Day 6- September 4: Venice Says Buongiorno to Bon Jovi

Today, under a Venetian downpour, the buzz in the Casino is strong for Julian Schnabel's Before Night Falls, the second feature in competition starring Johnny Depp (the first was The Man Who Cried). Set in Cuba, the film is the real-life story of Reinaldo Arenas (Javier Bardem), a homosexual writer in Cuba who fled to the United States. Bardem, Depp, and co-star Sean Penn earned rave reports from the Lido crowd; a Coppa Volpi for performance seems likely for one of the young actors.

The Portuguese film Noites (Nights) from 27-year old Claudia Tomaz screened this morning in the Critics Week sidebar. Noites is a look at two Lisbon drug addicts, Joao (Joao Pereira) and Teresa (Tomaz). Tomaz wrote, directed, and starred in this, her feature debut, and spoke with FilmFestivals.com today (in perfect French) at the Hotel Excelsior.

She explained that her inspiration for Noites is homegrown: "I'm inspired by real life and the stories I see every day," she explained. "I don't want to follow another filmmaker, but instead I want to create my own path." True to her word, she cast her actors from the Lisbon slums, and used only two professionals. Her co-star Joao, a real-life recovering addict, was one of her acting "discoveries" and helped her to write authentic dialogue in the film.

Mid-way through the festival, the Italian critics have already published a running tally of their favorite in-competition films. So far, the leader is I Cento Passi with another Italian film, Denti ranking the lowest. This is surprising since Italy's entries in La Biennale seem to have generated little fuss in the international press. On a positive note, Italian indie cinema was given a public boost here when the director of the Italian distributor Key Films, Kermit Smith, announced the creation of Happy Together to promote, produce and distribtue indie Italian pics. (Here at Venice, Key is promoting Lucas Moodysson's Together.)
Tomorrow marks the much awaited arrival of German uber-model Claudia Schiffer and the screening of Jia Zhangke's three-hour epic Platform in competition. Tonight, fest-goers will vy for places at Liam, the latest film from Stephen Frears (High Fidelity).

Kerry Shaw