This year the jockeying between Venice and Toronto moved up a notch: though Venice has recently become a clear launching pad for acting talent (Mickey Rourke, Colin Firth and Natalie Portman all began their Oscar/Bafta journey there), Toronto is where the Best Picture nominees tend to debut (The King's Speech skipped the Lido to premiere there). And in 2011 the films that were fought over have really proven to be quite extraordinary. Below is my initial reaction to the Venice selection, to be followed shortly by my thoughts on the Toronto line-up, which, though overlapping in certain places, features some very, very interesting titles that won't be taking their first tentative steps in Europe...
THE MUST-SEES...
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (Tomas Alfredson, UK)
A lot is riding on this remake: not only must it bear comparison with the BBC's legendary 1979 TV series, it must also cement Alfredson's future as an international-appeal director after Let The Right One In. Its incredible British cast – Gary Oldman (pictured), John Hurt and Colin Firth plus the very able whippersnappers Tom Hardy and Benedict Cumberbatch – as well as the sturdy storycraft of author John Le Carré made Tinker, Tailor a formidable thoroughbred even before the cameras rolled.
The Ides Of March (George Clooney, US) *OPENING NIGHT
Venice wouldn't be Venice without an appearance by George Clooney, whose latest film as director, after the little-seen Leatherheads is another handsome 70s throwback in the Michael Clayton vein. Ryan Gosling leads a heavyweight cast – alongside Clooney, Paul Giamatti, Jeffrey Wright, Marisa Tomei and Philip Seymour Hoffman – in this story of a presidential candidate's press attaché who gets caught up in a political war between his boss's supporters and rivals.
Wuthering Heights (Andrea Arnold, UK)
Secrecy, as they always say, surrounds the third film by Andrea Arnold, director of two great films (Red Road, Fish Tank) and an Oscar-winning short (Wasp). So little is known about this project that only the poster offers any suggestion that Emily Brontë's classic novel will be given the period treatment. In other areas, all bets are off, as Arnold has brought her usual streetwise eye to casting and there are rumours that at least one key part of the film differs substantially from the text.
Shame (Steve McQueen, UK)
British artist Steve McQueen debuted in Cannes with the harrowing Hunger, which launched Michael Fassbender with his portrayal of the IRA's Bobby Sands. Co-written by McQueen with Abi Morgan, whose credits include Brick Lane and The Iron Lady, Shame again stars Fassbender, this time as a philandering 30-something, possibly a sex addict, whose life changes when his younger sister (Drive star Carey Mulligan) comes to stay with him.
Carnage (Roman Polanski, France/Germany/Spain/Poland)
The Ghost proved that Polanski's international fan club did not desert him during his time in chokey, and there are high hopes for this single-setting black comedy, starring Kate Winslet, Christoph Waltz, John C Reilly and Jodie Foster as the parents of two schoolchildren who have been suspended for fighting. Based on a play called The Gods Of Carnage, the film takes place, Rope-style, at a dinner party where the two sets of parents convene to discuss their problem.
A Dangerous Method (David Cronenberg, Germany/Canada)
Much to our dismay, Cronenberg's latest drama whizzed past the Berlin and Cannes festivals, but thankfully it has found a berth at Venice, where it may be better positioned as a high-end awards-season release. Although Keira Knightley will doubtless get the lion's share of press attention, the film is ostensibly a two-hander, with Viggo Mortensen and Michael Fassbender as Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung, the two men whose intellectual feuding gave birth to modern psychoanalysis.
THE DARK HORSES…
Dark Horse (Todd Solondz, US)
Solondz's last film – Life During Wartime, a warped sequel to his signature film Happiness – was an unexpected delight, showing unexpected signs of humanity and warmth. The director himself, while revealing nothing about Dark Horse except that it is an odd-couple love story, freely admits that there are none of his usual trademarks (“[There's] no rape, there's no child molestation, there's no masturbation”). There is, however, Christopher Walken with a fantastically creepy side-parting.
Texas Killing Fields (Ami Canaan Mann, US)
Produced by the director's father – one Michael Mann – this is definitely on my radar. Once considered by Danny Boyle, who loved the script but felt it was too dark to get made, this stars Sam Worthington as a homicide detective on the trail of a smalltown serial killer along with his partner (Jeffrey Dean Morgan), a cop from NYC. Kick-Ass' s Chloe Grace Moretz plays a girl who goes missing, pitting the police in a race against time before the taunting murderer strikes again.
