You can pre-set your Twitter (er, X?) alerts to outrage.
The 80th Venice Film Festival unveiled an impressive and — SAG-AFTRA and WAG strike-permitting — star-studded lineup on Tuesday, that should draw international critics and press in droves to the Lido again this year.
But controversy will also again be part of the 2023 Biennale, thanks to a selection of movies from directors nearly as well known for their scandals as for their films.
Roman Polanski new feature, The Palace, scored an out-of-competition slot, as did Coup de Chance, the latest feature from Woody Allen. And Luc Besson will premiere his new feature, DogMan, in competition in Venice. All three filmmakers have been the focus of abuse allegations and, in the wake of #MeToo, the targets of online attacks and cancellation campaigns. Though Polanski, who fled the U.S. in 1978 after being convicted of sexually assaulting a teen girl, is the only one who has ever been charged with a criminal offense. The French courts have repeatedly dismissed abuse allegations leveled at Besson, just last month throwing out a case involving an alleged assault of a Belgium actress.
But for many, all three directors are the cinematic equivalent of a trigger warning and their presence in Venice is certain to spark a furious response, particularly online and on social media.
Not that Venice is likely to take notice. Festival director Alberto Barbera has embraced (or ignored) scandal in the past, most recently in 2019 when Venice premiered Polanski’s An Officier and A Spy in competition. The film went on to win the runner-up Jury Prize Silver Lion.
For The Palace, Polanski wrote the script with fellow Polish director Jerzy Skolimowski, who co-wrote Polanski’s first feature, 1962’s Knife in the Water, and Polish screenwriter Ewa Piaskowska. The feature is described as a black comedy set at a luxurious Swiss hotel on New Year’s Eve in 1999. John Cleese, Luca Barbareschi, Oliver Masucci, Fanny Ardant and Mickey Rourke feature in the ensemble cast. Barbareschi produced the film, under Eliseo Entertainment, alongside RAI Cinema, CAB Productions and Lucky Bob.
Throughout the years, Allen has been much more closely associated with the Cannes Film Festival than Venice. Even his 2012 Italian-set feature To Rome With Love didn’t pick the Lido for its world premiere. But Venice did honor the director with its lifetime achievement award in 1995 and Allen won the Pasinetti Award for best actor in Venice in 1983 for his performance in Zelig.
Coup de Chance is Allen’s first-ever French-language movie. In recent years, amid resurfaced abuse allegations from Allen’s adoptive daughter Dylan Farrow, the Manhattan and Annie Hall director has found it harder to secure U.S. financing for his films. But European distributors have continued to back him. His new movie, which France’s Metropolitan will bow on Sept. 27, includes a cast of French stars including Lou de Laage, Valerie Lemercier, Melvil Poupaud and Niels Schneider.
Both The Palace and Coup de Chance have yet to secure U.S. distribution, and backers will be hoping the inevitable backlash surrounding their Venice premieres will not discourage possible buyers.
For Besson, DogMan could mark a high-profile return to the global stage. The drama, which stars Caleb Landry Jones as a young man scarred by life who finds his salvation through the love of his dogs, was a pre-sales hit for Kinology at this year’s European Film Market in Berlin in February, selling out most of the world. A high-profile domestic deal could follow its Venice bow. The film is Besson’s first since his 2019 actioner Anna.
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