The lion sleeps, but looks with one eye

The results of the 67th Film Festival were summed up in Venice

The main Venice prize, the Golden Lion, went to this year's film by Sofia Coppola (The Virgin Suicides, Lost in Translation, Marie Antoinette) called Somewhere. This is the story of Hollywood major league actor Johnny Marco (Stephen Dorff - "Blade", "I Shot Andy Warhol", "Johnny D"), whose existence has little to do with reality, consisting mainly of alcohol, expensive cars, communication with enthusiastic fans and other bohemian joys of the same sort, changed dramatically with the unexpected appearance in his life of his 11-year-old daughter Cleo (Elle Fenning - “Babel”, “Deja Vu”, “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”). Sofia Coppola herself defined her new work as “a look at modern Los Angeles” (apparently, this look turned out to be “principled and compassionate”), and the chairman of the Venice jury, Quentin Tarantino, noted that the decision of the panel of judges was absolutely unanimous: “The picture with From the very first viewing, our souls and common sense were equally bewitched, and in the future this feeling only grew and grew.” In 2003, Coppola was already awarded in Venice for the film Lost in Translation.

The Silver Lion was awarded to the Spanish-French film by Alex de la Iglesia (Day of the Beast, Perdita Durango, The Oxford Murders) Sad Ballad for Trumpet - an eccentric phantasmagoria about two circus performers who are in love with the same girl and take a very active part in the Spanish Civil War of 1937, without taking off their clown costumes even during the most desperate and bloody combat attacks. De la Iglesia also won the prize for best screenplay. Until now, he was known primarily in his homeland (his films were repeatedly nominated for the Spanish national Goya Award, and “Day of the Beast” brought an award for best director), but at the international level, de la Iglesia invariably achieved success in specialized festivals of mysticism and horror. Now the Spanish director has reached the level of a recognized master, clearly repeating the fate of his compatriot Guillermo del Toro.

The special prize of the festival was awarded to “Inherent Murder” by Jerzy Skolimowski (“Barrier”, “King, Queen, Jack”, “In America”) - to put it mildly, a laconic parable about an escaped political prisoner somewhere in the Middle East, a completely arthouse co-production of Poland and Hungary , Ireland and Norway. The film by Skolimowski (at one time famous, among other things, as the screenwriter of Roman Polanski’s “Knife in the Water”) is taking part in the main Venice competition for the third time - before that there were “The Lightship” (1985), which was also awarded a special jury prize , and The Key to the Thirty Doors (1991). In addition, the odious, but no less talented Vincent Gallo (“Dreams of Arizona”, “Every Day is Trouble”, “The Brown Bunny”), who played in “Inherent Murder” the role of the main character of the film with the significant name Muhammad ( his name, however, can only be found out from the end credits) was named best actor. The best actress was the debutante from Greece Ariana Labed, who played the main role in the Greek film “Ettenberg” by Athena Rachel Tsangari (“Fit”, “Slow Business”). The Marcello Mastroianni Prize, which is awarded annually in Venice to the best young performer, regardless of gender, was received by the American Mila Kunis (“Gia,” “In Flight,” “The Book of Eli”), who starred in Darren’s “Black Swan,” which opened the current festival Aronofsky (“Requiem for a Dream,” “The Fountain,” “The Wrestler”) and, apparently, was not at all lost against the background of her partners Natalie Portman, Winona Ryder and Barbara Hershey.

Our “Oatmeal” by Alexei Fedorchenko (shown in Venice under the more understandable title “Quiet Souls”) was awarded three times: the film received the FIPRESCI prize, an award from the ecumenical jury, and Mikhail Krichman (“Sky. Airplane. Girl”, “Return”, “Exile” ") was recognized as the best operator. "Lion of Youth" (Luigi De Laurentiis Award for Best Debut) was given to the Turkish film "Coming of Age" by Seren Yus, and the jury chaired by Fatih Akin ("In July", "The Edge of Heaven", "Soul Kitchen") Shirin Nishat named the film by Nicholas Pereda (“Together”, “Perpetuum Mobile”) “Goliath Summer” as the best picture in the “Horizons” program.

Finally, this year Monty Hellman, an American director, screenwriter, actor, editor and producer, received a special “Lion” for his lifetime contribution to cinema. At the beginning of his career - a protégé of the legendary Roger Corman, and therefore a cinematographer to the core, Hellman is not very well known to the general public, but is rightfully considered one of the key figures of American cinema by cinephiles around the world. Not excluding, of course, Quentin Tarantino (Hellman was one of the producers of “Reservoir Dogs,” and in the credits of “Inglorious Basterds” he was given special thanks; in the same way, by the way, as in the credits of “Buffalo ’66,” the current film Venetian triumphant Vincent Gallo). A master of action films about motorcycle gangs, gritty crime dramas, very unique horror films and meditative road movies (Hellman himself said that if there’s anything that makes sense to make a movie about, it’s only about the road), the director has already been noted once in Venice - in In 1988, he received the film critical prize "Bastone Bianco" for the film "Iguana". His latest work to date, entitled (of course) “Road to Nowhere,” was presented at the current Venice competition. The film as such was left without prizes, but, as we see, the honorary “Lion” found its hero. In his acceptance speech, Tarantino said that Hellman's influence on the creative path of the jury members cannot be overestimated.

Gleb MYSHKIN