1 hour ago Dead Man’s Wire review – Gus Van Sant calls the shots with surreal true

Venice film festivalAl Pacino, Colman Domingo and Myha’la excel in this gripping take on the events of 1977 when an Indianapolis businessman held his mortgage broker hostage With terrific chutzpah, black-comic flair and cool, cruel unsentimentality, screenwriter Austin Kolodney and director Gus Van Sant have made a true-crime suspense thriller set in the 1970s, tapping into the spirit of both Sidney Lumet’s Dog Day Afternoon and Network. Apart from anything else, it is a reminder that in that post-Kennedy, post-Watergate age, plenty of lawless and febrile things happened that would now be considered phenomena purely attributable to social media.In 1977, an Indianapolis businessman named Tony Kiritsis, with many acquaintances in the police department, kidnapped a mortgage broker named Richard Hall, and tied Hall’s neck with a “dead man’s wire” to his shotgun, which would therefore go off if police sharpshooters tried to kill him. Kiritsis even paraded his victim like this on TV while...

Events

5 h. ago Portobello review – Marco Bellocchio’s glorious saga of TV stars, mafia prisoners and lace doilies

Venice film festivalIn the first two episodes of a six-part series, the stardom of 80s primetime host Enzo Tortora is cleverly crosscut with the scramble of a mob secretary who implicates him – and his parrot – in drug traffickingMarco Bellocchio, the tireless warhorse of Italian cinema, kicks up a swirling dust cloud of corruption with this fabulous, stranger-than-fiction account of an 80s TV star convicted of conspiring with the Camorra. Shot for the streaming service HBO Max, it is the director’s second historical miniseries after 2022’s Exterior Night, about the kidnapping of Aldo Moro, and features the same lead player in Fabrizio Gifuni, an actor who has surely cornered the market in playing glossy public figures whose lives are about to take a hellish turn. Bellocchio’s dramas typically inhabit this kind of shonky, venal moral universe. The ground is liable to drop away pretty much at any moment.Gifuni stars as Enzo Tortora, a primetime TV presenter in the twinkling Terry Wog...

Events

6 h. ago Please don’t succumb to hopelessness over Palestine. Your voice can still make a difference | Arwa Mahdawi

As the war gets livestreamed to our phones, it is easy to be overwhelmed and feel helpless. But even small acts of activism add upI don’t know if Frankenstein star Christoph Waltz is normally a man of few words but he didn’t have much to say at a recent Venice film festival press conference. Waltz uttered only six words, with “CGI is for losers” constituting four of them. The remaining two were “I don’t”, in response to a question about how he stays hopeful in today’s “monstrous times”.Waltz is certainly not alone in despairing of a world which seems to elevate liars, cheats, and adjudicated sexual predators. It’s hard to feel hope when a genocide has been livestreamed to our phones for almost two years and there is no justice in sight; just a systematic slaughter of the journalists who serve as messengers. No peace prospects on the horizon; just well-paid consultants putting together ethnic cleansing prospectuses so a “Gaza Riviera” can be built. (Oh, sorry, we’re supposed to say “...

Politics

6 h. ago In ‘Marc, by Sofia,’ an intimate portrait of fashion luminary and friendship

Sofia Coppola's documentary about Marc Jacobs has premiered Tuesday at the Venice Film Festival

Culture

7 h. ago Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson unrecognisable as he drops 60lbs for upcoming true story film

The actor showed off his significantly slimmed down frame as the Venice Film Festival on Monday while promoting his upcoming movie about the life of MMA fighter Mark Kerr.

Politics

8 h. ago Photos show highlights from week 2 of the Venice Film Festival

The Venice Film Festival is in full swing with a starry batch of awards season hopefuls arriving in Italy for glamorous premieres and discussions about their films. Emily Blunt, Amanda Seyfried and Dwayne Johnson are just some of the stars who have new films premiering at the Venice festival, which runs through Sept. 6.

Culture

9 h. ago Kaia Gerber, 23, wows in sexy plunging top as she joins boyfriend Lewis Pullman, 32, in leading stars at Venice Film Festival event

The model, 23, who has been seen packing on the PDA with the actor, 32, in the Italian city, wore a plunging crop top.

