The Venice Film Festival Begins Today with Some Interesting Films you Should Know About

Today marks the first day of the 68thVenice Film Festival (La Biennale di Venezia 2011).  The festival continues through September 10th and will include films from all over the world making their debut before curious eyes.  This year’s line-up includes a wide range of films from talented directors that have worked in genre films before or are taking the first step into the world of horror, sci-fi, cult, or bizarre cinema.  Some of these directors include David Cronenberg (The Fly, Videodrome), William Friedkin (The Exorcist, Bug), Tomas Alfredson (Let the Right One In), Steven Soderbergh (Traffic, Ocean’s Eleven), Roman Polanski (Rosemary’s Baby, Repulsion), and Abel Ferrara (The Driller Killer, Ms. 45, Bad Lieutenant).  All of these directors have clearly made an impact on the genres that we know and love, and I look forward to seeing what they have to offer us this year.  Keep reading to hear about these directors and their new films.

One of the highlights of my movie-going life has been my trip to the Venice Film Festival.  In 2005, I was able to spend a semester in Vienna, Austria and in doing so, I was able to travel around Europe as well.  One of these trips included going to Venice for a long weekend during their Film Festival.  Excited is the smallest word I could use to describe how I felt as I was able to see the world premiere’s of such films as Brokeback Mountain, Steven Soderbergh’s Bubble, and the Matthew Barney epic Drawing Restraint No. 9.  Add to the fact that I sat four rows behind Matthew Barney and singer Bjork, and you can say it was a pretty magical trip.  Aside from all of the films, Venice is such an amazing location for a festival.  It also has proven, year after year, that it is one of the premiere festivals to debut Oscar contention films prior to their Fall/Winter “award season” releases.  Some of the below mentioned films will certainly spark interest in Oscar voters once again this year.  So . . . without further ado, check out the films that you should be interested in coming out of Venice this year.

 

4:44 Last Day on Earth (USA)
Director: Abel Ferrara; Cast: Willem Dafoe, Shanyn Leigh, Paz de la Huerta, Natasha Lyonne

From the guy who brought you The Driller Killer, Ms. 45, Bad Lieutenant, and King of New York, comes a film about the end of the world.  Not much is known about this film other than it follows a painter and an actor who know the world is going to end the next day at 4:44.  We certainly haven’t been short on films about the apocalypse as of late.  Yet I’m curious to see what Ferrara has in-store for us with this one.

 

 

Alps (Greece)

 

Director: Yorgos Lantimos; Cast: Ariane Labed, Aggeliki Papoulia, Aris Servetalis, Johnny Vekris

In yet another bizarre feature from the director of the equally bizarre Dogtooth, Alps tells the story of a nurse, a paramedic, a gymnast and her coach who have formed a service for hire to stand in for dead people by appointment, hired by the relatives, friends or colleagues of the deceased. The company is called Alps.  Yes  . . . you read that correctly.  And yes . . . I am excited about this one.

 

 

Carnage (France/Germany/Poland/Spain)
Director: Roman Polanski; Cast: Kate Winslet, Jodie Foster, Christoph Waltz, John C. Reilly

Based on the play God of Carnage, Polanski’s Carnage includes a Oscar-driven cast.  The film centers around the tense meeting of two sets of parents that are forced to meet with one another when their children get in a fight at school.  What begins with a bloody mouth and broken teeth between two boys ends with the parents discovering what lies beneath the surface of the event.

 

 

 

A Dangerous Method (France/Ireland/United Kingdom/Germany/Canada)
Director: David Cronenberg; Cast: Michael Fassbender, Viggo Mortensen, Keira Knightley

David Cronenberg will always be one of my favorite directors of all time.  The Canadian director has stepped away a bit from the old days of body horror to the more recent psychological horror with History of Violence and now A Dangerous Method.  Drawn from true-life events, the film takes a glimpse into the turbulent relationships among psychiatrist Carl Jung, his mentor Sigmund Freud and the troubled but beautiful woman who comes between them.

