South Korean director Kim Ki-duk’s drama “Pieta,” the brutal story of a debt collector who cripples those who can’t pay until he meets a woman who claims to be his mother, won the Golden Lion for best film at the 69th Venice Film Festival on Saturday.
In a departure from the usual acceptance speeches, Kim thanked the jury and festival audience with a short song in Korean, leaving the theater in rapt silence.
The Silver Lion for best director went to Paul Thomas Anderson for “The Master,” a film inspired by Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard. The movie’s stars, Joaquin Phoenix and Philip Seymour Hoffman, shared the prize for best actor.
In the film, Hoffman plays a charismatic sect leader who both befriends and enthralls a World War II veteran, played by Phoenix, who is drowning in homemade swill and unable to find a job or a life purpose.
Hoffman accepted both awards on behalf of both Anderson and Phoenix, who had continued from Venice on to Toronto to promote the film. Hoffman apologized for being ruffled, saying he had just landed at the airport and had changed into his suit in a restroom.
“So don’t judge,” he jested.
Hoffman praised Phoenix as a “life force” and called Anderson “one of my closest friends.”
“Friend first, collaborator second. And he happens to be one of the great filmmakers in the world. How lucky am I?” said Hoffman, who has appeared in five of Anderson’s films.
The best actress award went to Israeli actress Hadas Yaron for her role in Rama Burshtein’s “Fill the Void.”
The movie, set in Tel Aviv’s Hasidic community, tells the story of 18-year-old Shira, played by Yaron, who faces the choice of whether or not to marry the widower of her beloved sister after her death in childbirth.
“Paradise: Faith,” by Austrian filmmaker Ulrich Seidl, took the special jury prize. The film, the second part in Seidl’s trilogy about three women from the same family on different quests, stars Maria Hofstaetter as a single woman who dedicates her vacation to missionary work.
The movie caused a stir in the Italian media for a scene in which Hofstaetter’s character simulates sex with a crucifix — a point that the director addressed briefly while accepting the award.
“I am not blasphemous,” Seidl told the audience.
“Pieta” follows a young debt collector he goes about his business maiming debtors until his ruthless course is interrupted by a stranger who claims to be his mother. His acceptance of his mother weakens his resolve to brutally collect the debts, leaving him vulnerable to revenge.
South Korea’s Yonhap news agency called “Pieta” “a bruising but wisely woven drama (that) plainly shows how money can destroy humanity and create hellish interpersonal relationships.”
“Pieta” is the Italian word for pity, but also applies to the artistic image in sculpture or painting of the Virgin Mary cradling the dead body of Jesus, evoking a mother’s love for her son. Yonhap said the title “gives the false impression that the film is about trying to find meaning in life through religion.”
Other prizes were:
Best emerging actor or actress: Italian actor Fabrizio Falco for roles in two competition films, Daniele Cipri’s “It was the Son,” and Marco Bellocchio’s “Dormant Beauty.”
Best screenplay: French director Olivier Assayas for “Something in the Air.”
Best technical contribution: Cipri for “It was the Son.”
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