There is never time to lose at the Venice Festival. Programming overflows fascinating films, many overlap and have to choose. The worst mistake, yes, solo a masterpiece leads to miss. A pity, but assumable to the planet. On the screen of the Mostra today Tuesday, on the other hand, transcendental decisions were made. And with less margin: only 19 minutes, until a nuclear missile destroys the city of Chicago. The entire US command chain is known by the memory emergency protocol, but this time the threat is real. They must resolve to the time trial: wait or retaliation, prudence or atomic apocalypse. Technicians, officials, secretaries and the president himself weigh the options to save the world. And, at the same time, each one to his own: even in the midst of such chaos he takes his time to warn home.
With all this, A House of Dynamite, Kathryn Bigelow’s return to Kathryn, impacted fully on the contest: eight years were waiting, but brought a bombing. He left film doubts, but existential. There are already a few lengths that highlight human imbecility. As to throw a thought. Or do it to look at us.
“I have grown up in an era where hiding under your desk was the protocol to survive a nuclear attack. Thus he was immediately perceived. Since then, the threat has only climbed, and still has practically disappeared from public consciousness. Several nations have a sufficient arsenal to end civilization in minutes, but there is a certain numbness,” said the director in Venice. Perhaps his film, which will have a limited pass by cinemas and will be in Netflix on October 24, change the perception.
Because the length is based on visits to government agencies, interviews with experts, journalistic research. Idris Elba, who embodies the president, described the filming as “being in a documentary.” And what they discovered scared even the screenwriter, Noah Oppenheim: the real probability of stopping in flight an eventual attack thus is around 60%. “A stab Face or Cross,” it is said in the movie. “How to hit one bullet with another,” says an agent on the screen. Imagine that the final word above all would correspond to Donald Trump does not offer precisely relief.
But Bigelow has never wanted his audience to be comfortable. On the contrary, few filmmakers handle the thriller Like her. Its entire filmography should be prescribed to those who still believe that film adrenaline is material reserved for men. Another imbecility, perhaps incurable, at this point. The expectation that surrounded A House of Dynamite Explain the prestige that the creator has earned. Venice also knows her especially: here has premiered almost all her lengths. And he has shown that mixture of talent, tension, rigor, subtext, denunciation, politics and humanity that raised him until he was the first woman in history to win the Oscar for the best direction, in 2009 with On hostile land, About an elite artifier in Iraq. Con The darkest night He filmed the long persecution of the USA Bin Laden. And, if possible, he surpassed. His last length until today, Detroit, He narrated a wild police intervention in 1967 that ended with three agents processed by manifest homicide. Bigelow shakes the spectators and foundations of the system equally.
And he achieves it again with his last film. An assistant confessed that he was still trembling after the projection. Denied rhythm, hard realism, but with emotional brushstrokes: immediately the public is sitting in the crisis committee. Although what is discussed there, in reality, it is only the dead end: there are hardly any “surrender or suicide”, as they ask the president. The film serves to ask how the world got in there. And if it will not be the case of going back, while it is not late. “How can it be a good defensive measure annihilate the planet?” Bigelow questioned.
“It is miraculous, frankly, that something horrible has not happened yet. Many of these weapons are ready to shoot and, in countries like ours, an individual, the president with his only authority, authorizes his use,” Oppenheim added. The writer explained that A House of Dynamite It is not linked to this historical and geopolitical moment, but to the nuclear debate in general. Namely if the conversation will resurrect in time. Meanwhile, Bigelow has returned. And it’s not little. Faced with an applause from the press room, he said: “I would love to start every day. I should make more films.” Please.
It shows it, thus, it was filled with frenzy. Also by Dead’s Man Wire, Gus van Sant, out of competition. The unclassifiable filmmaker has gone out this time until his own schemes: he thought he was shooting a thriller, But he became a black comedy, as he himself told the press. It is based on a real story: a poor devil, deceived by a mortgage company, decides to kidnap the owner. However, that day, only the son, vice president is in headquarters. Bad luck: the rope catches your neck.
Literally, because Tony catches his prisoner with a cable, connected to a shotgun: any sudden movement would pull the trigger. The film tells the rescue and negotiation operation, until its outcome. And, meanwhile, reflect on a point of no return, where both are victims. The question, again, is how it got there. The public issued two verdicts. He applauded the film, and even more a message on the screen that revealed the real destination of the company: after that event, he broke.
The day brought even more films: Marc by Sofia He taught the men Jacobs seen by her friend Coppola. A review of the genius of the parades, their inspirations, their history and that of the 1990s, scenario of their ascent. The film shows how he prepares his creations, recounts some anecdote and celebrates the link between them. The designer’s journey gives stimulating moments and images. Although, among so much beauty, a little simplicity and daring is missing, especially considering their personal relationship. It is clear that they are stars. If not, no one would even understand the documentary title. But anyone has friends, and he doesn’t love them all the time.
Finally, The foreignerby François Ozon, was seen in the official competition. The creator films often from novels, although less known. He revealed that he had long since dreamed of adapting Albert Camus’s famous novel, set during the French colonization of Algeria. He returned to the screen, then, the man who does not feel anything, never knows, gets bored and participates in the love, marriage or burial of his mother with impassibility, just because it is what happens. The character prefers not to waste words and hate the lie. So it will respect more a synthetic and honest judgment on the film: it is flat.