George Clooney’s American presidential campaign drama Ides of March opened Venice Film Festival on Wednesday in a well-received gala screening. The film, starring George Clooney, Rayan Gosling, Philip Seymoure Hoffman and Paul Giamatti, follows a Democrat presidential candidate vying to win Ohio primary, while battling some moral dilemmas.
Other movies competing for attention in the festival include Roman Polanski’s “Carnage,” an adaptation of Yasmina Reza’s Broadway play “God of Carnage” and starring Kate Winslet, Jodie Foster, Christoph Waltz and John C. Reilly; Al Pacino’s Wilde Salome, about Pacino’s obsession with Oscar Wilde and his controversial play Salome and staring Pacino and Jessica Chastain; Tomas Alfredson’s adaptation of John Le Carre’s Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, starring Colin Firth and Gary Oldman; and David Cronenberg’s A Dangerous Method, about the relationship between two renown psychotherapists Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung as they treat a young Russian woman and starring Keira Knightly, Michael Fasbender and Viggo Mortensen.
Out of competition, Madonna will be presenting her directorial debut, W.E, which is based on the romantic relationship between US divorcee Wallis Simpson and King Edward VIII that lead the later to abdicate the throne.
One of the oldest film festivals, Venice is competing with the growing in size and importance, Toronto International Film Festival, which kicks off next week with many of the same movies and bigger ones from Hollywood. Unlike Toronto Film festival, which has become a solid indicator for Oscar winners, Venice’s recent winners, such as Coppola’s “Somewhere” and the Israeli “Lebanon”, did not even feature in the Oscar’s awards.
This year’s jury is headed by last year’s Oscar nominee, Darren Aronofsky, whose Wrestler took the Festival’s Golden Lion three years ago.