Venice: "Shame" Is a Masterpiece

My favourite movie of the Venice Film Festival was undoubtedly, Shame by British video-artist Steve McQueen, which screened yesterday and met with universal acclaim. A desperate, gloomy tale of sex-addiction, urban-desolation and self-mortification, Shame is directed with such powerful, astonishing visual style by McQueen and acted with such raw, full commitment by Michael Fassbender and Carey Mulligan (vulnerable, sassy and fascinating), that it’s all but impossible that it will be ignored by the Venice jury.

Care Mulligan and Michael Fassbender are siblings in SHAME

McQueen and his cinematography Sean Bobbit (who also lensed Hunger) capture a ghostly, liquid New York City, which sets the perfect atmosphere of loneliness and despair for Brandon’s (Fassbender) compulsive acts of sexual abjection. Shame is uncompromising bleeding cinema. It’s also deeply moving and compassionate in the depiction of the relationship between Brandon and his sister Sissy (Mulligan) who unexpectedly breaks into his apartment asking for help and forcing him out of his shell of frozen emotions.

Continue for more on Shame and Marjane Satrapi's Persepolis follow-up.

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Venice, Day 5: Shame, Alps, Wilde Salome & Sal

[Editor's Note: Manolis, TFE's Greek correspondent at the Venice Film Festival chimes in briefly on a very busy screening day. Notes on four films, the last of them a probable prize winner. -Nathaniel]

Alps
The Greek entry of the festival divided the critics assembled here, just as Dogtooth did two years ago. The Italian critics that are featured at the Daily Variety issue of the festival here have given it from 1 to 5 stars. So it’s difficult to say what it’s chances are with the jury. In Dogtooth the protagonist was trying to escape from a fake world, but in Alps the protagonist is trying to enter one; she feels she must belong to another reality, not her actual one. Aggeliki Papoulia gives an excellent performance and Yorgos Lanthimos’ fans will not be disappointed. But that said, he won’t win any new fans with Alps.

Wilde Salome
This isn't quite a film or a documentary but something inbetween as Al Pacino chronicles his attempts to make a film out of Oscar Wilde’s Salome shortly after the play was staged in Los Angeles. In Wilde Salome we watch the plays’ rehearsals and see Pacino’s attempts to solve the various production problems that are created by his insistence to film the play simultanously with the live performances. We also watch him researching Oscar Wilde and we get information on the famous playwright through interviews featuring Tony Kushner, Gore Vidal, Tom Stoppard and… Bono. Jessica Chastain is magnetic as Salome and the film will surely be interesting to theater fans. Unfortunately, though Pacino may have had a vision, but he doesn't quite know how to share it through storytelling.

Franco and his star Val Lauren in VeniceSal

James Franco presents and emotional biography of Sal Mineo, or rather a small detail. Sal takes place on the last day of the star's life. Franco relies heavily on close-ups in this very low budget attempt to capture Mineo's spirit, to sketch an emotional impression of he was.  

I did this film for artistic reasons. Making a film is not just for entertainment or to make money."
-James Franco at the press conference

Though the film is slow and overly long, it captures the atmosphere of the time well and it's easy to forgive it its flaws; it's obviously a labor of love. 

Shame

Today I also saw the winner of the festival. I don’t know whether it will win the Golden Lion, Director or Actor prizes, but there is no way Steve McQueen’s Shame will leave Mostra empty-handed.

Shame is the story of Brandon (Michael Fassbender), a man who has lost his moral compass and wanders New York looking for one night stands, while what he needs is intimacy. Fassbender gives an astonishing performance and manages to combine Brandon's fragile nature with his sexual confidence. The actor presents his journey of despair brilliantly. Carey Mulligan is also remarkable as his sister, a nightclub singer. Her vulnerable blues rendition of “New York, New York” is more than enough to put her in the Oscar race of Best Supporting Actress. The explicit nature of the film and the many nude scenes (including full frontal nudity from both stars) may hurt the film's reception with some audiences and possibly Oscar voters, but McQueen and especially Fassbender won't end the year without popping up at various critics awards. 

The response at today’s premiere was enthusiastic. That five minute standing ovation was an obvious vote of approval for McQueen and Fassbender's post-Hunger reunion.

