Hollywood out in force at the Venice Film Festival, with George Clooney and Emma Stone

The two heavyweights of American cinema are each presenting a film in competition, in a festival that also acts as a launching pad for the Oscars.

In "Jay Kelly," George Clooney—suffering from severe sinusitis and therefore unable to appear at a press conference—plays a role tailor-made for him: that of an aging movie star who, after more than three decades of a successful career, finds himself confronted with the emptiness of his existence and loneliness.

Self-centered, incapable of the slightest altruistic gesture towards his family and friends, George Clooney plays an uncompromising pastiche of himself, in search of redemption, particularly with his daughters.

Adam Sandler and Laura Dern star alongside him on screen, in one of three films produced by Netflix among the 21 in competition. It will be available on the platform on December 5, after a limited release in a few US theaters.

Post-truth

The prolific duo of Emma Stone and Yorgos Lanthimos, awarded a Golden Lion in Venice in 2023 for "Poor Creatures," made a remarkable return to the Lido.

Their film "Bugonia," which deals, among other things, with the intoxication of a section of the population with conspiracy theories, made a strong impression.

"These are things that are happening right now," the Greek director observed. "I believe that very soon, people will need to choose the right path. Otherwise, I don't know how much time we have left with everything that's happening in the world: (...) artificial intelligence, wars, climate change, and the denial about all of this," he continued.

The work tells the story of an American (Jesse Plemons) who decides to kidnap the CEO of a large pharmaceutical company (Emma Stone), convinced that she is an extraterrestrial who has come to Earth to enslave humanity.

Documentaries screened

Third film in competition today: "Orphan" by Hungarian Laszlo Nemes, who was revealed ten years ago at Cannes with "Son of Saul."

This historical drama, set in Budapest in 1957 after the uprising against the communist regime, is inspired by the director's family history.

The war in Gaza was a hot topic on Wednesday, ahead of the opening ceremony. Urged by an artist collective (Venice4Palestine) to take a stand to clearly denounce Israel's actions in the Gaza Strip, the festival's artistic director, Alberto Barbera, sought to clarify matters during the jury's presentation.

"We have always shared very clearly our suffering at what is happening in Gaza and Palestine," he insisted, without naming Israel as the Venice4Palestine press release encourages him to do.

The festival promises several highly political moments this year, with Sunday's screening of Olivier Assayas's "The Mage of the Kremlin," adapted from Giuliano da Empoli's book about a shadowy adviser to Russian President Vladimir Putin and his rise to power.

"Putin is one of the most experienced and brilliant leaders on the planet. His influence on international affairs can hardly be overestimated. Therefore, it is quite natural that various countries around the world are interested in him," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov responded to a question on the subject during his daily briefing.

Two documentaries are also on the program. "Ghost Elephants" by German director Werner Herzog, awarded an honorary Golden Lion on Wednesday evening, follows the trail of a mysterious herd of elephants in the Angolan jungle.

Mike Figgis will take a behind-the-scenes look at Francis Ford Coppola's "Megalopolis," a colossal film for which the director of "The Godfather" invested $120 million of his own money, but which was a resounding commercial failure.

Presented at Cannes in 2024, the film was deeply divisive, with some seeing it as a "modern masterpiece" and others as a "catastrophe."