The Venice International Film Festival is the oldest film festival in the world. This year marked the 68th installment of one of the world’s most prestigious festivals in celebration of the art of cinema.
The festival takes place on the island of Lido di Venezia, a 20-minute boat ride from Venice itself and home to no more than 20,000 residents for 51 weeks out of the year. However, this population booms to a hundred thousand or more on any given day during the week of the film festival, which took place this year during the first week of September.
The film festival has been a rich and significant cultural tradition in Venice since 1932.
This year’s festival showcased more than 5,200 films of which almost half were feature films with the remainder being short and medium-length films. The festival’s Official Selection consisted of 23 new films from 11 different countries: Italy, Greece, Israel, Russia, China, France, Germany, Taiwan, Japan, United Kingdom, and the United States.
The festival typically selects a wide range of films each year in an effort to showcase the diversity of cinema produced by the world’s filmmaking communities. The films which make up the Official Selection must be world premieres, having never screened at a prior festival.
I was fortunate to serve as president of this year’s SIGNIS jury for the Venice film festival. This is an independent jury consisting of seven members, a diverse mix of Catholics, four men and three women, hailing from Italy, Belgium, Argentina, France, Ireland, and the Philippines. Our primary purpose was to view all the films from the Official Selection with a critical eye focused on films of high artistic quality which also raise the audience consciousness concerning the transcendent dimensions of life. Films should also contribute to human progress, be in harmony with the values of the Gospel, and have a universal impact.
Often the films selected to be part of a festival’s Official Selection resonate with a common theme. This may simply be a byproduct of the festival director’s committee choosing films that speak more directly to their small group. Or it may be due to some greater issue prevalent in the world we live in that somehow speaks to the world’s filmmakers that causes them to create cinematic art depicting this collective unconscious. Or it may be a bit of both.
The majority of the films from this year’s Official Selection depicted either the theme of isolation and loneliness or, in some form, the human pitfalls of power and moral corruption.
For instance, Shame, a film from the U.K., is a powerful representation of a successful yet lonely man with an addiction, unable to emotionally connect with others. It is only when his sister visits that the extent of this addiction becomes evident. The Japanese film Himizu portrays a teenage boy abandoned and isolated after his alcoholic father left the family and his mother disappears with another man. The boy must fend for himself in the small coastal village recently devastated by a tsunami. His anger and rage pushes away those who care about him most. Dark Horse, an American film, depicts a lonely man in his mid-thirties who is still living at home with his parents and is trapped in a state of arrested development, trying to have a normal life. Another film from the U.K., Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, clearly conveys the isolation created in the Cold War era when suspicions ran high and trust was nonexistent.
The geography of the Texas landscape in the American film Texas Killing Fields resonates with isolation as two detectives investigate the serial disappearance of the area’s teenage girls. L’ultimo terrestre, an Italian entry, focuses on a lonely man’s quest to make a connection with a female neighbor, even as the earth is being invaded by aliens from outer space. And A Simple Life from China portrays the dignity of an aging woman whose health is suffering, having spent sixty years of her life caring for three generations of a family that have now all moved to America. Only the youngest child, now a young man, lends a helping hand and a warm heart to give back to this woman who gave so much to his family.
Several of the Official Selection films had prominent themes that centered on moral corruption and power. For example, the festival’s opening film, Ides of March, an American entry, concerns a sitting Pennsylvania governor in the midst of an election cycle battling for the office of President of the United States. The film focuses on the campaign managers and we follow one of their journeys in particular as he learns of certain moral failings of his candidate and subsequently uses this information to further his own career. Faust, a Russian production, took us on a cinematic journey with Dr. Faust as he makes the decision to trade his soul to Mephistopheles for the power of knowledge and a lustful encounter with a young woman. The price though is quite high, that of eternal damnation. A unique film from Greece, Alps, follows a group of four people dedicated to helping individuals through their grieving process by portraying those recently deceased almost as an actor would and recreating specific daily interactions in order to keep the happy memories alive and prominent. This is a sad and poignant commentary on pop culture in general and the acting profession more specifically. One of the female members begins to identify too much with the deceased person she portrays and crosses a line, ostracizing her from the group.
Our jury met on three occasions after approximately every seven films we’d seen. This gave us an opportunity to discuss the merits of each of the films and to decide which were worthy of further debate. Our final meeting was quite short as the deliberative process quickly produced a clear winner.
The jury’s unanimous decision was to award the 2011 SIGNIS prize at the 68th Venice International Film Festival to Faust, directed by Alexander Sokurov. Based upon Goethe’s epic drama, this film, full of astounding cinematic imagery, takes us on a life journey as we follow the title character and witness his bartering with the representative of the dark side. His quest is for more earthly power and pleasure at the expense of losing his soul to eternal damnation. This film powerfully presents humanity’s universal struggle with lust, greed, and power. It is a strong reminder of the consequences of sin and that there is much more to life than our daily, earthly pursuits.
Our jury also chose to award a Commendation to the Chinese film A Simple Life, directed by Ann Hui, for its simple yet clear portrayal of the universal human merits of being of service to others and the need for respect and dignity for the elderly in our society.
One of the benefits of attending a film festival as significant as Venice is that there is an opportunity to attend the press conferences for the films and to sometimes meet the directors themselves. It is always interesting to hear them speak in more detail about their artistic vision and motivation and helps expand our understanding of their art. I am a critic and filmmaker myself and understand the sheer collaborative efforts involved moving any film from concept to screen and I appreciated all of these films.
I am deeply thankful for having this opportunity to serve as part of this year’s SIGNIS jury and I urge you to see either of these SIGNIS award films if and when they come to a theater or a DVD near you.
