Nesta Morgan

Teapots and Modern Dance, at Venice

Director Damian Chazelle is hitting the double chord joyously as Emma Stone wins best actress, with modern dance we’re going into a dream in the real world, playing out the rhythms of a speech pattern, nursing fantasies in La La Land until lights out… the music casts a thin veil, a dream space as trumpeter Lee Morgan, plays blue notes on his life in Kasper Collins’s documentary, I Called Him Morgan.

I draw Actress Alicia Viksander in The Light Between Oceans with Michael Fassbender, she responds dreamlike “Oh, are we on a desert island? Oh, that’s gorgeous!”. Whilst talking on the character experience Alicia goes onto say “What am I supposed to feel about loss? I learned not to look for that answer” and Michael reflects “What can I offer a child? Forgiveness”

Director Rama Burshtein, actor Assaf Amir and cast bring us their love story Through The Wall, Laavor at Hakir, and relate their own desires to being on this set, dreaming… 
“I wanted to be the one, to experience. I wanted to be in love, listening, learning … to… I just fell in love, hope, a rare important lioness role and “Wow!”

Wim Wenders directs Les Beaux Jours D’Aranjuez with Sophie Semin and Paulo Branco; picturing the differences between men and women, he alludes to the lightness of being french with beautiful text on the subject of a jukebox “we better make it into a comic, show what they can’t tell one another… and traverser la musique!”

Actors Amy Adams and Jeremy Renner experiment on Arrival, see what you are thinking, acting without words, word’s limit emotions; they refer to Love, to Anxiety and Amy’s favourite word, “Ma”.

Charles Siskal, directs the documentary on William Powell’s book, his life and the surmise of the American Anarchist, in which Powell’s clear headed reasoning and purpose of thought are expressed in his words “Think for yourself. Remorse not regret. My skeleton in print. I live with that. Bought a Gun”. 

Tom Ford directs Nocturnal Animals and Amy Adams, who he professes to be “a female version of me”, and goes onto describe “The absurdity” of “my head inside the artist, I fell in love with these women, my true self… and the red velvet sofa”, not surprisingly as Ford’s designs on colour furnish the production, and go as far as to bring inspiration to actor Jake Gyllenhaal’s reading for his role from “a hue of red paper, the metaphor of heartbreak playing itself out, and a peculiar shade of colour to the script”. Actor Aaron Taylor Johnson accepts a part, saying “Take me on that journey, puppeteer me forward”, whilst Amy Adams sits by Tom Ford he confesses “I have fantasies of revenge but just the thought of it is not satisfying”.

Christopher Murray directs El Cristo Ciego, The Blind Christ offering “a parable language, a human look, a point of view” where “Faith is the sound that fills the emptiness”, he comments “It’s nice, it’s amazing!”

Jaeger Le Couture winner and Actor Liev Schreiber, describes his part in The Bleeder as “The right choice”, with humour as director Philippe Faladreau provides “Something gritty and sexy in the design of the film, and embraces the flaws of the hand held camera”, then goes onto dance, like “a pathetic ridiculous person” while Naomi Watts, actress, goes into costume for her audition sporting “Red boots, fake boobs, leopard print tights, all art forms there to connect to yourself” and she says “Wow, did you just do that!” Philippe says “It’s beautiful, thank-you! Can I take a photo?

La Culture Francaise - Allemande is brought to the front by director Francois Ozon with Frantz.

Paula Beer wins best young actress for her portrayal, in both tongues, of a love torn soul drawn into mourning and faced with the imagery of Manet’s painting, Le Suicide. The voyeur experiences next to no narrative content in this painting, but an association of sacrifice, idealism or heroism, and with Frantz we wait to learn the time, the place and the protagonist for love and death; we listen to Frantz recall “The noise is terrifying. The sound of the wind in the leaves. I can’t hear the notes. Le Suicide, Manet”.