Culture

9 h. ago Kim Novak uncensored: Legendary actress, 92, is finally given the freedom to speak her side of the story as critics deem her 'impressively unfiltered'

After stepping away from the limelight, Kim Novak returned to Venice Film Festival on Monday after releasing a documentary about her poverty-stricken upbringing

Culture

9 h. ago Secrets of The Rock's body transformation: Expert reveals how Dwayne Johnson likely lost 60lbs to be 'taken seriously' in Hollywood

Famed for his huge stature, Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson stunned fans this week when he debuted a much slimmer frame during the 82nd Venice Film Festival.

Politics

9 h. ago Straight Circle review – boisterous border guard satire from a director to watch

Venice film festivalOscar Hudson’s feature debut, starring twins Elliott and Luke Tittensor as ritual-performing representatives of fictional warring nations, is an absurdist nightmareBritish documentary and ad director Oscar Hudson makes his feature debut in the Venice critics week sidebar with this high-concept anti-war satire, a through-the-looking-glass absurdist nightmare about realising that the otherness of your enemy is an illusion. There are some bold and ambitious images here, and some interesting split-screen work. Maybe there’s an issue about the style and substance ratio and perhaps the running time is indulgent, but this is a strong piece of work.Twins Elliott and Luke Tittensor play two soldiers of equal rank in opposing armies, called Pte Warne and Pte Arthur. They represent two nations of fictional Ruritanian weirdness, formerly at war but who have evidently concluded a tensely unstable peace treaty. Warne has a resplendent white uniform and, like the rest of his co...

Politics

10 h. ago Venice Film Festival writer holds up ‘We are all an audience to genocide’ poster on red carpet

A writer at Venice Film Festival held up a sign which read “we are all an audience to genocide" whilst walking down the red carpet.

Events

10 h. ago Kaia Gerber, 23, looks chic in a plunging crop top as she joins boyfriend Lewis Pullman, 32, at Venice Film Festival after packing on the PDA

The model, 23, who has been seen packing on the PDA with the actor, 32, in the Italian city, wore a plunging crop top.

Culture

13 h. ago The Smashing Machine: Dwayne Johnson tipped for Oscar buzz as film earns standing ovation

The film received a 15-minute standing ovation after its premiere at the Venice Film Festival overnight

Politics

14 h. ago Jude Law, 52, takes a tumble and nearly drops his laptop in the water while stepping off a boat in Venice

Jude Law was unable to keep his balance on a boat in Venice on Monday as he tumbled over after attending the 82nd Film Festival. 

Politics

14 h. ago The Rock shows off dramatic new look for The Smashing Machine at Venice Film Festival

Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson showed off a dramatic new look at the premiere of his new movie The Smashing Machine at Venice Film Festival on Monday (1 September).

Culture

17 h. ago Kathryn Bigelow unveils political thriller ‘A House of Dynamite’ at Venice Film Festival

Kathryn Bigelow tackles geopolitics in her new film “A House of Dynamite.”

Politics

22 h. ago Amanda Seyfried borrows Julia Roberts's EXACT look at Venice Film Festival after begging her stylist to source the actress's outfit on Instagram

The actress, 39, looked incredible as she arrived at The Testament Of Ann Lee photocall in a two-piece suit.

Culture

23 h. ago Jude Law, 51, takes a tumble and nearly drops his laptop in the water while stepping off a boat in Venice

Jude Law was unable to keep his balance on a boat in Venice on Monday as he tumbled over after attending the 82nd Film Festival. 

Politics

25 h. ago Kim Novak, 92, looks almost unrecognisable as she receives the Golden Lion for lifetime achievement at the Venice International Film Festival

The actress, 92, channeled old Hollywood glamour as she stepped out in an emerald and black gown to accept the award.

Culture

27 h. ago Emily Blunt steals the show in a dazzling strapless gown as she puts on a playful display with The Rock at The Smashing Machine premiere during The Venice Film Festival

Emily Blunt made sure to turn heads in a glamorous strapless gown as she attended The Smashing Machine premiere during the 82nd Venice Film Festival on Monday. 

Culture