The 79th Venice Film Festival is shaping up as an occasion of high drama as celebrities from across the world gather for the 10-day festival known for celebrating cinema in ‘‘all its forms’’.
‘‘The aim of the festival is to raise awareness and promote international cinema in all its forms as art, entertainment and as an industry, in a spirit of freedom and dialogue,’’ the official La Biennale Di Venezia website says.
It’s doing just that.
Actor Florence Pugh walked the red carpet amid an increasingly volatile off-set drama among the Don’t Worry Darling cast and crew; Adam Driver arrived to huge cheers for his White Noise premiere, and the much-loved US-Canadian actor Brendan Fraser received a six-minute standing ovation for his mighty comeback film.
Special mention goes to Dune star Timothee Chalamet, whose blood-red satin backless ‘‘party’’ suit went viral as he walked the carpet for his cannibal flick Bones and All.
In the lead-up to the official awards ceremony on September 10, cinema’s oldest festival is known for picking Oscar winners.
Let’s start with Fraser, 53, once a darling of the big screen with hits like George of the Jungle, Encino Man and The Mummy franchise.
His near 20-year absence has been well chronicled as he dealt with the physical toll of stunts on movie sets, only to re-emerge big time playing a morbidly obese literary professor in The Whale.
Movie critics are already talking Oscars for his time spent in a fat suit and his overall compelling performance.
‘‘Fraser richly deserves to be nominated for a best actor Oscar, and if that doesn’t happen, I won’t just eat my hat, I’ll eat as many pizzas and cheese-and-meatball sandwiches as Charlie gets through in the film,’’ the BBC’s Nicholas Barber wrote.
‘‘The Brenaissance is here.
‘‘He appears in almost every scene … [and] undergoes one of those has-to-be-seen-to-be-believed physical transformations that awards voters can’t resist. It’s a far cry from George of the Jungle.’’
Tweet from @DiscussingFilm
Don’t Worry Darling drama
A clip of singer Harry Styles, who stars in the psychological 1950s thriller, went viral on Tuesday after he appeared to spit on his co-star Chris Pine at the film’s premiere.
Pine, who had director Olivia Wilda on his other side, can’t hide his disbelief at the hostile moment. He pauses as he claps, and then smirks.
The footage ends with a stunned Pine staring at Styles.
This follows Pugh and director Olivia Wilde – who is dating Styles – ignoring each other during a four-minute standing ovation, and follows reports the two women ‘‘had a falling out on set’’.
On a lighter note, Styles made up for his spitting brain fade and kissed his other co-star Nick Kroll on the lips.
All is forgiven.
Tweet from @Variety
