Sunsets and Stars in Venice

Dear Blog Readers – I think I may have given some of you the mistaken impression that I lead a very glamorous existence covering the Pope on one day and the Venice Film Festival the next. The truth of the matter is that much of the time I am schlepping around a tripod for the cameramen and asking inane vox pops of people on the street.  But most of all I am not one of those people who make the “bella figura.”  (see blog post “Espresso, Corruption, Murder…and the Bella Figura.”  Case in point was the other night when my AP Television Entertainment colleagues from London convinced me that I had to go with them to a party.  Apparently the Venice Film Festival is known for its exclusive parties littered with stars.  The Chinese were hosting one at the luxury Danieli Hotel in Venice.  So I got myself all decked out for the event and we hopped on the Vaporetto (water bus) over to Venice.  The sun was setting and it was so gorgeous and romantic that I had to stand in the open area at the back.  I snapped a shot of the sunset and then turned to snap a few photos of a police boat whizzing past on the other side.  I was so busy with my photos that it did not occur to me that big police boats make waves.  It was less than a minute before I was doused. Absolutely soaked.

My colleagues were shocked and concerned.  They seemed truly worried about me.  I explained to them that I am a mother and a little water does no harm.  I said I’ve been on 8 hour plane flights across the Atlantic ocean with a child that has thrown up on me, spent months with my first-born with spit-up all down the front and back of every outfit, water doesn’t bother me.  I think they might have been a little embarassed to be seen with me, but I didn’t care.  I had made it that far and I wasn’t turning back. It was a good thing too, the views in Venice were spectacular as always and the pink champagne and dinner buffet on the Danieli roof-top were fabulous.

I am a little worried that some of you might think that I am slacking off here in Venice, so let me tell you about some of the movies I’ve been covering.  One of my favorites so far has been “Night Moves”, a film by American Director Kelly Reichardt that tells the story of three radical environmental activists in Oregon.

In “Night Moves” three radical environmental activists decide to blow up a hydroelectric dam in Oregon.   Josh, played by Jesse Eisenberg, is a silent, determined militant who works on an organic farm.   Harmon, played by Peter Sarsgaard, a former marine, is living close to nature in a remote part of the state, he provides the team with some of the important logistical input, like how to make explosives from fertilizer.  Dena, played by Dakota Fanning, is a well-educated young woman from a wealthy family who has dropped out of high society and is struggling with some of the ethical questions surrounding her radical views.

The trio’s operation leads to some unexpected consequences and results in deep mental anguish on the part of the protagonists and tension and conflict between them.

I got to interview Kelly, Jesse and Dakota who were here in Venice, unfortunately Peter Sarsgaard was not, because I am sure he would have been interesting.  Jesse seems to be grappling with his star status and clearly felt awkward and uncomfortable in the interview.  Later when they were on the red carpet, Dakota responded to fans, waving eagerly and spending ten minutes in the their midst signing autographs and getting her picture taken.  Jesse seemed truly surprised when insistent fans yelled out JESS-EE, JESS-EE, JESS-EE. He tried to ignore them and then finally shoved his hands in his pockets, lowered his head and made his way towards them like a shy teenager.  He then took the offered pieces of paper and pens and appeared to be asking each fan her name before signing his.  After a few of those, he turned back to the red carpet.

Jesse now writes an amusing column for “The New Yorker” and I told him and I had read some of his recent articles and was impressed by his writing. He seemed genuinely surprised.  Jesse was so convincing in the film that I wondered if he actually felt strongly about the need for action to save the environment.  He said no, but he feels dogmatic about other things and he just took those feelings and applied them to the role.

Kelly, on the other hand, feels strongly about environmental issues, and although the film would not encourage anyone to become an extremist she does want to raise awareness.  She explained that for her the real radicals are the people destroying the environment, “the deforestation, the re-routing and flooding of forests and rivers for recreation, and you know what is happening to the fish is pretty radical, and just corporate ownership of everything is to me radical.”  Speaking of fish and water, Kelly also seemed a bit like a fish out of water in the whole red carpet, festival glamor scene.  She was the only woman I’ve seen so far at the festival on the red carpet in pants.  But Kelly did need to worry about being glamorous, Dakota was clearly happy to play that role, Kelly needed to make a good film, which she did.