Killer Joe (William Friedkin, US)
After teaming with US playwright Tracy Letts on the little-seen Bug, Friedkin, once known for big-budget genre pictures, sticks with his new indie direction for an adaptation of Lett's breakout play. Even Letts's own mother says, “Everybody in Tracy's stories gets naked or dead,” so it's no surprise to hear that this is a story about a deadbeat drug dealer (Emile Hirsch) who employs a hitman (Matthew McConaughey) to kill his mom for insurance money after losing his cash, and stash, in a robbery.
Chicken With Plums (Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud, France/Belgium/Germany)
Satrapi's autobiographical Persepolis is one of the great animated features of the last ten years, recounting the artist's youth in ideology-torn Iran. The follow-up is her live-action debut and, based on the life of her great-uncle, tells of the last days of life of a musician who is devastated when his violin gets broken. Isabella Rossellini and Mathieu Amalric head the cast, but the real star is likely to be Satrapi, whose charm, as a spinner of yarns both poignant and hilarious is infectious.
The Moth Diaries (Mary Harron, Canada/Ireland)
Dear Mary Harron, where have you been!? TV doesn't count: we need more movies like American Psycho, The Notorious Betty Page and I Shot Andy Warhol. The Moth Diaries will hopefully slide seamlessly into Harron's canon, starring Lily Cole as a mysterious stranger in a school-set horror where the a teenage girl becomes convinced that her new roommate is a vampire. It sounds like Mean Girls meets Twilight, but Harron is not a director to be so blandly, first-base underestimated.
THE CURIOSITIES…
Damsels In Distress (Whit Stillman, US) *CLOSING NIGHT
Someone must have put Stillman's face on a milk carton to lure him out of hiding; Damsels In Distress is only his fourth film in a 21-year career – his last, the wonderful Last Days Of Disco, emerged in 1998. Damsels stars Mumblecore It Girl Greta Herwig in a comedy – well, it would seem to be – about a trio of college girls who set out to cheer up a grungey university. Knowing Stillman's work, this will doubtless touch on issues of American class and politics.
4:44 Last Day On Earth (Abel Ferrara, US)
Ferrara's latest isn't even listed on his Imdb page – perhaps they'll only believe it when they see it. Ferrara's form has not been good in the last decade, starting with the scrappy R-Xmas (2001). Still, we should never write the Driller Killer off, not least when he has convinced Willem Dafoe to take the lead in this apocalyptic romance in which a famous movie star (guess who) and his painter lover (possibly Go Go Tales' Shanyn Leigh) prepare for the end of the world at, of course, 4.44 in the morning.
WE (Madonna, UK)
Well, what could this be? Madonna's debut, Filth And Wisdom, remains an unknown quantity in the UK that, perhaps fittingly, can only be acquired on DVD via import only. WE, however, may take things up a league, with known actors (Abbie Cornish, James Fox), rising stars (Andrea Riseborough, Richard Coyle) and a story that overlaps with that of The King's Speech. Set in two time zones, it stars Cornish as a 1990s New Yorker obsessed with the scandalous affair between King Edward and the American divorcee Mrs Simpson.
Wilde Salome (Al Pacino, US)
In town to receive the annual filmmaker's award, Al Pacino follows his experimental Shakespeare adaptation Looking For Richard with an equally ambitious staging of Oscar Wilde's Salome. Ever the triple threat, Pacino writes, directs and stars – as he did in a groundbreaking New York stage version in the 80s – with star-of-the-moment Jessica Chastain as Wilde's infamous heroine.
Contagion (Steven Soderbergh, US)
Advance word is a little muted on Soderbergh's latest, which may explain why it's in an out of competition slot in Venice. The title and premise suggests one of the director's experimental movies (Full Frontal, Bubble), the story and cast suggest one of his serious ensemble studio movies (Traffic and... well perhaps just Traffic), while the spoilery trailer* features Matt Damon and Gwyneth Paltrow as a couple affected by bird flu.
(*Don't watch it unless you really want to know who dies.)
THE ONE PERHAPS THE MOST IS RIDING ON...
Sal (James Franco, US)
Finally, the oddest movie of them all. A year ago, James Franco was the go-to guy for everything; 12 months later he seems to be just the punchline. This, hopefully, will be his saving grace, a drama, shot in a whirlwind nine days (if rumours are to be believed) about the last days of Sal Mineo, James Dean's soon-to-be outed-as-gay co-star in Rebel Without A Cause. As well as directing, Franco will appear as the director of the play Mineo was working on when he was stabbed to death by a pizza delivery boy in, it must be said, somewhat bizarre circumstances.
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