Life is Beautiful director and star
Roberto Benigni on Wednesday night wowed the audience at the
opening of the 78th Venice Film Festival as he received a career
Golden Lion.
"I cannot fail to dedicate the career Lion to (wife) Nicoletta)
Braschi," quipped the 68-year-old comic, actor and filmmaker.
"It's hers.
"I'll take the tail but the wings are yours," he added to his
longtime muse.
Benigni then greeted Italian President Sergio Mattarella who was
in the audience.
He jokingly asked the 80-year-old head of State, whose term
expires next year, to "stay on a a few years".
The film that rang up the curtain on the world's oldest film
fest was Pedro Almodovar's Madres Paralelas, a tribute to
imperfect mothers starring Penelope Cruz.
The story of a middle-aged single mother who forms an unlikely
bond with a teenage single mother, it is the director and star's
seventh film together.
"We've made seven films together but each time is a gift, I'm
always waiting for his phone call", said the Oscar winning
actress.
This year's fest is seen as a comeback from the COVID emergency
that kept many stars away last year.
The world's oldest film fest will run until September 11 when a
jury chaired by Parasite director Bong Joon-ho will give the
best of the 21 films in competition the coveted Golden Lion that
last year went to Oscar winner Nomadland.
Presenter and actress Serena Rossi is hosting the fest.
Oscar-winning director Paolo Sorrentino's latest film, E' Stata
la Mano di Dio' (It Was the Hand of God), is among five Italian
movies that will be in the running for the Golden Lion.
The others are Mario Martone's 'Qui Rido Io', Gabriele
Mainetti's 'Freaks Out', Michelangelo Frammartino's 'Il buco'
and 'America Latina,' a thriller by brothers Fabio and Damiano
D'Innocenzo.
Sorrentino's 2013 film La Grande Bellezza (The Great Beauty) won
the Academy Award, the Golden Globe and the BAFTA Award for Best
Foreign Language Film.
E' Stata La Mano di Dio is his first semi-autobiographical work.
Bong, the jury chair from South Korea, is an Academy
Award-winning director and screenwriter, and one of the most
original voices in contemporary film. He is the author of
milestones in Korean cinema such as Memories of Murder (2003),
The Host (2006) and Mother (2009).
He won definitive international consecration in 2019 for
Parasite, winner of a long series of prestigious acknowledgments
including the Golden Palm at Cannes, a Golden Globe, a Critics
Choice Award, two BAFTA and four Oscars¸ for Best Film, Best
International Feature Film, Best Director and Best Original
Screenplay.
The other members of the jury are: Saverio Costanzo, Italian
director and screenwriter; Virginie Efira, Belgian actress;
Cynthia Erivo, British actress and singer; Sarah Gadon, Canadian
actress; Alexander Nanau, Romanian-German documentary director;
and Chloé Zhao, Chinese director and screenwriter.
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