Notes fom Venice - Day 4

Boyd from European Films here, reporting on the ongoing Venice Film Festival

Mood: optimistic
Weather: sunny & hot
Films seen: Michael Clayton, In the Valley of Elah, It's a Free World..., Searchers 2.0, Cassandra's Dream
Gripe of the day: sunglasses on the table in my room
People currently on the same square mile of earth as I am: Ewan McGregor, Diane Kruger, Michele Placido, Andy Gillet (pictured above by Fabrizio Maltese), Spike Lee, Charlize Theron, Ken Loach, Ridley Scott, Valeria Golino

There is nothing like a good portion of beauty to help you through the day, especially if this beauty looks like French actor Andy Gillet (above). He stars in Eric Rohmer's latest film, the bucolic medieval tale Les amours d'Astrée et de Céladon (The Romance of Astrea and Celadon), in which he plays Céladon. The film is part of the Competition here in Venice, but I haven't actually the film, though I had been noticing a particularly good-looking guy walking up and down the Lido for the last couple of days, which turned out to be him. No wonder I didn't recognize him, because he has had a drastic haircut recently (what a difference a hair cut makes!). Could he be the next Gaspard Ulliel? Let's hope he makes his international film debut with a film a bit better than Ulliel's. General consensus on the Rohmer picture was mixed at best.

Let's talk about the Competition titles I did catch. First up is Michael Clayton, the directorial debut of Tony Gilroy, screenwriter of the three Bourne films. The film stars George Clooney, Tom Wilkinson, Tilda Swinton and Sydney Pollack. The Brits steal the show, though Clooney is also convincing as the titular "fixer" working for a New York-based law firm that was co-founded by Pollack's character. Because there are not enough thrills for the film to be considered a real thriller, it will have to be classified under the legal drama banner, which means it's serious business and has no major show-stopping car chases or other incredible stunts (Bourne this is not).

As noted in my review of Michael Clayton, the film is "one of the few cases where the title character could have written the film he headlines," which means that it uses a lot of smoke and mirrors to hide the simple truth. Also interesting is the question of whether Clooney's corporate cleaner is a good guy or a bad guy. The Italian press is in love with the idea Clooney's lawyer is a baddie, but I don't think he would be considered that way back home; the man is just doing his (admittedly dirty) job. We'll see what the US reviews say when the film comes out.

Paul Haggis's In the Valley of Elah (who decided that was a good title?) is also in Competition and is the Oscar winner's second film as a director after the much-discussed Crash. For me, as part of the camp who did not care for Crash, Elah suffers from many of the same problems of that film, so perhaps if you liked Crash you should check this out. It stars Tommy Lee Jones as a father of a young soldier who has gone missing after he has returned home from Iraq. Together with a tough-cookie police officer (Charlize Theron, looking glamorous as always, though with dark hair) he tries to unravel what the military and police can't -- or don't want to -- find out. The film is one of a whole glut of Iraqi-war themed films coming your way, so be prepared to be depressed.

Read my review of In the Valley of Elah for more on that film, which is almost saved by a great performance from the ever-reliable Tommy Lee. The film's roster of supporting players is also impressive and includes Susan Sarandon, James Franco, Josh Brolin and Jason Patric, though too many of them have too few things to do.

A film I haven't seen, Brain De Palma's Iraqi war drama (here is another one!) Redacted currently leads the score board of the Italian critics, while the audience still thinks Sleuth is the best Competition film so far. More on films from Venice, including the latest from Woody Allen and Claube Chabrol, coming soon!