Out of this world
‘Dune,’ Princess Diana dominate at Venice Film Festival
VENICE, Italy – The environmentally focused sci-fi epic “Dune Part 1” and “Spencer,” a dark fairy tale about Princess Diana, both world premieres, dominated Friday’s Venice Film Festival.
“Dune,” a reworking of Frank Herbert’s cult novel and David Lynch’s early ’80s film version, was represented by director Denis Villeneuve (“Sicario”) and no less than a half-dozen headliners: Javier Bardem, Oscar Isaac, Rebecca Ferguson, Josh Brolin, Timothee Chalamet and Zendaya.
Villeneuve, 53, has loved the book since childhood. “When Frank Herbert wrote ‘Dune’ in the ’60s he was doing a portrait of the 20th century but it became more what will happen in the 21st century.
“It deals with the mergers of religion and politics, the danger of messianic figures, the problem with the environment.
“This book just seemed more and more relevant through the years. I wish this was not the case,” Villeneuve said, “but I think this movie will speak to the world more than it did 40 years ago.”
As a fan first and then a filmmaker what was his biggest hurdle?
“The biggest was mastering Timothee’s hair. It’s alive! I had to direct that intimately,” he joked, adding, “The biggest challenge is the book is so rich and its strengths is all its details and to find equilibrium for someone who doesn’t know the book at all.”
As to what benchmark this new “Dune” has to reach to see a “Part 2,” “We’ll see how it goes,” he said.
“At the end of the day these are difficult times for everybody and we feel safety first. But I urge audiences to see it on the big screen because it’s almost a physical experience, a movie as immersive as possible. For me the big screen is part of the language.”
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“Spencer” stars Kristen Stewart as Princess Diana on a fateful weekend with the royals when she comes to a life-changing decision by deciding to divorce Prince Charles.
“She will not be Queen,” said Pablo Larrain, the Chilean filmmaker who worked a similar set-up with “Jackie,” a fictionalized look at the widowed first lady with Natalie Portman Oscar-nominated as best actress. Larrain calls “Spencer,” “a Gothic fairy tale.”
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Maggie Gyllenhaal has gone behind the camera to make her directing debut with “The Lost Daughter,” another Venice world premiere. Oscar winner Olivia Colman stars as a Cambridge professor on holiday in Greece in this adaptation of Elena Ferrante’s novel of the same name.
Like the Almodovar “Parallel Mothers,” which opened the festival, it’s a portrait of an imperfect mother.