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With 'perfect' passion, Italian crime film hits Venice
2008-08-30
VENICE, Italy (AFP) - An old-fashioned crime of passion bloodied the silver screen at the Venice film festival on Saturday with Turkish-born Ferzan Ozpetek's "A Perfect Day." The first of four Italian entries vying for the prestigious Golden Lion, the film is an ensemble piece based on the novel of the same name by Melania Mazzucco, and Ozpetek's first foray into violence. "I was attracted to this thing, this change of register," said Ozpetek, director of "The Turkish Bath" (1996) and "His Secret Life" (2001). "Sandro Petraglia's screenplay struck me, and then I read Melania Mazzucco's novel and felt both a fear and an attraction to this violence," Ozpetek told a news conference. Even so, he had to tone down the violence for the screen, he said. "When you take it to the screen it gets very strong, almost unbearable sometimes." The ensemble piece, set in Rome, is a series of snapshots -- some poignant, some mundane -- from the 24-hour period leading up to a tragedy that could have been averted. Isabella Ferrari, who won the award here for best supporting actress in Ettore Scola's "Romanzo di un Giovane Povero" (1995), plays the estranged wife of a lawmaker's police bodyguard, Valerio Mastandrea, who also won honours in Venice, a special mention best actor award for "Velocita Massima" (2002). While the festival has come under criticism in recent years for a heavy Hollywood presence, this year director Marco Mueller has had to defend the selection of four Italian films among the 21 in competition, saying quality was his chief criterion. He also suggested that Italian cinema was enjoying a revival after decades in the doldrums since its "Dolce Vita" heyday. In May, Italy revelled in its success at the Cannes film festival with top wins by two young directors. Matteo Garrone was runner-up with "Gomorra," his film on the Neapolitan mafia, while Paolo Sorrentino won the jury prize for his witty look at former prime minister Giulio Andreotti. The honours helped to assuage bitter feelings aroused a year ago when no Italian film even made it into the selection at Cannes, the world's premier festival for independent films. But Ozpetek sounded a note of caution: "Having to be compared to Fellini and so on makes it very hard" for an Italian cinema comeback. The other three Italian offerings at Venice's 65th Mostra include a historical drama by Pupi Avati, "Il Papa di Giovanna," and Pappi Corsicato's comedy "Il Seme Della Discordia". Then in "Birdwatchers," Marco Bechis dramatises the plight of an Indian people in Brazil whose lands are being destroyed to produce biofuels. Also Saturday, Hong Kong director Yu Lik-wai presents "Plastic City," set in the violent Liberdade neighbourhood of Sao Paulo, Brazil, home to the world's largest immigrant Japanese community. The convoluted saga of gangland warfare over a counterfeit goods racket is laden with violence and unfolds piecemeal, giving it a dreamlike, not to say nightmarish quality. German director Wim Wenders heads the jury that will announce this year's winners at the world's oldest film competition on September 6.
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