Highlights and film critics from the 81th Venice Film Festival – episode 30/08

“FRED Film Radio from Venice Film Festival Italy.

Hello, good evening. welcome to FRED Film Radio. I'm Rita Di Santo.

I'm the host of Global Critics Venice Voice. And I'm with two splendid colleagues, Carla and Kevin.

Hi, Rita. Hi, Kevin. I am Carla Aguilar Lopez, and I'm from Venezuela, and I write for Filmphilicos.

That's very good to know, Carla. My name is Kevin Moore, and I write for the London Times.

Yeah. So we start today to share our thoughts about something out of Confeditio. One to One, John and Yoko, is the documentary of Kevin MacDonald.

He's a Scottish director.

Well, I struggled with this film a lot. Wow. I found it so difficult.

Difficult, just really tedious. It has a structure. It's 1972.

It's a year and a half in the life of John Lennon and Yoko Ono. They moved to New York. They're in a tiny loft apartment in Greenwich Village.

The hook is that there's unearthed audio that we've never heard before. He's taping his phone conversation. He's a bit paranoid.

“He thinks the FBI are after him. So the hook is that they've got this material. The Beatle Maniacs haven't heard it, and so he's going to make a film that's structured around this material.

However, what he does is he bases the whole documentary on John Lennon's supposed love for television, and so he has this ingenious idea that maybe the documentary is like John Lennon channel surfing for like a hundred minutes. And so the whole film, and I think it just drove me crazy is the structure is just a commercial for Chevrolet, bit of John Lennon, a bit of The Sonny and Cher Show from 1972, bit of John Lennon, Nixon and the White House, bit of John Lennon, and because you're supposed to imagine someone click, click, clicking, but I found it infuriating, super boring. If maybe if you don't know the politics of 1970s America, you might be blown away, go, wow, it's just like, no, they're kind of bigoted, they're kind of right wing, there's some left-wing people, and it might be educational.

“I don't know for who, but I found it just infuriatingly dull. I couldn't bear it. And also then they play John Lennon songs.

It's from a concert he gave towards the end of the film, and it's like Instant Karma, a few of the songs that you know, Imagine, but some really tough listens, and they play the whole song. You know, we're used to, we're used to in movies and documentaries, that they show you a bit of the song and they cut away, and you sort of, you move on, but this is just the whole song played in its entirety. Yoko Ono has a song as well, which is a real ear poker.

So yeah, that's a very long way of saying I really struggled with it.

I love Kevin MacDonald because he made an incredible documentary, like One Day in September, The Last King of Scotland. Really, always his work is very emotionally strong, strong impact, and there is this meticulous research that is in this movie as well. We have all these telephone call, and we really understand a lot about the personality of Yoko, but I felt it's a bit like a...

“It's something, it's, I don't think it's his best, because it's like, it's a way of making documentaries. Kevin MacDonald started a long time ago to make documentaries, but it's like, it doesn't renew his style. It doesn't, we are in 2024.

Documentary is something that has evolved tremendously. And we have documentaries in competition, in Cannes, we've seen it in Venice as well. And so it's like something, a way of making documentaries that are from the past.”

“And also, yeah, I love John Lennon and Yoko Ono, but I like as well the music. It's just, as you said, the narrative structure is something, I don't want to say predictable, but it's like, yeah, a bit flat, it's a bit, yeah, doesn't, but I don't know, from Venezuela, because maybe it's a story that has a different perception.

“I mean, I actually liked it. I enjoy it. I like this structure, like the fact that they are showing this TV shows and then bits of his life, John Lennon's and Yoko Ono's life.”

“I think it makes it like, they're giving us context, what's happening in the world while John Lennon is maybe, I don't want to say struggling, but trying to find a new identity, of who he is after the Beatles. While he is in a new country, in a new house, like a new lifestyle, what's happening around him, around everyone at the time, and how he might affect his heart, his art and Yoko's art. And I found that very, very interesting.

But yeah.”

“Talking about another titling, competition, that I found quite interesting, is Disclaimer, by Alfonso Guarón. And it's really great that Venice opened to the TV series. And because it's like the cinema is, the history of cinema is like the cinema is a magmatic.

So it's that thing that change day by day. And TV series, sometimes they can have, they can, you can read cinema more in a TV series than a movie or a documentary. And I felt, yeah, I quite like Disclaimer.

I loved it. You know, I love the fact that it's, I will go down from my very last breath, arguing that it's not TV. It's just not TV.”

“They all said in the press conference, it's not TV. Guarón said it's not TV. The cinematographers say it's not TV.

They shot it. It's a movie, you know. It's a 343 minute movie.

