate Venice Film Festival roundup.
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00:00So the 81st edition of the Venice Film Festival has treated us to quite a few films this year,
00:1321 in total in competition, and between the two of us, we've seen them all. Amber, what
00:18have been your highlights of this edition?
00:21So I really loved Queer, the Luca Guadagnino adaptation of the William S. Burroughs novel.
00:27I thought Daniel Craig's performance was great and unlike anything we've seen him do before,
00:32and it just was very affecting. I also really enjoyed a film called April, which was a tough
00:38watch but just this immersive visual spectacle of very unsettling imagery that feeds into
00:44this story about a gynecologist who is giving illegal abortions in rural Georgia. I also
00:50loved a film called Love, a story of people connecting with each other. It talks a lot
00:55very openly about love and sex and death as well, and it's just a very meditative and
01:03revelatory movie in many ways.
01:05Absolutely, and death in all its permutations as well has been a major theme this year.
01:10We've also, I'm thinking about Pedro Almodovar's The Room Next Door, which premiered in competition
01:15and tells the story of two friends and one of them has been diagnosed with terminal cancer
01:20and is keen to embrace her self-determination with regards to the way she lives. I found
01:28that film very affecting in many ways, maybe not one of Almodovar's best, and I think The
01:33Brutalist as well, the film by Brady Corbett, this sprawling American saga which has shades
01:39of Paul Thomas Anderson but deals with the immigrant experience, deals with art and architecture
01:45and how the wealthy have indulged in gatekeeping with regards to culture and art. For me, it's
01:53one of the films that I think will win something on the Lido this year.
02:00So what have been some of your flops of the Lido? Because as much as it's been good, there
02:04have been some duds along the way.
02:07Well, the big one for me was Joker 2. It just felt like nonsense to me, and I don't know
02:14how else to put it. It just does this thing of worshipping at its own altar of the character
02:19of Joker and it becomes very old very quickly and there just was not enough. I think we
02:25both wanted more of a storyline development for Lady Gaga's character.
02:31Very much like you, a bit of a disappointment, that one, and I wasn't a huge fan of the first
02:36film and I was very much willing to be surprised and ended up wanting something more. I do
02:41give the film props for essentially doing something ambitious and really trying to make
02:47a film which maybe wrong-foots audience expectations with regards to what a sequel is, specifically
02:53a sequel to Joker. But on the whole, this felt very, very flat and I think it is very
03:00much our dud of the festival.
03:06What would you say your predictions are though?
03:08I would be very, very surprised if The Brutalist didn't win a major prize. I'd happily give
03:13that the Golden Lion. I think the film April by Vera Kolumbikashvili, the Georgian director,
03:19I think she could very much be a contender for Best Director. And Daniel Craig, I think
03:25could be a contender for Best Actor, as well as maybe Nicole Kidman for Baby Girl, which
03:31premiered earlier on in the festival, which is this BDSM drama, which is essentially less
03:36about sexuality and sub-dom relationships and more about communicating in relationships.
03:44And to be honest, love. The last film that we saw in competition, this Norwegian film,
03:49which like you say, deals with so many facets of love and relationships, I think that might
03:55be in for a shot maybe with Best Script.