Coen film opens fest at Venice
"Burn After Reading" is among 10 U.S. films, half in competition.
VENICE, Italy - The Venice Film Festival opened last night with the premiere of the Coen brothers' dark comedy
Burn After Reading
, giving a flash of Hollywood glamour to a festival lineup with a definite art-house feel.
The 21 films competing for the coveted Golden Lion at the festival, which runs through Sept. 6, will provide a snapshot of world cinema, with entries from Ethiopia, Turkey, Algeria and a Brazilian-Chinese production.
While the lineup gives the impression of being light on celebrity-driven Hollywood fare - due both to the impact of last year's writers strike and a late selection process for Cannes' springtime festival - festival director Marco Mueller said U.S. films are well represented.
"This is the second time - and it is a record for the history of the festival - we have five American films in competition," Mueller said, emphasizing that selections aren't based on any national criteria. "The festival is not an atlas of nations."
Burn After Reading,
starring George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Frances McDormand and Tilda Swinton, is among another five American films being shown out of competition.
The first U.S. film vying for the Golden Lion is Guillermo Arriaga's
The Burning Plain
, starring Charlize Theron and Kim Basinger as a mother and daughter trying to forge a bond. The writer of
21 Grams
is making his debut as director.
Darren Aronofsky will present
The Wrestler
, starring Mickey Rourke as a wrestler forced into retirement who strikes up a romance with an aging stripper played by Marisa Tomei. Jonathan Demme will be showing his
Rachel Getting Married
starring Anne Hathaway as a daughter whose return home for her sister's wedding brings out old tensions.
Kathryn Bigelow is bringing
The Hurt Locker
, an Iraq war drama portraying soldiers who defuse bombs in the heat of war. Also among the U.S. entries is Iranian-born Amir Naderi's
Vegas: Based on a True Story
about the family life of a compulsive gambler.
German filmmaker Wim Wenders, whose credits include
Paris, Texas
and
Buena Vista Social Club
, is heading this year's jury.
"We will see 21 films and I hope - and I have a lot of confidence in Marco - that we will see 21 films that will give us the state of art of what is cinema today," Wenders said.