And the reason it's not TV is, and I watch a bit of TV. I don't watch that much TV, but when there's really good TV out there, everyone says you have to watch Success and The Last of Us, et cetera, I will watch it. And the reason this isn't TV is because there's so many clues and things dropped in each of the seven, I'm not even calling them episodes.

You have to call them chapters, not episodes. In each of the seven chapters, there's so many moments that happen that only make sense at the very end just when you see the full story and you really like the sixth sense. You want to go back to the start and watch it all over again.”

“And that sort of whole interlocking structure doesn't happen in TV. In TV, they have a bit of an overarching art, but it's always just episode, episode, episode. And so I agree.

I know when you're at a film festival, people like Alfonso Cuarón have to say, oh, this is film. We shot it like a film because they don't appear like they're sort of biting the hand that feeds them. But, yeah, I watched it in two chunks as they were screened here.

And after the first chunk, I was like, I can't wait to see the second part. It just doesn't feel like, you know, I pity people watching it on Apple TV when they go to one. I think they'll drop it week by week because it just feels so coherent, so amazing.

And I just, you know, full of flawless Oscar caliber performances. Gorgeous to look at. There's a drowning sequence in it, not giving anything away that, you know, in the Dorsetta there, you just couldn't get it on TV.”

“You know, watching it, if you have a big television, I'm sure it will be impressive, but I was like sweating watching the drowning sequence, because the waves were enormous. I felt I was in it. So I suppose they're stuck because Apple have funded it, and it will end up on Apple and streaming, but I think at heart, this is the most cinematic TV I've ever seen.

Yeah, and this is great because here in Venice, you can enjoy in a big screening room, and this is what I really like of it, because usually we're watching a little television on the computer. It's okay, but it's a great privilege to have a cinema. And I thought maybe one day, instead of movies, we can have in the distribution, we can have a cinema just for TV series like this.

But also, I was thinking, why we don't have a competition? Because we have so many TV series. And we can have a session, and we can have a competition with the TV series.

“That would be wonderful. And yes, as you said, it's very cinematic. Like, for me, it was made to watch it on a big screen.

And Alfonso Cuaron's aesthetic, it's always very poetic. And the way he directs his actors, I mean, Cate Blanchett, she's perfect in every single role. But, you know, the way he directs her and Sacha Baron Cohen, I found it magical.

I found it, I cannot wait to watch the rest of it because we, at least I did, I watched four chapters. And yes, I only watched, I only watched four chapters, but I was completely aback with all the magic that was happening.

And that's Alfonso Cuaron, like, he is, I have to say, we are also, we are having a spritz, it's super warm, it's nice to have this conversation at this time of the day. And this is the spritz time, and critics enjoy a little bit of drink. Big bit of drink.

Not just a little bit, critics enjoy, it was.”

“Do you prefer Averro spritz or Campari spritz?

What's this?

Averro spritz.

Well, it's definitely Averro spritz.

Campari spritz is more the color of Fred Film Radio, because everything is red. Cinema is red, the passion of cinema, Fred Film Radio, you can really breathe, and Campari is red. But I have to say I prefer Averro spritz.

What do you think?

Me too, me too. I'm with an expert here, the Italian, and she knows about spritz. I have no idea, I just drink it and I love it.

It's very warm in Venice as well. And we are going to talk about the hottest title of the Venice competition with Niggle Kidman, this erotic thriller playing, it's not a thriller, what do you think? Is it a thriller?

A rotting melodrama maybe, rather than a thriller.

It can be.

There's a few thrillers where he appoints the male character who harassed Tickson, feels a bit, is he a bit toxic? Is he going to go a bit weird? But I think it's more like a drama than a thriller, a feminist thriller, I don't know.”
“We are talking about a baby girl, this erotic, melodramatic, romantic story and made by a female director, so Alina Regin. And Kidman is an high-powered CEO who puts her life's work on the line when she begins an affair with a much younger sadist. It's about sex, it's about desire, it's about secrets, it's about marriage, it's about truth, power, consent, it's also about botox, right?

And there is a sequence when I thought that she's a dentist. And she's not just getting botox. No, actually, a botox.

Very modern, very modern.

It's terrible when her daughter said, mom, what have you done?

So she looks like a dead fish.

Yeah, yeah, that's what she said.

This is the line, you look like a dead fish. It's terrible. Oh no.

Okay.”

“That's just like, I think it's ridiculously brave of Nicole Kidman to do that, but I also think she had to do it, because I think she's got so much, there's been so many articles written about her appearance by women and by men, so it's not a sort of misogynistic thing. And she has started to look strange in films, and so I feel this was a tiny part of the film addressing it. It's an incredibly brave role in so many different ways.

I think it's my favorite role of her since Destroyer in 2018. There's so many things I love about this film. I love a little bit of backstory.

At the moment, post me to Hollywood's had this problem with sex. They're like, oh, how do we show sex? We want to show sex because we make money showing sex, but we can't show sex because it's kind of creepy and misogynistic.”

