Italian Cinema Industry Questions Need for Competitions After Venice ...

Italian insiders also wondered why Italian productions do well in Cannes and Berlin, but not in Venice.

ROME – Nearly a week after scandal erupted at the Venice Film Festival after it was revealed that the international jury was prohibited from awarding the festival's top prize to the film they thought was best, Italian industry figures are still discussing the bewildering developments.
O
Italy's President Calls Marco Bellocchio to Praise 'Dormant Beauty' After Venice Snub
The entertainment pages of Italian newspapers have been filled all week with discussions of the 69-year-old festival's conclusion, which also included criticisms for the relative lack of hardware for home-grown Italian productions, including the critically acclaimed Bella Adormentata (Dormant Beauty), a powerful euthanasia drama from Marco Bellocchio. The film was considered a contender for a major prize, but it went home almost empty handed.

The Master, Paul Thomas Anderson's fictional account of the forming of a new Scientology-like religion, wowed the jury so much that they wanted to give it the prize for Best Film, Best Director, and for Best Actor to co-protagonists Joaquin Phoenix and Philip Seymour Hoffman. Prohibited from giving all those prizes to The Master, the jury elected instead to give the Golden Lion to Kim Ki-duc's provocative mother-son drama Pieta.

Much of the discussion about Venice's end game centered around the value of having a competition at film festivals, noting that the Toronto Film Festival, which runs through Sunday, has no official competition.

"A competition makes sense for a sporting event, where everyone runs 100 meters and you see who is fastest," said Pascal Vicedomini, the founder of film festivals on the islands of Ischia and Capri, off the coast of Naples -- neither of which has a competitive section. "For festivals it makes a lot less sense. How many times have we seen a disconnect between what plays best with the audience and the film the jury selects?"

Film director Gianni Amelio, now artistic director at the Turin Film Festival, which does include competitive sections, was the last Italian to win Venice's top prize, with his film Cosi redevano (The Way We Laughed) in 1998. But even he is not convinced competitive sections are a good idea.
"The only way it makes sense for a film is if the film is released a short time later," he said. "Otherwise, the prize doesn't help the film and by the time the film is released it's forgotten that it won the prize."
Sebastian Oliveras, a commentator, said: "There are more festival prizes than there are great films each year. You do the math."

Despite those discussions, most of the ink on Venice was about the lack of prizes for Bellocchio's Bella Adormentata and other Italian films that screened on the Lido.

Stefano Rulli, an Italian screenwriter and director said, "When Italian films go to Cannes or Berlin, they are treated with the upmost respect, but in Venice this does not happen."
Francesco Giro, a former Italian Minister of Culture, agreed.

"The flop of Italian cinema in Venice cannot be without consequences," Giro said. "We need to open a serious debate on this failure. :It is not credible that we win at Cannes and Berlin and at Venice we are ridiculed and censored.

Riccardo Tozzi, a producer and the president of the Italian audiovisual organization ANICA, said the trend was bad for both Venice and for Italian cinema.

"At this rate, the Lido is going to become a very difficult place for Italian cinema," he said. "Today it is very difficult to make a serious film, and if they aren't supported by festivals the situation becomes deadly."

For his part, Bellocchio said he had a solution. After this year's experiences, the director said he would never again bring one of his films to the festival in Venice.

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Venice premiers first-ever Saudi film

By COLLEEN BARRY | Associated Press 

VENICE, Italy (AP) — Haifaa Al Mansour has the distinction of being the first person to ever film a movie in Saudi Arabia, never mind that she's a woman.

Al Mansour's "Wadjda," which premiered this week out of competition at the Venice Film Festival, is about a 10-year-old girl who dreams of having a bicycle so she can race a neighborhood boy. But the dream is just a little too subversive for a deeply conservative Muslim society where women live segregated existences and girls around Wadjda's age are expected to begin fully covering their faces when in public.

"I feel so proud honestly to have shot the first film ever to be shot inside Saudi Arabia," Al Mansour told The Associated Press. "It was an extremely difficult experience, but still it's very rewarding and it says something about the country — that the country of Saudi Arabia is opening up, and there is a place for arts to grow, and there is a place for women."