Ulrich Seidl directs, and documents a poignant tale in Safari; a giraffe stands tall in nature, paired with a mate; then a shot, the fallen giraffe is transported alone, skinned, sacrificed as pleasure to the rich, and needs for the poor. There is a reference to “a Textbook hit”, and I find a parody to the story of Charles Siskal’s documentary film American Anarchist in which William Powell has a lifetime of reflection on his own textbook writings on weapons of destruction. Finding a youthful protagonist in the internet, a part of Powell wanted to learn more but had a hard time admitting responsibility for the acts, and fate, of offering anarchist recipes. His deliberately provocative wish to do more in light of the consequences of and autonomy in the Anarchist Cookbook, a constant companion; even out of the picture is a man who is moral, ethical, against government; there is foresight in the man, rhetoric, and anger association showing some kind of empathy to google.

James Franco states his love for literature as big as for film, an alias in Mice and Men, all with the eyes In Dubious Battle; look at the work, and he comments on a lack of consideration for the working class.

Jude Law plays The Young Pope with “just a joy, on these beautiful sets and colourful, wonderful compositions” directed by the humour and attention to detail of Paulo Sorrentino, “Very nice!” he comments.

Martin Koolhoven, director of Brimstone with actress Dakota Fanning and Emilia Jones, jests on

the consequence of violence to playing with a mute, and then “Well, I think it looks like America, but we’re in the EU!”

Directors Mariano Cohn and Gaston Duprat's El Ciudadano Ilustre, The Distinguished Citizen is “Muy bueno!” and leading actor Oscar Martinez goes on to win the Volpi Cup award for Best Actor in his well designed performance as a Nobel Prize wining writer from Spain returning to his home town in Argentina. From sets balanced with comfort of a prize and the Mies Van der Rohe Barcelona chair in a large open vista’d apartment to the aged vintage car seat of a broken down car and comic nostalgic props of a South American hotel room; the sets surround his encompassing performance and the camera shapes his character well.

Mel Gibson directs Hacksaw Ridge, and offers insight “Do something extraordinary and fantastic in life. One word, just survival. Operate from a position of love. Technical and emotional.”

Andy Garfield, actor, suggests “Real superheroes didn’t wear any spandex”. Mel comments “I just simply can’t touch it!” … “he’s dressed up in her dress” and “Wow! What a beautiful drawing”.

An unpredictable award for direction went to La Region Salvaje, The Untamed where I can only imagine the sheer fantasy of an iconic octopus personifying both male and female sexual desires touched the jury as it played against the scenes of a classic film Monte and the story of a man’s own enduring climax over a mountain.

At this point I took to the Art Biennale and sketched my way through exhibits at Arsenale.

Kim Rossi Stewart, director, producer, writer of Tommaso had one word “Bellisimo!”

Exhibited in The Bad Batch film is alter ego for director, Ana Lily Amipour, whose own life experience in one of the film locations where she claims “I had puberty there, part of my DNA” is cross referenced to her ideal films Romancing the Stone and The Princess Bride; each bring us adventure, reality, but only lead her to tease out self-dramas and quote “I think the Bad Batch is everywhere”, “anamorphic, explaining how I picked the music is like explaining how I had sex!” to “A canibal that falls in love with his next meal”. On the casting, Amipour was drawn to the face of actress Suki Waterhouse, who goes onto say “I was really frightened, like an orange being peeled”

Producer Gabai makes light of their alternative production company “We didn’t know what the fuck we were doing when we started the company”.

Tai Kato, directs The Ondekoza, a well choreographed homage and masterpiece on Japanese culture and the art of performance with the Japanese professional taiko drumming group called "Ondekoza", the sound is enhanced by the strength of thunder and rain on the roof of the Sala Giardini after which the Voyage of Time : Life’s Journey directed by Terence Malick follows the path of Mother nature and earth cohabiting and exploring creation in the universe.

I sketch as the words from Mel Gibson’s table, drift over his cup of tea,

“he’s playing Pope and she’s incensed… get the kinetic feel on film, extraordinary energy… a beautiful proximity, dissolve into the real frame…”

drawn in Venice

Nesta