“So they had this period where there's like, I know, why don't we have an older woman and a younger guy because the power dynamics are much better. Nicole Kimm did The Family Wave with Zac Efron, Anne Hathaway did The Idea of You, and it's on trend to have an older woman and a younger guy because the power dynamics makes everyone in Hollywood who are ridiculously on message comfortable. Nothing creepy in there.

They've all been ideologically repugnant and horrible, horrible films until this came along. This is so authentic, so sweet, so honest, so soft. There's a moment in it after, Horstig's and the Younger Guy, kind of sends her into paroxysm with pleasure on a really filthy hotel room carpet, and they have the softest, sweetest hug I think I've ever seen in a movie.

“I just think there's so much radical authenticity in the film that maybe the world isn't ready for it. And I'm, you know, incredible respect to Nicole Kidman for doing it, for going there and doing what she needs to do in the film. If I have a problem, I think it's too neat at the end, and it gets a bit, it's very polished, and the director who did Bodies, Bodies, Bodies, she has a tendency to be a bit pop video and a bit sort of perfect, but I spent like three quarters of the whole film thinking, oh my god, it's amazing.

I think also it's very well casted, because in a movie like this, it's very important to choose the right cast, and definitely Nicole Kidman, she proves that she's an amazing actress, and they can challenge herself, but also I like the young man.”

“Harris Dickinson, yeah.

Yeah, and he's the protagonist of the...

He's in Triangle of Sadness.

Yes, Triangle of Sadness, and he's a very talented actor.

Yeah. It's a very well written part as well, because it asks him to be just on the line between insolent, rude, toxic, and yet sort of cute, sorry, and vulnerable as well, and open. So yeah, I think he plays it really well.

Carla, what did you think?

Yeah, I was gonna say that even Antonio Bandera's character, I'm not gonna say it's a smaller role, because it's very important to the story, but he brings a softness into this whole dynamic between this toxic, weird, tender relationship that this Nicole Kidman and Harry Dickinson have. So, I love that character, I love that it was him, Antonio Bandera, because he does have this macho side, you know, attractive man, but at the same time, very kind, very tender, and I think it brought a great balance between all the characters. Yeah.

Also, I like a lot Antonio Bandera, because he's like the icon of a Latin lover.

Exactly, yes.”

“And this completely crush that idea.

Exactly.

He's been doing it wrong for 19 years.

Exactly, exactly. And you wouldn't expect that out of an Spanish guy, like this, you know, macho icon Latin lover that he is, so that was surprising to me to know. I don't want to give up too much, but yeah, I think his character is essential.

Both of the exchange between the characters, and I feel the daughter is amazing.

Yeah, oh yes.

She's an incredible young actress.

Ewan McGregor's daughter.

Yeah, oh wow.

So Nicole Kidman's co-star and Moulin Rouge's daughter.

Oh nice.

And the dialogue between the mother and the daughter, I mean, it's so modern, you know.”

“Sounds very witty.

And the thriller for me is when it is the swimming pool. The night and the swimming pool. Because you can make you think, many things can happen at night in the swimming pool.

And we have a surprise that we can spoil.

No, it's really good. I think it's a beautifully made film, beautifully written, directed. You know, it's about, as you said, power control.

And I think it all starts with the powerful writing and the powerful performances. And yeah, I was anxious the entire time, the entire time. I mean, from the first thing that I was like tense from, you know, until the very end, it was it was very good.

Also, we can say that we can we can smell some Oscars here.

Yeah, hopefully.

Venice is always, Venice is always a place for you.

Oscar launch pad, yeah. Yeah, Oscar launch pad. I will be so annoyed if Antonina Jolie gets an Oscar for the horrible, stupid film where Anne Nicole Kidman doesn't.”

“Because I know you shouldn't, it's quite a misogynistic thing to do to compare to women. But why not, you know, Maria is just such a terrible, pointless snooze of a film. And when I'm watching Maria, I think this is pretty awful.

I think this is pretty awful and it's going. And then I see whatever, Baby Girl and it's just like, oh my God, that's screen acting. Thank God I wasn't wrong.

That was serious, I'm sorry. You know, it's just, yeah, it's just like exciting acting and you don't see that very often. And I'm so happy to see her do it because she's been in some really terrible films recently.

And so it's thrilling to see someone you had kind of written off prove you wrong.

Thank you very much, Carla and Kevin. I really enjoy. Now we have to run to the next screening.”

“Maybe have a spritz before it. And this is, you have been listening to Fred Film Radio. And our program is called Global Critics Venice Voice.

Thank you very much. And we'll see you tomorrow.

Fred, Fred, Fred 24 seven on Fred FM and Smartphone app.”