From Venice, a plea to reopen movie theaters shut by virus

VENICE (AP) — Spanish director Pedro Almodovar has joined a chorus of voices at the Venice Film Festival urging the reopening of movie theaters and a return to cinema normality after coronavirus lockdowns, saying films are meant to be seen on the big screen, not at home.

Directors and actors alike have rejoiced at the return to the red carpet on the Lido and theater screenings — albeit in a modified way — after the pandemic shuttered cinemas and put film sets on hold around the globe.

“Even just getting ready for today was quite surreal and there was a sense of normality,” gushed French actress Stacy Martin as she presented the in-competition film “Lovers” by director Nicole Garcia.

Venice organizers have prided themselves on pushing ahead with the in-person festival despite the cumbersome and costly anti-virus restrictions that include protective masks during all screenings, theaters at a half or onethird capacity and rigorous temperature checks and sanitization. They went ahead with the first major COVID- era film festival convinced they needed to chart a path forward for a film industry hard-hit by the lockdowns.

Almodovar, who premiered his short film “The Human Voice” on Thursday, said streaming platforms had played an “essential role” in keeping people entertained during months of virus-required confinement at home.

But he said they had also contributed to the “dangerous” phenomenon of people growing increasingly comfortable living, working and eating at home — a type of “imprisonment” that he said must be resisted.

“And the antidote is the cinema,” he said, describing going out, sitting next to strangers in a movie theater where “you find yourself crying or rejoicing with other people.”

“If I put my film on a platform like Netflix, then I somehow lose that contact and that meeting point with the spectator,” he said. “So you have to tell people to go to the cinema, to go to the theaters, because some things will only be discovered on the big screen, in the dark with people that we do not know.”

That said, it won’t be the same.

AP PHOTO/DOMENICO STINELLIS Director Pedro Almodovar, right, and actress Tilda Swinton pose on the red carpet of the movie ‘The human voice’ during the 77th edition of the Venice Film Festival at the Venice Lido, Italy, Thursday. The Venice Film Festival goes from Sept. 2 through Sept. 12. Italy was among the countries hardest hit by the coronavirus pandemic, and the festival will serve as a celebration of its re-opening and a sign that the film world, largely on pause since March, is coming back as well.