Hollywood stars flocked to Venice as Tim Burton's “Beetlejuice” sequel kicked off the festival in what is expected to be a thrilling event.
The Venice Film Festival kicks off on Wednesday with the devilish debut of Tim Burton's “Beetlejuice” sequel and a star-studded glamour competition on the sun-drenched island of Lido.
A-listers including Lady Gaga, George Clooney, Daniel Craig, Julianne Moore and Brad Pitt are expected to attend the world's longest running film festival, known as “La Mostra,” in the Italian waterside city.
Celebrities arriving by water taxi from the Venetian lagoon for the 10-day event promises a return to big-budget Hollywood glamour after a low-key last year because of the Hollywood writers' strike.
First up will be the out-of-competition world premiere of “Beetlejuice,” starring Michael Keaton as a chaotic demon and starring Winona Ryder, Catherine O'Hara and Monica Bellucci.
The fantastical adventure set in the afterlife was a project “close to home” for Burton, who is well-known as a lover of the strange and macabre.
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“I've become a little disillusioned with the film industry over the last few years,” Burton told reporters ahead of the film's release.
“For me, this film was like a reinvigoration, a return to doing what I love, doing what I love, and the people I love to work with,” he said.
The festival's mood changes on Thursday, when audiences turn their attention to Angelina Jolie as opera singer Maria Callas in “Maria,” Pablo Larraín's biopic about the troubled life of the singer. The film is one of 21 films vying for the top Golden Lion award, to be presented on Sept. 7.
Also highly anticipated is the dark psychological thriller Joker: Folie à deux, the sequel to the 2019 Venice Film Festival winner from American director Todd Phillips, based on the DC Comics character and set in a gritty Gotham City.
The sequel will see Joaquin Phoenix, who won an Oscar for his performance as a failed clown who goes mad, return to the screen, this time alongside Lady Gaga as his sidekick and love interest, Harley Quinn.
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Bond actor Daniel Craig stars in Italian director Luca Guadagnino's “Queer,” an adaptation of a William Burroughs novel set in 1940s Mexico City, while Australian director Justin Kurzel's “The Order” stars Jude Law as an FBI agent investigating white supremacy in the Pacific Northwest.
Spanish director Pedro Almodovar returns with his first English-language feature, “The Room Next Door,” starring Moore and Tilda Swinton.
Nicole Kidman stars alongside Antonio Banderas in Dutch director Halina Rijn's erotic thriller “Babygirl,” which tells the story of a powerful female CEO who embarks on a passionate affair with a much younger male intern.
The cast list also includes US director Brady Corbet's The Brutalist, in which Adrien Brody plays a Hungarian-Jewish architect who emigrates to the US after World War II and embarks on a project that will change his life.
Venice Film Festival films explore war documentaries
In addition to studio films and their stars, the festival will also screen independent films exploring a variety of themes, including two documentaries about the war in Ukraine: “Songs of Slow Burning Earth” by Ukrainian director Olha Dzhurba and “Russians at War,” a portrayal of Russian-Canadian filmmaker Anastasia Trofimova's experience accompanying a Russian military battalion in eastern Ukraine.
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Why War, directed by Israeli director Amos Gitai, is based on letters about war between two of the 20th century's most brilliant men, Albert Einstein and Sigmund Freud.
And Göran Hugo Olsson said the documentary “Israel-Palestine on Swedish Television 1958-1989,” based on 30 years of the public broadcaster's archives, was his “most painful film” to date.
All four films will be screened out of competition.
Cult Classic
Beetlejuice allows Burton fans to revisit the outrageous world of the 1988 cult classic 36 years later.
The “Edward Scissorhands” director brings a modern twist to this quirky family drama, centering on Ryder's Lydia, whose teenage daughter (Jenna Ortega) discovers a mysterious mystery in the attic that once again causes chaos for the Deetz household.
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When asked by a reporter if a sequel to the mischievous, irreverent ghoul Beetlejuice might ever be made, Burton joked, “Well, let's do the math.”
“It took 35 years (to make a sequel). It would take him over 100 years to make (a third movie). I suppose with modern medicine it's possible, but I don't think it's possible.”
– Creator: © Agence France-Presse