With Venice Film Festival underway, John Bensalhia looks back at this prestigious event's history and looks at what is in store this year...
As the sun sets on this year's Summer, this can only mean one thing: The oldest and one of the most important film festivals in the whole world is here again. The Venice Film Festival is currently taking place, having started on August 31st and ending on September 10th.
The festival is not only a showcase for some of the best, most innovative new films from all around the world, it also recognises the cream of global film-making with awards such as the Leone D'Oro (The Golden Lion) and the Coppa Volpi (Volpi Cup). The Leone D'Oro is awarded to the best film showcased at the festival, while the Coppa Volpi is given to the best actor and actress. Another notable prize is that of the San Marco Award. This was first introduced in 2002, and is given to the best film of the Controcorrente section – which translates as “Against The Stream”.
The festival dates back to 1932 when it was founded by Italian businessman and politician, Count Giuseppe Volpi di Misurata. The Esposizione d'Arte Cinematografica became a key new innovation of the 18th annual Venice Biennale. The festival took place on the terrace of the Hotel Excelsior on the Venice Lido and attracted an impressive crowd of more than 25,000. Even in these early days, the festival saw the potential in new films that would go on to become influential classics in the future: Frank Capra's It Happened One Night. King Vidor's The Champ. James Whale's Frankenstein. Fans of the horror genre may also like to note that the first film to be screened on the first day of August 6th 1932 was Rouben Mamoulian's Dr Jekyll And Mr Hyde.
The competitive aspect of the Venice Film Festival would arise two years later in 1934, when 19 countries would take part. Although there was no official jury, the awards were introduced by the President of the Biennale, after noting the views of both audiences and experts. The award for Best Foreign Film that year went to a documentary, Flaherty's Man Of Aran: an indication of the diverse range of styles on display at the Venice Film Festival. The festival would grow in stature over the next few years, although the Second World War meant that it wouldn't take place between the years 1943 and 1945. It would begin again in 1946, and the following year would see a record audience of 90,000, where the festival was held in the courtyard of the Ducal Palace. Two years later, the festival would return to the setting of the Palazzo del Cinema on the Lido.
The following decade would see the Venice Film Festival build on its success and expand further internationally with the affirmation of Japanese and Indian films. Indeed, both countries became renowned for their unique brands of film, thanks to the influence of the Venice Film Festival. Rashômon, Akira Kurosawa's 1951 film, won the Golden Lion award in 1951, beginning the start of recognition for Japanese film-makers such as Kon Ichikawa and Kenji Mizoguchi. Likewise, the merits of Indian film were recognised in 1957 when a Golden Lion was awarded to Satyajit Ray's Aparajito. French cinema was also spotlighted at the Venice Film Festival during this time with directors like Robert Bresson, Marcel Carnè and Louis Malle making their presence felt. The Venice Film Festival was going from strength to strength, and in recognising highly influential international film-makers such as Ingmar Bergman or Luis Buñuel, the event was one of the most important for global cinema.
The rise of international film making continued in the early 1960s, and by 1963, during the era of Luigi Chiarini, the Venice Film Festival would take a balanced approach to recognising the talents of well-known big names and forthcoming talent. However, owing to the political climate in 1968, this particular festival was the last to award the Golden Lion until 1980. The festival was non-competitive between the years of 1969 and 1972, and during the mid-1970s, it attempted a different approach under the stewardship of Giacomo Gambetti, with proposals for new films, tributes, retrospectives and conventions.
After a somewhat mixed decade for the Venice Film Festival, things got back on track in time for the 1980s, as new director Carlo Lizzani won back international acclaim. The Golden Lion award was reintroduced in 1980, and there was a new section, Mezzogiorno-Mezzanotte that not only recognised remakes, 'eccentric' films but also stylish big blockbuster films. Given that the early 1980s saw spectacular Steven Spielberg-helmed greats such as ET or Raiders Of The Lost Ark, this was a logical step, and by now, the Venice Film Festival was the standard for other festivals all over the world. During the 1980s, the festival celebrated film-makers of the time as well as saluting those from the past. The late 1980s saw Guglielmo Biraghi become director – Biraghi brought an eclectic mix to the table with a greater emphasis on showcasing experimental, unusual types of film-making.
And to the present day, the Venice Film Festival has continued to attract some of the biggest screen stars around – Robert De Niro, Dustin Hoffman and Al Pacino received Golden Lions for Career Achievement, while the blockbuster spectaculars welcomed the likes of Harrison Ford, Denzel Washington and Nicole Kidman. The latest festival has already seen the likes of Madonna, Keira Knightley and Kate Winslet promoting their new films.
The 68th Venice Film Festival boasts a strong line-up in 2011. The world première films include Tomas Alfredson's Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, starring Gary Oldman and Colin Firth; David Cronenberg's A Dangerous Method starring Keira Knightley and Michael Fassbender, plus George Clooney's The Ides Of March which features Clooney himself, with Marisa Tomei and Philip Seymour Hoffman. The festival continues its reputation for showcasing the best in international cinema with a global line-up that encompasses Italy, the UK, Japan, France and Argentina. A mixture of the famous and the fledglings; the spectacular films and the introspective experimentals; the present and the past: the Venice Film Festival continues to be the most influential event of its kind.
