Venice Film Festival Officially Kicks Off With Charlotte Rampling, Liliana Cavani, Damien Chazelle And ‘Comandante’
30.08.2023 - 18:51
/ deadline.com
The 80th Venice Film Festival officially kicked off Wednesday evening with the world premiere screening of Edoardo De Angelis’ Italian World War II submarine drama Comandante. Running in competition, the film took over the slot vacated by Luca Guadagnino’s tennis drama Challengers, which backed out of the spot amid the actors strike.
Before the Pierfrancesco Favino-starring movie unspooled, Italian actress Caterina Murino launched the festival’s opening ceremony featuring a retrospective covering the 80 years of the event. That included glimpses of previous Golden Lion and awards winners, with the audience erupting when the late William Friedkin appeared in the montage.
Friedkin, who died August 7, has his final work, the Showtime film The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial, screening later this week out of competition.
Biennalle president Roberto Cicutto then came on the stage to introduce Charlotte Rampling, who presented Italian filmmaking legend Liliana Cavani with a Golden Lion award for lifetime achievement. Rampling spoke about her collaboration with Dirk Bogarde in Cavani’s The Night Porter before the 90-year-old director ascended the stage.
Cavani spoke of the importance of female filmmakers; she has a film in this year’s lineup out of competition, L’Ordine del Tempo, which screened today.
(WATCH) Standing ovation for Liliana Cavani’s Golden Lion Lifetime Achievement award presented by Charlotte Rampling #Venezia80 pic.twitter.com/y2sGF5krOs
Venice jury president Damien Chazelle was introduced after a reel of his career work (his La La Land and First Man both premiered at Venice). Onstage, he spoke of his affinity for the festival and called it “instrumental to the entire history of cinema” before declaring the 80th