Dakota was completely different from the other two.  She is cute, sweet and charming with platinum blond hair, big blue eyes with long dark lashes which she flapped to her advantage.  I told her the glamorous look at the Film Festival was a far cry from her activist character in the film.  She said for the film she dyed her hair brown, had to have make-up artists put an itchy looking eczema rash on her neck and arms and developed a dreadlock rat’s nest in the back of her hair that director Kelly Reichardt particularly liked.  Dakota told me, “I was excited about looking completely different and not caring what I looked like.  I love that in films, when people look real, because that is life, you don’t look perfect every day.”

I agree, I don’t look perfect ever, but Dakota was looking pretty prefect as she strolled down the red carpet in a navy blue floor length dress with a plunging neckline.

Another interesting film I covered this week was Gia Coppola’s debut as a feature film director called “Palo Alto” which delves into the depths of teenage angst in the United States as it follows the lives of four teenagers in high school in Palo Alto, California.

Coppola, 27, is the grand-daughter of Francis Ford Coppola and the niece of Sofia but when I interviewed her she said she did not ask them for much help because “it was important for me to find my own voice and try to do it on my own.”

Coppola is pretty, slender  with brown hair and eyes and looks an awful lot like Sofia.  She spoke so softly in our interview that I had to lean closer to hear her.  Her father was Sofia’s older brother Gian-Carlo Coppola who died in a tragic boating accident in 1986 in California when Gia’s mother was two months pregnant with her.

Gia explained that she was shy in high school perhaps somewhat like April, the protagonist of the film.  April, played by Emma Roberts, is a quiet, pretty girl who studies hard and plays on the high school soccer team.  She is confused by the advances her soccer coach, played by James Franco.

Coppola said that “I felt like with April’s story there needed to be a reason why she would get entangled with her soccer coach and I think that there was something missing in her life at home.”  April has a distracted, flakey mother and a goofy step-father played by Val Kilmer in a funny cameo appearance.

Actor James Franco wrote “Palo Alto Stories”, the book on which the film is based.  Franco waltzed down the red carpet in Venice Sunday in mirrored sunglasses and signed autographs for the throngs of screaming female fans.  But he took on a more serious, intellectual note in my interview with with him when he said that the character Teddy in the film is similar to him as a teenager.

Teddy, is a good kid with talent as an artist, but he gets mixed up with drugs and gets himself into trouble.

Franco, who is now getting a Phd in American Literature told me how he tried to capture the anguish of teenagers when he wrote “Palo Alto Stories,”to give a sense of how it can feel when you are young and you don’t have a full perspective of life and it seems like everything that is happening to you right now is the end all when it is not.  It can be very intense and scary.”

Today I will be interviewing Alexandros Avranas, the Greek director of the film “Miss Violence” which I saw yesterday morning.  The film begins with what appears to be a happy family birthday party for the eleven-year-old daughter in a upper middle-class family in Greece.  But when the birthday girl quietly jumps off the balcony to her death the drama begins and the viewer struggles together with the Greek welfare system’s bureaucrats to understand what is wrong with this seemingly proper, well-adjusted family.  The film becomes steadily more disturbing as it is revealed that the grandfather is prostituting his own daughter and grand-daughters to make money off his perverted friends.   Some of the scenes of rape were too difficult for me to stomach and once the film was over I had to go home and lie down for an hour.

This is a film that could never be popular because it is two strong.  I felt upset, angry and sad for the entire day after seeing it.  After all, I am the mother of two teenage daughters and seeing girls get raped is not something I would choose to watch.  But the experience allowed to me to reflect on the films that I am seeing here.  Certainly, there are no romantic comedies, no easy sells.  These films are mostly high-powered works of art, some with important political messages which cause reflection, others visually exciting and stimulating.