The Venice Film Festival does not feel threatened by Rome's new movie fest next month but they'd like to see it moved, Venice chiefs said as the Lido curtain was poised to rise.
"We don't feel threatened by the Festa di Roma but the situation might be improved if the dates were farther apart," Biennale President Davide Croff told reporters Wednesday - a day after Rome's movie-expert Mayor Walter Veltroni agreed to find space for his creation later in the year.
Venice Director Marco Mueller - who caused a festival-eve flap by appearing to imply Rome had got Venice's leftovers - also said his round-up "doesn't feel Rome's shadow".
Asked about reported jitters because of the new rival to the world's oldest cinema festival, Mueller replied: "There has been nothing of the sort. In any case, the best answer to those claims will be given by the films in competition". This year, shrugging off its 'arty' mantle, Venice has brought Hollywood biggies into the main competition instead of relegating them to other sections or midnight showings.
They include Brian De Palma's Black Dahlia, from the acclaimed James Ellroy novel, which kicks off the celebrations on Thursday after a gala opening Wednesday night graced by jury chief Catherine Deneuve and Dahlia stars like Scarlet Johanssen.
Another murder mystery, Hollywoodland, about the suicide of 1950s Superman star George Reeves (played by Ben Affleck), will vie with the Dahlia for the Golden Lion. For the first time, all 21 of the Lion-bidders are world premieres.
Gianni Amelio's La Stella Che Non C'e' and Emanuele Crialese's Nuovomondo (The Golden Door) are the two Italians up against heavy hitters like Oliver Stone's World Trade Center, Alain Resnais' long-awaited return, Private Fears in Public Places, Alfonso Cuaron's Children of Men and Stephen Frears' The Queen.
Venice has long seen itself as a laidback alternative to highstrung Cannes, pundits say, but it has upped its game recently with Rome breathing down its neck.
"We had 23 Oscar nominees last year and we expect to have many more this time around," Mueller said as the curtain quivered over 60 treats like David Lynch's Inland Empire, Manoel de Oliveira's Belle Toujours - an updating of the Bunuel classic with Deneuve, Belle de Jour - and Spike Lee's
When The Levees Broke, A Requiem In Four Acts. Buffs are also slavering over Kenneth Branagh's The Magic Flute, Ethan Hawke's The Hottest Stage and Douglas McGrath's star-studded Truman Capote biopic Infamous with Sigourney Weaver, Gwyneth Paltrow, Isabella Rossellini,
Daniel Craig, Sandra Bullock and Peter Bogdanovich.
In all, Mueller viewed more than 1,400 films - 300 more than last year - before settling on 60 picks from 27 countries including Thailand and Chad, in competition for the first time.
Film industry experts think Venice, which runs from August 30 to September 9, has turned up the wattage in a bid to outshine the first edition of the Rome event, which will feature 80 films - a reflection of its focus on the paying public - and three premieres.
Alongside Steven Shainberg's Fur with festival queen Nicole Kidman as iconic photographer Diane Arbus, Roman festival-goers will be treated to Mira Nair's immigration drama The Namesake and Italian director Paolo Virzi's N with Monica Bellucci and Daniel Auteuil, the story of how Napoleon's hostile librarian on Elba grew to see the human side of the legend.
Rumour has it that Martin Scorsese's Irish Mafia flick, The Departed, will open the two-week Rome feast, which Kidman will unveil on October 13.
Despite protestations that all is sweetness and light in the Italian movie world under the avuncular stewardship of everyone's favourite buff Veltroni and canny new Culture Minister Francesco Rutelli, reports of strains persist. Some think Venice is scared of Rome's place in cinema
history and its ability to generate funds.
But Mueller and Croff were adamant Wednesday that Venice would get its act together by attracting private sponsors to help give its venerable structures a much-needed face lift. The supposed rivalry cuts both ways, in any case, with Cinecitta' filmmakers long unhappy that their products
weren't spotlighted in Venice. That's why many think the Rome newcomer is the best news for the native industry in a long while.
One of these, naturally enough, is Rome fest President Goffredo Bettini, who said Wednesday that "these two events bring Italy into the centre of the cinema world".
Like Veltroni, he was keen to stress the two weren't treading on each other's toes.
"Venice has a high-class programme and will be a surefire success.
"Rome, on the other hand, will be a top-notch popular event".
High attendances will be ensured by stars like Kidman, Bellucci and Sir Sean Connery, who will get Rome's first career achievement award.
Venice, for all the talk of shifting to mass appeal, will uphold its edgy reputation with a career award to cerebral Hollywood outsider David Lynch.
Deneuve, meanwhile, is sure Venice has no worries.
"It's had its highs and lows but right now I think its the most cutting-edge fest in Europe," she said.