Despite having support within the Saudi royal family, Al Mansour said she had to cope with limits present within society. For example, severe restrictions on the mingling of men and women created challenges in directing male actors in outdoor scenes, she said.

"I had to stay in a van and talk through a telephone sometimes or through the producer," she told a news conference.

The movie offers a rare and perhaps even unprecedented look into Saudi daily life.

Wadjda lives alone with her mother, played by Reem Abdullah, and they are visited only sometimes by her father. Devoted as he appears in person, he is seeking a second wife to have a son, a source of stress for Wadjda's mother.

Wadjda is as unfazed by the family drama as her mother is distracted by it. The girl instead focuses on how she can get enough money — 800 Saudi riyals, or $213 — to buy a green bicycle from a nearby store, despite being repeatedly told that girls do not ride bikes.

She charms the shopkeeper into putting it on hold for her, while selling homemade bracelets and extorting small sums for favors to raise the cash. Then, a school announcement that a Quran-reading contest will have a prize of 1000 riyals suddenly awakens a modicum of devotion in an otherwise uninterested girl.

Many of the scenes at school emphasize the universals of growing up. Children gossip about their teachers, tease each other and hide minor transgressions. The girls listen to music and wear high-top sneakers, which peek out from under their robes.

But Al Mansour also elegantly underlines the unique plight of girls when a classmate of Wadjda's pulls out photographs of her own wedding from her Quran during religion class. The teacher smiles, simply asks the groom's age — 20 — and kindly tells the girl that photos are not allowed in school.

Al Mansour sought producers from outside the region, and chose a German production company, Razor Studios, that had worked on Palestinian director Hany Abu Assad's "Paradise Now" and Israeli director Ari Folman's "Waltz with Bashir," both of which won Golden Globes for best foreign film.

But while she walked along with the 12-year-old star Waad Mohammed on the red carpet in Venice on Friday, there won't be any gala openings in Riyadh because there are no movie theaters there or anywhere in the Arab country. The film will, instead, be distributed by DVD and shown on Saudi TV, said co-producer Fahad Al Sukait of Saudi Prince Waleed Bin Talal's production company, Rotana Studios.

Al Mansour, who has made three short films and a documentary previously, said her work in the media had made her a "polarizing" figure in Saudi Arabia, and that she had received death threats.

"But I never take that personally," she told AP. "I know that they think that I threaten their values, but I always try to be respectful because I want to engage them in a dialogue rather than fight with them."

Al Mansour said the fact that she ultimately was able to direct a film in her own country was due to changes that are happening in the society there.

"There is an opportunity now for women to believe in themselves, to push and believe in their dreams," she said. "Society will put pressure on women to stay at home. But women must stick together and fight for what they want to achieve. "

____

Matthew Kemp contributed to this report.

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How to Survive Film Festival Season...

Heading off to Venice, Toronto, Telluride or Deauville? Celebrity health experts share their tips for staying in one piece during the festival frenzy.

Those summer nights are over, and film festival season is kicking off. Whether you're saying "Ciao, Venice," "Bonjour, Deauville," "Hello, Telluride" or "Oh, Canada" for TIFF, you'll be spending the next few weeks out of the office and likely in the air, in screenings and meetings and rushing from one red carpet to the next. Not sleeping enough, indulging in local delicacies and schmoozing your way through endless glasses of champagne are part of the game, but that doesn't mean you need to sacrifice your health entirely. Award-winning vegan chef and author Ani Phyo and celebrity yoga and pilates powerhouse Kristin McGee share their insider tips for surviving the fall festival season.

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1) EATING HEALTHY
Bring a blender: That's the advice from Phyo, whose clients include Maroon 5, Moby and Carrie Ann Moss. She recommends packing a small travel blender like the Tribest Personal Blender that is, she points out, "smaller than a pair of shoes." Pack it into the PB deluxe or regular carrying case specifically designed for travel and remember to pack a power transformer and adapter if heading overseas.