Venice: Opposing Views on "Contagion"

Gwynnie expires in the first scenes of Contagion

Ferdi from Italy, reporting from Venice for TFE and, for Italian readers, longer pieces at Loud Vision.

Soderbergh remains one of the most influential and crafty American filmmakers but he has won my love only on one occasion, with Erin Brockovich (perhaps thanks to Julia Roberts). Soderbergh knows how to use star power but how all these stars agreed to make this movie is beyond reason, especially the beautiful Marion Cotillard who seems to be asking what she's even doing there, she's so out of place. (Did the stars infect each other?)

After the first few minutes you realize that this is all very serious stuff which is not always a good thing. If the movie had turned into a sort of "guess who’s going to die next?" thriller, it might have been a smart and fun, if cruel, meta cinematic exercize about killing off your stars.  If you imagine a movie like Contagion without all these flashing names over the title, it would be much more realistic, poignant and affecting.  Blindness, for example, was scarier and more artistically cohesive with a similar subject.

The problem with Contagion is that it tries to be a disaster movie, a thriller, a drama and a documentary; it doesn’t work as any of these genres. From an ideological point of view, too, especially when it comes to the Jude Law character, it's contradictory and stiff. Contagion plays more like a little b-movie or a television series, with a straight narrative line and a visual style that is simple, clear and very very flat. Perhaps this was just a transition project between other movies the director cares much more about. But if you’re looking for a simple message, here you are: Remember to wash your hands carefully every time you touch other people or you could spread a new mortal disease. Thanks, Steven. 

Damon, Paltrow, Fishburne and Soderbergh at the Contagion Photo Op in Venice

[Editor's Note: Manolis, our other Venice correspondent had back to back to back to back screenings yesterday and was unable to write much. But I thought it would interest you to know that he called Contagion a "crowd pleaser" and found it to be "a fully satisfying thriller". So it's a split vote from our Venice team if we imagine them as Siskel & Ebert or Statler & Waldorf. Manolis did send two noteable bits from the press conference. -Nathaniel.]

At the press conference, Soderbergh said that he was happy to have a protagonist (the virus) which has no lines but everyone else in the movie talks about him. He also addressed the ongoing rumors of his retirement: he does intend to take a break from directing, but is not planning to quit entirely. 

Reason #6,391 to Love Viggo Mortensen

He doesn't just wave to his fans or sign autographs, he leans into it with a huge genuine grin. 

Viggo with fans in Venice (you can see they attracted him with that sign... wonder what it says?) at the premiere of A Dangerous Method

I was lamenting on Twitter earlier that I can't imagine TIFF being as exciting as Venice this year. Perhaps it was the mad desire to welcome prestige movie season in but doesn't it feel explosively exciting right about now? So much possibility. So many beloved faces. So many movie stars that aren't wearing spandex in front of a green screen.

Jessica Chastain Receiving Her First Award...(of Hundreds?)

Though we've been as curious as any cinephile about the overnight sensation* that is Jessica Chastain (see previous post), allow us to register vaguely mild surprise that it took just 109 days in the public eye in a major way (starting with the Cannes premiere of The Tree of Life) before she's already standing at podiums thanking people for giving her shiny things! In this case the Gucci Women in Film prize.

In reality this is Chastain's second award, one click of research indicates that she won a best actress festival prize in 2008 (Seattle International Film Festival) for a film called Jolene though that didn't see the inside of movie theaters until late 2010 (Have any of you seen it?) But what a whirlwind these past few months must have been.

Madonna presents the Gucci Women in Film Award to Jessica Chastain

What a summer. It starts with a Cannes trip alongside Brad Pitt and three months later she's part of a $100 million hit and Madonna (that's right, Madonna) is handing her trophies. From Brad Pitt to Madonna all in the same summer. Hopefully her eyes have adjusted to travelling in these blinding megawatt circles. 

This news hit me courtesy of luxury style expert Jessica Michault who is trying to make us all jealous with her tweet droppings. Consider this one:

And for what it's worth Ms. Michault thinks Keira Knightley is Oscar-worthy in A Dangerous Method. Not that luxury fashion experts vote on Oscars but they do hobnob with those who do.

*"overnight sensation" is nearly always an oxymoron. Obviously Jessica Chastain put in a lot of acting hours prior to this weird explosion of film releases...