The 76th Venice Film Festival isn’t quite ready to reveal it’s highly anticipated 2019 slate to the world, but it did announce its opening night film this morning. In a slight surprise, Hirokazu Kore-eda’s “The Truth”, a film without Hollywood connections, will kick off the festivities. Damien Chazelle’s “First Man,” Alexander Payne’s “Downsizing,” Chazelle’s “La La Land,” Baltasar Kormákur’s “Everest” and Alejandro González Iñárritu’s “Birdman” opened the last four festivals.
The Japanese Kore-eda, who won the Palme d’Or at last year’s Cannes Film Festival for “Shoplifters,” is shepherding his first production without Japanese actors.
READ MORE: ‘Joker,’ ‘Rambo,’ ‘Ad Astra,’ ‘Against All Enemies’ and more rumored for Venice
In a statement released by the festival, Kore-eda remarked, “It is with great joy that I have learned that my new film, La vérité, has been selected to open the Official Competition of the Venice Film Festival. I am extremely honored. I would like to express my sincere gratitude to the entire staff of the festival. We shot the movie in ten weeks last fall in Paris. As officially announced, the cast is prestigious but the film itself recounts a small family story that takes place primarily inside a house. I have tried to make my characters live within this small universe, with their lies, pride, regrets, sadness, joy, and reconciliation. I truly hope you will like this film.”
READ MORE: The 100 Most Anticipated Films Of 2019
Festival director Alberto Barbera added, “For the first film he has directed abroad, Kore-eda had the privilege of working with two major French film stars. The encounter between the universe of Japan’s most important filmmaker today and two beloved actresses like Catherine Deneuve and Juliette Binoche brought to life a poetic reflection on the relationship between a mother and her daughter, and the complex profession of acting. It will be a pleasure to present this movie as the opening film of this year’s Venice Film Festival.”
The official synopsis indicates Deneuve will be playing a role she’s quite familiar with. It notes: “Fabienne (Deneuve) is a star; a star of French cinema. She reigns amongst men who love and admire her. When she publishes her memoirs, her daughter Lumir (Binoche) returns from New York to Paris with her husband (Hawke) and young child. The reunion between mother and daughter will quickly turn to confrontation: truths will be told, accounts settled, loves and resentments confessed.”
IFC Films acquired the U.S. rights to “The Truth” in January. There is no official release date as of yet.
Venice is expected to announce the rest of its slate early next week. Rumored titles in the mix include James Gray’s “Ad Astra,” Noah Baumbach‘s Untilted Netflix Film, Benedict Andrews’s “Against All Enemies,” Todd Phillips’ “Joker,” Tom Harper’s “The Aeronauts” and Fernando Meirelles’ “The Pope” (another Netflix title).
The 2019 Venice Film Festival runs from August 28-September 7.
