Day 7- September 5: Fine Line Buys Before Night Falls

Others in Lido were excited for the arrival of Mick Jagger, who is here for an MTV party being held in the area. A few canals away, Faye Dunaway was the guest at the house of the La Biennale founder on the Grand Canal in an invite-only affair to honor the team from Before Night Falls. Speaking of the film, this is turning out to be a tough act to follow... Lido-goers (plus the few buyers here) are mad for Julian Schnabel's latest, which Fine Line Features bought yesterday for North America for about 1 million dollars. This is hardly expensive by industry standards, but it is monumentous here, since most buyers are waiting for Toronto.

This morning, pictures were splashed across Italian dailies of Schnabel (in an ankle-length skirt) kissing Javier Bardem (the film's star), keeping the dialogue about the film alive and strong. The other in-competition film today, Platform, doesn't seem to be generating as much excitement. Although most people rave about the artistic merit of the film, many audiences have said that it is just too long, wrapping up at over three hours. Later today, at the public screening of Memento from Christopher Nolan, audiences gave the director a five-minute standing ovation.

In other Venice film news, another new picture has been added to the schedule: How Samira made the blackboard. The film is a look at jury member/director Samira Makhmalbaf's work in making Blackboards, which won the jury prize at this year's Cannes festival. The director certainly had access to Samira; he is none other than her father, Maysam Makhmalbaf. This replaces The Young and the Dead, from Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini in the Nuovo Territori section. The Springer/Pulcini pic will now screen in the "Special Program" sidebar. The real loser in this juggle is The State of the Dead from director Zivoljin Pavlovic, which has been dropped from the lineup.

At the Piper Heidsieck club on the terrace at the Hotel Excelsior, Secretary General Elisabetta Brunella and her team from Media Salles hosted a cocktail party to launch the newest issue of the European Cinema Journal. This edition features an analysis of European cinema distribution in the USA and the efforts in Europe to enter the American market.

Tonight, festival favorite Woody Allen has an Italian premiere of his film Small Time Crooks (starring Hugh Grant) at the Palagalileo. Tomorrow, the Iranian film Dayareh (The Circle) screens in competition and the directorial debut from Ed Harris, Pollock, makes its world premiere. The latest from Barbara Kopple, My Generation, at look at decades of Woodstock, also makes its world premiere tomorrow.

So far, the Lido is relatively quiet with few all-night parties causing much of a stir. (Of course, the entire press room was deserted at 6 pm today as journalists fled to the screening of the new film starring Claudia Schiffer, The Sound of Claudia Schiffer). One veteran Venice attendee lamented the absence of Miramax, a group known to throw the crazy carnevales. Despite the meager party scene, films are selling out - rain or shine -- and seem to be stealing the show here. The attention is staying on cinema: not the buyers or the sellers, or even the stars (besides the A-list attractions). So perhaps quiet is a good thing.

Kerry Shaw