 

 

Himizu (Japan)

Director: Sion Sono; Cast: Shôta Sometani, Fumi Nikaidô, Tetsu Watanabe, Mitsuru Fukikoshi

A young boy is pushed to the edge into killing his drunken and abusive father one night.  Now, he becomes obsessed with taking revenge against potentially more evil people than him in society and is gradually absorbed into a world of despair and madness.  This existential character study seems to remind me of the great William Lustig film Maniac.  Thoughtful and violent, this film could be a brutal journey worth taking.

 

 

 

Killer Joe (USA)
Director: William Friedkin; Cast: Matthew McConaughey, Emile Hirsch, Thomas Haden Church, Gina Gershon, Juno Temple

Matthew McConaughey stars as a hit man hired to kill a young man’s mother so the boy can collect her life insurance.  Friedkin knows how to create tension in settle ways, as evident in the unfortunately over-looked 2005 film Bug.  This could be one of those films that may surprise people who are more excited about some of the bigger name films on this year’s line-up.

 

 

 

Shame (UK)

Director: Steve McQueen; Cast: Michael Fassbender, Carey Mulligan, James Badge Dale, Nicole Beharie

McQueen previously gave audience the brutal story of an Irishman protesting by not eating in Hunger.  Now, the reserved director is exploring the world of a sex maniac whose world becomes interrupted when his younger sister moves in with him.  This arthouse director has a knack for exploring the darker sides of our soul.

 

 

Texas Killing Fields (USA)
Director: Ami Canaan Mann; Cast: Chloe Moretz, Sam Worthington, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Jessica Chastain, Annabeth Gish

Inspired by true events, this eerie film follows a detective and his partner as they are are called in to help work the case of a young girl whose abandoned vehicle is found in the Killing Fields. The Killing Fields are a haunted stretch of bayous and coastal plain where the bodies of just under 60 murder victims, mostly young women, have been found there.

 

 

 

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (UK/France)
Director: Tomas Alfredson; Cast: Tom Hardy, Gary Oldman, Colin Firth, Benedict Cumberbatch, Mark Strong, Stephen Graham, Ciaran Hinds

I think we can all agree, Alfredson made one of the best vampire films ever made with Let the Right One In.  Now, the director has lined up a British all-star cast in this tense espionage thriller.  From the writer John le Carre, who also gave us the great 60’s spy novel The Spy Who Came in From the Cold, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy looks like a great thriller that will be making its way into theaters later this year.

 

 

 

Contagion (USA)
Director: Steven Soderbergh; Cast: Matt Damon, Kate Winslet, Marion Cotillard, Gwyneth Paltrow, Jude Law, Bryan Cranston, Lawrence Fishburne

I really can’t say much more about Contagion than I already have.  It is EASILY one of my most anticipated films of the year.  I really don’t know what else to say other than watch the damn trailer for it.  If you haven’t, stop reading and do it now.

 

 

The Moth Diaries (Ireland/Canada)
Director: Mary Harron; Cast: Scott Speedman, Sarah Bolger, Lily Cole, Sarah Gadon, Valerie Tian

Mary Harron, you may remember, made a star out of Christian Bale with American Psycho.  Though she has stayed away from film and has focused on TV shows as of late, I think we can all agree that her return to the horror genre is very welcomed.  The Moth Diaries follows a girl who is dealing with her father’s suicide.  To make matters worse, at her boarding school, she believes her roommate is a vampire.  Girls in a boarding school . . . vampires . . . count me in.

 

 

The Sorcerer and the White Snake (China-Hong Kong)

Director: Tony Siu-tung Ching; Cast: Jet Li, Eva Huang, Raymond Lam, Charlene Choi

Demon possession, giant white snakes, a monster slayer . . . all of this, plus great martial arts action.  Jet Li stars in this fantasy film that sounds beautiful, weird, and awesome all at once.  If you like your Asian action films with a little spice of fantasy/horror, then keep your eye out for this one.

 

There you have it folks.  Obviously there are tons of other films that will be showing at the eleven day festival in Venice, but we here at Destroy the Brain! thought these would be the ones you guys would be most interested in.  I’m very excited to hear what news and reviews come out about these films in the coming week, and we will keep you updated on when you can catch these films when they become available for wide-release.  Click here for the full-lineup.