“Safari”
The Austrian director of the excellent, provocative “Paradise Trilogy,” Ulrich Seidl is, along with Wim Wenders, another filmmaker who shifts between documentary and narrative forms. This year, he returns to Venice after 2014’s “In The Basement” with his second nonfiction film in a row. “Safari” follows trophy hunters in Africa, a subject that Seidl and his partner and collaborator Veronika Franz (her film “Goodnight Mommy” deservedly became a sleeper arthouse horror hit last year) seem to have already familiarized themselves with. The often sordid things that tourists can busy themselves with while on vacation was a theme that recurred in 2012’s “Paradise: Love,” a dark story spun around sex tourism in Kenya. “Safari” may be within a milieu more based around the exploitation of animals than people, but we’re willing to bet Seidl’s gaze will be just as skewering and withering as that which he brings to his fictional stories —indeed, if “In the Basement” is anything to go by, “Safari” may be an even more discomfiting, darkly ironic look at human folly.
“The Untamed”
Mexican filmmaker Amat Escalante caused a small stir at Cannes in 2013 when he won a Best Director prize for his third feature “Heli.” In his attempt to portray the brutality of his country’s drug war, Escalante might have taken things a little too far with his unsparing look at a family caught in the crossfire; critics dismissed it as miserablist arthouse fare, and some expressed shock at its win. But like him or not, Escalante knows how to provoke a strong reaction (it’s no surprise that he’s good friends with fellow countryman and enfant terrible Carlos Reygadas), and “The Untamed” seems poised to do just that. A mix between family drama and sci-fi/horror, it follows a married couple in crisis whose lives get disrupted by a stranger who might not be from this world. We’re eager to see how Escalante will tackle a genre film and won’t be surprised if this winds up generating a lot of buzz.
“Une Vie”
Stéphane Brizé’s latest film finally hit theaters earlier this year after causing quite a stir at Cannes a year and a half ago, receiving the Prize of the Ecumenial Jury Award as well as Best Actor for star Vincent Lindon. Lucky enough, newly minted and longstanding fans need look no further than Venice for another fix of Brizé. Adapted from prolific French writer Guy De Maupassant’s first novel, Brizé joins the ranks of Jean Renoir, Jean-Luc Godard, Max Ophüls and other filmmakers who have found worthy source material from Maupassant’s texts. “Une Vie,” translated to “A Woman’s Life,” provides a simple title for a seemingly broad premise, following a 19th century aristocrat woman as she faces the harshness of the real world. If his neorealist tendencies and past work are any indication, Brizé’s film looks to make for an interesting period piece with prodigious insights into life. In this case at least, it seems pretty likely that lightning will strike twice.
“Voyage of Time”
Love or hate his films (and certainly his more recent titles have proved more polarizing then ever), Terrence Malick is a filmmaker with a wholly singular style. Often imitated but never duplicated, Malick’s fascination with the invisible thread that seems to him to link all things bright and beautiful together shows no signs of disappearing. “Voyage of Time,” described modestly as “an examination of the birth and death of the known universe,” is a project Malick has been working on for over 30 years, and perhaps it’s the culmination of his life’s work —his concerns have always seemed like they might suit an essayistic, documentary approach. There are two different versions of the film: a 90-minute long cut narrated by Cate Blanchett, which will screen at Venice; and a 40-minute IMAX version narrated by Brad Pitt. Malick’s scientific advisor on the film was NASA consultant Dr. Andrew Knoll, who stated: “In some ways, I think Terry has been building to this film his whole career —and now it seems he has reached that place to which he has always been heading. This is a film you will be thinking about a long time after the lights come up.” We may have felt shortchanged by Malick’s recent narrative efforts, but this has us right back on his side.
It’s a tasty lineup, all right, setting a high bar for the subsequent big-ticket fall festivals (all of which we’ll be covering). In fact, the quality goes on beyond the 20 listed above, and we’ll also be keeping an eye on the following: two-time Palme d’Or winner Emir Kusturica‘s first narrative film in nearly a decade “On the Milky Road,” in which he stars alongside Monica Bellucci; groundbreaking documentarian Sergei Loznitsa‘s investigation into the phenomenon of museums in former concentration camps “Austerlitz“; Katell Quillévéré‘s “Heal the Living,” which boasts a terrific cast in Emmanuelle Seigner, Tahar Rahim and Anne Dorval; and the fascinating-sounding “Paradise” from Andrei Konchalovsky, whose ethereal Venice Best Director-winning “The Postman’s White Nights” we loved so very much.
And speaking of previous winners, provocateur and frequent Venice laureate Kim Ki-duk is back with “The Net“; while the great American provocateur is the subject of new documentary “David Lynch: The Art of Life“; there’s an advance look at the first two episodes of Paolo Sorrentino‘s TV series “The Young Pope” starring Jude Law; we’ve been burned by James Franco adapting classic literature before, but will march back into the fray for his film of Steinbeck‘s “In Dubious Battle” starring himself, Bryan Cranston, Robert Duvall and, er, Selena Gomez; and there’s also the intriguing “My Art” from photographer and artist Laurie Simmons, about which there are few details, save that it will feature Simmons’ daughter, Lena Dunham (who cast Simmons in her own feature debut “Tiny Furniture“) along with Parker Posey, Barbara Sukowa, Joshua Safdie and others. Look out for coverage of as many of these titles as we can possibly fit in our eyes, from the Venice Film Festival, which runs from next Wednesday August 31st through Sunday, September 11th.
— Ally Johnson, Jason Ooi, Chris Evangelista, CJ Prince.