Penelope Cruz Calls Her 'L'Immensita' Character 'Oppressed' Ahead of Venice Film Festival Premiere

EXCLUSIVE: Veteran producer Richard Salvatore has been appointed Head of US Film Production and Distribution at Iervolino & Lady Bacardi Entertainment (ILBE) as the Italian company looks to grow its stateside footprint.

Penelope Cruz is taken by surprise as she sees so many fans at the premiere of her new movie, On The Fringe, during the 2022 San Sebastian Film Festival held at Victoria Eugenia Theatre on Friday (September 16) in San Sebastian, Spain.

Michaela Zee editor Irene Papas, the Greek actress known for such films as “Zorba the Greek,” “Z” and “The Guns of Navarone,” has died. She was 93. Greece’s Ministry of Culture and Sports confirmed the news Wednesday in a statement. Papas starred in over 70 films and stage productions throughout her career spanning nearly six decades, from Hollywood features to French and Italian cinema. She also appeared in dozens of Greek tragedies, including the title role in the 1961 film adaptation of “Antigone.” Born on Sept. 3, 1929, in the village of Chiliomodi near Corinth, Papas began her acting studies as a teenager and later worked on multiple film and TV projects in the ’40’s and ’50s, including “The Man from Cairo,” “The Unfaithfuls,” “Bouboulina” and “Attila,” among others.

Patrick Dempsey has white hair!

Hollywood’s glory days were on full display Thursday as the cast of Blonde, with star Ana de Armas resplendent in a pink full-length gown, walked the red carpet before the film premiered in the Palazzo del Cinema at the 79th Venice Film Festival.

Brad Pitt joins Ana de Armas and the rest of the cast of Blonde on the red carpet at the film’s premiere during the 2022 Venice Film Festival Thursday (September 8).

Tilda Swinton is gracing the red carpet at the 2022 Venice Film Festival!

Zooey Deschanel leans back for a kiss from boyfriend Jonathan Scott at the premiere of her movie, Dreamin’ Wild, during the 2022 Venice Film Festival on Wednesday night (September 7) in Venice, Italy.

Florian Zeller’s family drama The Son had its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival on Wednesday evening, eliciting a 10-minute standing ovation after the film’s screening.

Penelope Cruz and Javier Bardem are wrapping up their time at the 2022 Venice Film Festival.

Tilda Swinton takes over the red carpet in a dazzling lavender gown at the premiere of The Eternal Daughter during the 2022 Venice International Film Festival on Tuesday (September 6) in Venice, Italy.

Not all of the amazing fashion at the 2022 Venice Film Festival will be seen on the red carpet!

The Banshees of Inisherin, Martin McDonagh’s return to the Venice Film Festival after 2017’s triumphant Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, had its world premiere Monday night, getting the biggest response from fest audience so far this year with a 15-minute standing ovation.

Olivia Wilde steps out in a bright green ensemble for the press conference and photo call for Don’t Worry Darling during the 2022 Venice International Film Festival on Monday (September 5) in Venice, Italy.

Even before the title flashes up for Venice Film Festival competition entry L’Immensita, we know that Penelope Cruz is the most fun mom – most likely the only fun mom – in town. She doesn’t just set the table for dinner; she puts on music, leads the kids in a choreographed dance and singalong as they pass plates and cutlery, emoting into a passing fork as if it were a microphone. Adults bore her. At a birthday dinner for an ancient relative, she slips under the table to join her children in removing and mixing up everyone’s shoes. “I want to play!” she says, eyes gleaming.

Irina Shayk and Stella Maxwell are looking so chic on the red carpet!

What a knotty task, to detach instinctive overtures of motherly love from the traditional structures that perpetuate the restraining of gender roles, offering love freely without conforming.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent In Italian director Emanuele Crialese’s new drama “L’Immensità,” which is set in 1970s Rome, Penélope Cruz plays a mother of three who, while contending with a violent Italian husband, winds up in a psychiatric institution. “I don’t think my character is crazy at all,” Cruz said. “She is trapped in her family. Trapped in her home, in her body. In the situation in which she finds herself living. She doesn’t have a plan B. There is no escape,” she added. “She’s not crazy at all. She’s oppressed in many different ways. And she simply can’t take it anymore.

Mia Goth is celebrating her new film.

Mario Gianani, CEO of Fremantle’s Rome-based The Young Pope and My Brilliant Friend production powerhouse Wildside, is enjoying a high-profile time on the international film festival circuit this year.