Venice braced on Tuesday for its annual dose of cinema glamour and razzamatazz amid the final preparations for this year's edition of the world's oldest film festival.
Carpenters bashed at the ceremonial backdrops, opening night fireworks were carefully put in place and life-size models of winged golden lions waited to be positioned on the red carpet at the famed Lido.
Among the Hollywood names expected to attend the 64th edition of the festival are George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Scarlett Johansson, Richard Gere, Cate Blanchett and Susan Sarandon.
British actress Keira Knightley arrived in the sweltering lagoon city on Tuesday afternoon and immediately dived into the cool privacy of the Cipriani hotel without saying anything to reporters.
Knightley is one of the stars of Joe Wright's Atonement, an adaptation of the acclaimed Ian McEwan novel, which will open the film contest on Wednesday.
A list of 22 movies, including offerings by Peter Greenaway, Ken Loach, Brian De Palma and Ang Lee, will be vying for the coveted Golden Lion award between August 29 and September 8.
Italy's hopes in the festival, which always stirs up patriotism in the nation's cinema industry and media, are pinned on a trio of little-known but critically acclaimed directors - Vincenzo Marra, Andrea Porporati and Paolo Franchi.
Marra's L'Ora di Punta (Rush Hour), his third feature, turns on a ruthless Roman social climber and stars French actress Fanny Ardant.
Il Dolce e l'Amaro (The Sweet and the Bitter) is a Mafia pic and the second movie to be made by director and writer Porporati.
Franchi's movie Nessuna Qualita' Agli Eroi (No Qualities for Heroes) focuses on the psychological state of a youth who decides to kill his parents.
The three Italians will be facing off against art-house masters such as France's Eric Rohmer, Britain's Greenaway and Russia's Nikita Mikhalkov.
New Wave legend Rohmer, who turned 87 this year, is in the race with an other-worldly romantic comedy called The Romance of Astrea and Celadon, while Greenaway is competing with Nightwatching, a film about the creation of Dutch painter Rembrandt's most famous work, The Night Watch.
Oscar-winner Mikhalkov's 12 Angry Men is about a dissenting juror in a murder trial.
Attention is sure to focus on two American films about the Iraqi war: Brian De Palma's Redacted, about a group of US troops who persecute an Iraqi family; and In the Valley of Elah by Oscar-winning Crash writer and director Paul Haggis which centres on the killing of a US soldier on his return from Iraq.
Loach's movie It's a Free World looks at illegal immigrants working in Britain while Taiwan director Ang Lee, who won Venice's top prize in 2005 with Brokeback Mountain, is returning with Lust, Caution, a Chinese-language spy thriller.
British director and actor Kenneth Branagh's Sleuth starring Michael Caine and Jude Law, a re-make of the 1972 film of the same name, made it into the contest, as did Wes Anderson's The Darjeeling Limited, a quirky movie shot in India.
Heading the jury will be top Chinese director Zhang Yimou. The 56-year-old filmmaker has won two Golden Lions - for his 1992 film The Story of Qiu Ju and his 1999 movie Not One Less.
The non-competing premieres at Venice this year include Woody Allen's Cassandra's Dream, Claude Chabrol's La Fille Coupee en Deux, Takeshi Kitano's Glory to the Filmmaker! and Julio Bressane's Cleopatra.
US filmmaker Tim Burton is to receive this year's Golden Lion for career achievement and Italian master Bernardo Bertolucci will receive a special award marking the 75th anniversary of the festival.
Although the festival was first staged in 1932, it was suspended during the war years and consequently this edition will actually be the 64th.
