(ANSA) - The 62nd edition of what promises to be the most star-studded Venice Film Festival ever got underway on Wednesday evening. George Clooney, Russell Crowe, Spike Lee, Gwyneth Paltrow and Harrison Ford are just some of the Hollywood stars expected to light up the lagoon city over the next 10 days.
Clooney steps into the limelight Thursday when he presents Goodnight and Good Luck, one of 20 films running for the Golden Lion award.
The Hollywood heartthrob's second directorial effort - after Confessions of a Dangerous Mind (2002) - is the story of CBS journalist Edward R. Murrow, played by David Strathairn.
The film is a reminder that US journalism can be as brave as Murrow, who was branded a communist after his run-ins with Senator Joseph McCarthy, the man behind the 1950s 'McCarthy witch-hunts' against left-leaning figures. Shot in black and white, Goodnight and Good Luck takes
its name from Murrow's sign-off from his popular evening news show.
Clooney plays the part of Murrow's producer in the film, which stars Jeff Daniels and Robert Downey Jr too.
Venice also welcomes directors Emir Kusturica, Spike Lee, Ridley Scott and John Woo on Thursday.
The filmmakers all shot parts of The Invisible Children, an out-of-competition feature-length film that tells the stories of seven marginalized children in different parts of the world.
Spike Lee's contribution, Jesus Children of America, is about a teenager from Brooklyn who is the daughter of HIV positive, drug-addict parents. In Blue Gipsy, Emir Kusturica looks at the plight of Rom children.
Ridley Scott's Jonathan is the story of a photo-reporter whose desperate need to escape personal torment takes him back to his childhood. In Song Song And Little Cat Chinese director John Woo, famous for his action films, describes the parallel lives of an orphan and a rich-but-unhappy child of
the same age.
Gwyneth Paltrow is expected to arrive to promote Proof - one of Goodnight and Good Luck's main Golden Lion rivals - in which she is the daughter of a mathematical genius, played by Anthony Hopkins.
Another star who may be nursing hopes of a best actress Golden Lion is Juliette Binoche. In Abel Ferrara's Mary, the French beauty plays the part of an actress who becomes obsessed with the figure of Mary Magdalene after interpreting her in a film.
The big-name trio of Susan Sarandon, Kate Winslet and Christopher Walken will be coming to represent American contender Romance and Cigarettes, made by actor-cum-director John Turturro.
Turturro has described this humorous tale of adultery, reconciliation and temptation as a "proletarian musical". British duo Ralph Fiennes and Rachel Weisz are flying in to plug The Constant Gardener by Fernando Meirelles.
An adaptation of a controversial John Le Carre novel, it is a thriller about a diplomat (Fiennes) who is determined to find out why his wife (Weisz) was murdered in Kenya. The trail leads him to revelations of dirty dealings by pharmaceutical multinationals in Africa.
Another Hollywood pin-up who has reportedly booked his ticket to Venice is Matt Damon, who stars in The Brothers Grimm by former Monty Python member Terry Gilliam. His Italian co-star Monica Bellucci, who plays a 500-year-old witch in the movie, is coming along too.
Harrison Ford is to accompany his girlfriend Calista Flockhart to the show. Flockhart, famous as Ally McBeal in the hit TV comedy of the same name, is the lead in Spanish movie Fragile, which is
being presented in the out-of-competition section.
Russell Crowe and Renee Zellweger - together in Cinderella Man - are among the other big names expected to make an appearance.
The fest opened with a bang courtesy of the international premier of martial arts movie Seven Swords by Hong Kong's Tsui Hark - known in the business as the 'Spielberg of the Orient'. The two-and-half-hour combat bonanza, about seven swordsmen fighting to protect a village from an evil general, went down well.
Italy's top daily Corriere della Sera described the movie as both a "17th-century Star Wars" and a "Lord of the Rings set in the Orient." The Venice Film Festival runs until September 11.
