Sofia Coppola’s comic drama “Somewhere,” and Darren Aronofsky’s “Black Swan” will make their world premieres at the Venice Film Festival, among 22 titles that organizers announced Thursday will vie for the prestigious Golden Lion.
Festival director Marco Mueller emphasized the young age of the directors competing at the festival’s 67th edition — averaging 47, the youngest ever.
Despite their age, many of the young directors come to Venice experienced. Oscar-winner Coppola, 39, will showcase her movie starring Stephen Dorff as a bad-boy actor struggling through life. Aronofsky, 41, returns to Venice with a psychological thriller two years after winning the top prize for his drama “The Wrestler.”
“Black Swan” stars Natalie Portman, Mila Kunis and Winona Ryder.
Bringing up the average is 78-year-old U.S. director Monte Hellman, who will be premiering his indie feature “Road to Nowhere,” about a young writer who gets caught up in a crime.
“The average age drops to 45.52 without him,” Mueller quipped.
Only one director is making his debut, Ascanio Celestini with “La Pecora Nera” (Black Sheep), a play that has been redone for film. That compares with five directorial debuts last year.
Also showing is Richard J. Lewis’ adaptation of Mordecai Richler’s comic novel “Barney’s Version,” starring Paul Giamatti and Dustin Hoffman, and U.S. indie director Kelly Reichardt with the period drama “Meek’s Cutoff.”
German director Tom Tykwer will premier his movie “Drei” and Tunisian-born director Abdellatif Kechiche will be back in Venice with “Venus Noire.” The French director premiered “La Graine et Le Mulet” (The Secret of the Grain) at Venice in 2007.
Lido regular and part-time Italian resident George Clooney isn’t expected again this year. Aronofsky’s movie got tagged for the opening slot, and the U.S. release of Clooney’s new film, “The American,” was already scheduled for Sept. 1 — the opening day of the festival.
“We put together an opening night of which we are very proud,” Mueller said.
In the end, Clooney’s picture, a thriller shot largely in the quake-stricken region of Abruzzo, is absent from the festival lineup.
In all, 79 world premieres will be shown at Venice from Sept. 1-11.
The Affleck brothers — Ben and Casey — both will be in Venice, but on separate projects. Ben Affleck is premiering “The Town,” out of competition, his second film as director after “Gone Baby Gone.” He also stars in the movie as a bank robber who has fallen for a bank manager he met on a heist.
Casey Affleck will be showing his documentary “I Am Still Here: The Lost Year of Joaquin Phoenix.”
Director Quentin Tarantino is heading the jury that will award the festival’s top prize on Sept. 11, and director John Woo will be awarded a Golden Lion for his career.
Four films will be competing separately for the festival’s second 3-D award. And Venice this year has revamped the Horizons competition to focus more on experimental film, which Mueller said was a reflection of risk-taking resulting from the economic crisis.
Apple and Google Face UK Investigation Into Mobile Browser Dominance
Apple and Google aren't giving consumers a genuine choice of mobile web browsers, a British watchdog said Friday in a report that recommends they face an investigation under new U.K. digital rules taking effect next year.
The Competition and Markets Authority took aim at Apple, saying the iPhone maker's tactics hold back innovation by stopping rivals from giving users new features like faster webpage loading. Apple does this by restricting progressive web apps, which don't need to be downloaded from an app store and aren't subject to app store commissions, the report said.
"This technology is not able to fully take off on iOS devices," the watchdog said in a provisional report on its investigation into mobile browsers that it opened after an initial study concluded that Apple and Google effectively have a chokehold on "mobile ecosystems."
The CMA's report also found that Apple and Google manipulate the choices given to mobile phone users to make their own browsers "the clearest or easiest option."
And it said that the a revenue-sharing deal between the two U.S. Big Tech companies "significantly reduces their financial incentives" to compete in mobile browsers on Apple's iOS operating system for iPhones.
Both companies said they will "engage constructively" with the CMA.
Apple said it disagreed with the findings and said it was concerned that the recommendations would undermine user privacy and security.
Google said the openness of its Android mobile operating system "has helped to expand choice, reduce prices and democratize access to smartphones and apps" and that it's "committed to open platforms that empower consumers."
It's the latest move by regulators on both sides of the Atlantic to crack down on the... Read More