What we’re watching at the Venice Film Festival | | |
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Selfie-hunting fans assemble at the barriers. Harried security men sweat into dark suits. Cameras flash as the stars arrive, trailed by exquisitely dressed young people who may or may not be connected to the movies. The actors pose on the red carpet before processing into the Palazzo del Cinema.
Hollywood isn’t what it used to be. Film stars shine less brightly than Cary Grant and Elizabeth Taylor once did. But a headliner’s arrival for a premiere at the Venice Film Festival is still a glamorous and impressive spectacle. The cast take their seats in the balcony to applause; the audience ignore the injunction to turn off their phones and snap besotted pictures.
Running until September 7th, the festival—which I selflessly volunteered to attend—isn’t all glitz and grandeur. You often have a vague feeling that the real excitement is happening somewhere else. You run into TV crews interviewing people whom you think you ought to recognise but don’t. In this year’s broiling temperatures, much of the day is spent in a desperate hunt for shade. Everyone seems to be drinking Campari.
But there is plenty of magic to wash down the hassle. I am
a hopeless sucker for Venice,
which begins to cast its spell on the ferry ride from the airport to the Lido, the island on which the festival is held. Recent history suggests that some of the movies here will crop up in nominations for
the Oscars
and other awards. I have seen several that I expect you will read more about soon, including in my Back Story column.
Two have overlapping themes of sex and jealousy. Scheduled for release this winter, “Babygirl” stars Nicole Kidman as a sexually frustrated CEO who has a reckless fling with an intern (Harris Dickinson). Her nice-guy husband (Antonio Banderas) is understandably cross. In a press conference just before I wrote this, Ms Kidman said it was liberating to tell such a story from a female perspective. “Babygirl” will doubtless cause a stir with its post-#MeToo exploration of power and attraction in the workplace.
“Disclaimer”, a TV series directed by Alfonso Cuarón, shares some of the interests of “Babygirl”, adding in grief, parenting, trauma and memorable cameos by two cats and a cockroach. Cate Blanchett (pictured) plays a British documentarian whose life is shadowed by a shocking secret. Pulpy and profound at once, the twisty, unsettling drama will stream on Apple TV+ in October.
A final word about “Maria”, forthcoming from Netflix. Starring Angelina Jolie as Maria Callas, it concentrates on the diva’s final days, with hallucinatory flashbacks to her childhood, glory years and relationship with Aristotle Onassis (Haluk Bilginer). It definitely has the best soundtrack.
Thank you for reading Plot Twist. Which imminent films and TV shows are you most looking forward to? Let us know at
plottwist@economist.com.
Thanks to those who shared their thoughts on kidulting. Adrian Shaw refers readers to “Big Babies: Or: Why Can’t We Just Grow Up?”, a book by Michael Bywater in 2006, which covers similar ground to
“Infantilised”.
Chris Clark observes that play and imaginative experiences are important for adults as well as children: “A super benefit is getting in the ‘flow’, lost in playing.”
Elsewhere in The Economist this week: | | |
Editor’s picks
Must-reads this week | | |
The Economist recommends
What to read, see and listen to | | |
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What to listen to:
“Short n’ Sweet”,
a new album by Sabrina Carpenter. “I leave quite an impression,” the singer crows in the opening track. The same is true of the 36-minute-long record, which is a paragon of pop. The 12 tracks blend genres and indulge in clever, risqué lyrics. “Taste” is a disco-infused bop; “Good Graces” offers a shot of noughties pop; “Slim Pickins” has a country twang. (Ms Carpenter has been called a “Gen Z Dolly Parton”.) Effortlessly fun and undeniably charming, the album marks the ascent of pop’s newest princess.
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What to watch:
“Homicide: Life on the Street”,
now streaming on Peacock. The show, which ran from 1993-99, was the first TV series from David Simon. (A former police reporter with the
Baltimore Sun,
he would go on to create “The Wire”.) The wobbly, handheld cameras give “Homicide” a cinema verité feel, and the show focuses as much on squad-room downtime—the characters’ often messy personal lives and how they talk to each other—as on action. The ensemble cast is outstanding, with especially strong performances from Yaphet Kotto as the stoic, compassionate squad commander and Andre Braugher as an intense, cerebral detective.
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What to read:
“Some Men in London: Queer Life, 1945-1959”,
edited by Peter Parker. This rich, sparklingly annotated anthology exposes the grunge and glitter of gay London in an age when sex between men was against the law. The selections are eclectic, ranging from tabloid accounts of scandal to bluntly explicit private diaries to twisted government circulars and quack psychologists’ pronouncements on “deviancy”. But Mr Parker has chosen well and sews the bundle neatly together, stitching in some snarky comments. A second volume, due out in September, will carry the story up to 1967, when decriminalisation lifted the shadow of shame.
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