Phyo's advice: "Before you leave, find out if there are any local markets and ask your hotel if they have a fridge you can store a few things in. Then just grab some greens, superfood powders and any fruits, and you can just blend in your room. When you're really busy, blending is great. Blending means it's chewing up the food for us, so that places way less digestive stress on our system, and the nutrients can be taken to the parts of body that need nutrition, giving us more energy."
For snacks, Phyo recommends on-the-go-friendly produce including carrots, jicama, peppers, radishes, cucumbers, apples, oranges, lemons and limes and easy-to-pack snacks like Nori -- "It's a great seaweed for mineralizing, helps with heavy metal radiation and is filled with electrolytes. You can take a whole packet of 20 sheets and stick it in the outside compartment of your carry-on luggage." Also wheatgrass and rice protein powders, dried fruits like goji berries or superfoods such as maca or chlorella that are "really full of antioxidants and slow down the signs of aging. Nuts are great too. They're high in Vitamin E antioxidant and building collagen in the skin."
Pack a small jar of Rawmio almond or hazelnut gourmet chocolate spreads for a healthy alternative to those Nutella breakfasts in Venice, or make your own protein bars ahead of time from Phyo's new book Ani's 15-Day Fat Blast. Just mix almonds, protein powder, maca powder, dates, a pinch of salt and even some cacao powder or vanilla and goji berries together, pack into a baking tray, slice into bar shapes and carry with you throughout the week.

2) TAKING CARE OF YOUR BODY
Stretching is key. "When you first arrive at your hotel, do legs up the wall pose to let the blood recirculate and alleviate tight lower back and compressed legs from a long flight," recommends McGee, whose clients include Tina Fey, Steve Martin and LeAnn Rimes. Before heading out at night, she says, "Do a few sun salutations in the hotel room to perk yourself up and stretch out your entire body, especially your feet in upward dog and downward dog knowing you'll be cramming them in high-heel shoes or standing on them all night."
Even while sitting on a plane or in a long screening, there are still ways to stretch out. McGee recommends "eagle arms while seated, simple twists in your chair or tolasana, which is picking your butt up and hovering in the air." Even at events, McGee says: "Find a quiet corner to do a few rounds of alternate nostril breathing. It will oxygenate the brain and keep you alert for the premieres, showings and parties."

3) STAYING HYDRATED
Hydration is essential when on the go, especially during the trip to and from the festivals. "The plane is dehydrating. For every hour, drink one liter of water. Flying is aging and stressful on the body, so hydration is key," Phyo says.
Her recommendation? "Put a tablespoon of chia seeds into a liter bottle of water -- It's full of energy and very hydrating. Buy water before you get onto the plane, and mix a bag of chia seeds into them. It's the best trick ever."

And, if you can find some, drink as much juice as possible. "Green juices infuse the body with so many nutrients and enzymes. They make your skin glow -- they're better than a facial. Your inner body starts to radiate to your outer shell. It's just amazing," Phyo says of the liquid trend.

4) SLEEPING WELL
Sleep is a luxury at film festivals, so when there is a chance for some slumber, make it count. "Do a supine twist before going to bed to detox from all the cocktails and to work out the kinks in your lower back and shoulders from standing, mingling and holding drinks or posing for paparazzi all night long," McGee recommends. And if you're still having trouble sleeping, she says, "Lie in goddess pose with your hands on your belly and watch the breath rise and fall."

5) STAYING CALM
It's easy to forget to eat or sleep during festival season, but don't forget to breathe. Slip a travel yoga mat like Manduka's eKO Superlite into their brand-new Journey On collection bags designed for practicing on the run and do yoga in your room -- even five, 10 or 15-minute sessions -- thanks to Yogaglo.com. The site, which features top teachers from across the globe like New York's Elena Brower or the Paris-based Marc Holzman, even has special sections for travel yoga, the immune system or stress reduction that likely will come in handy over the next few weeks. Or give the computer a break and grab Art of Attention, Brower's brand-new book with co-author Erica Jago, for more on and off the mat inspiration wherever in the world you are.

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