Round-up from the Venice Film Festival

Catherine Deneuve got the 76th Venice Film Festival off to a suitably glamorous start on Wednesday, playing, not exactly against type, a grand old French actress in THE TRUTH.

Deneuve might hope that the comparisons stop there, because her character, Fabienne, is a vain, self-absorbed diva, whose forthcoming autobiography paints her as an attentive mother. her daughter Lumir ( Juliette Binoche), who is married to an American TV actor (Ethan hawke), knows otherwise.

Writer-director hirokazu Kore-ada’s bittersweet comedy about mother-daughter relationships is a little laboured in parts and far from the rousing curtain-raiser we sometimes get here in Venice, but it’s a treat to see 75-year- old Deneuve giving such a playful performance, in particular a priceless Gallic shrug at the expense of Brigitte Bardot. ★★★✩✩ Last night’s world premiere of AD ASTRA packed a bigger punch. James Gray’s ambitious sci-fi drama stars Brad Pitt as a courageous astronaut, roy McBride, sent all the way to Neptune to find his long-lost father Clifford (Tommy Lee Jones).

Clifford was the hero of an earlier mission to find intelligent life in the outer reaches of the galaxy. Though long considered to have perished, he is now believed to be still alive and responsible in some way for power surges threatening the entire solar system.

There’s plenty of baffling science but the film throbs with energy and empathy, thanks mostly to Pitt’s powerful performance as a loyal spaceman and conflicted son. ★★★★✩ I loved MARRIAGE

STORY, Noah Baumbach’s funny, painful analysis of divorce, American-style.

scarlett Johansson and Adam Driver are wonderful as parents of a young son who, but for the Californian lawyers they hire, deliciously played by Laura Dern, Alan Alda and ray Liotta, might have a chance of reconciliation. It’s a Netflix film but will have a cinematic release in November. If you are, or have ever been, married, don’t miss it. ★★★★✩