Postcard from Venice: Time for you to Say Goodbye, However: Could Polanski Win a Golden Lion?

Venice is really a town of lions. There’s the ubiquitous winged lion, the symbol of Saint Mark, seen everywhere in statuary as well as on ad banners. Last evening, outdoors the Casino, among the primary structures from the festival complex, I saw a winged lion statue, about 12 ft off the floor, having a single wine glass perched delicately if a little hazardously atop among his meaty feet, left out by some meticulous reveler. Other lions don't have any wings but appear to not mind much, standing guard at chapel entrances, outdoors restaurants or at the middle of neighborhood squares. And everywhere you appear, you will find more compact lion faces looking back to you: Some have important and apparent jobs to complete, holding door-knockers or doorbells within their mouths. Other medication is liberated to just be themselves, but all appear set on keeping track of things. Then you will find the festival awards, the Golden and Silver Lions, which is introduced on Saturday. Today is my last trip to the festival (though I’ll be confirming back about the awards over the past weekend), meaning it’s time for you to think back in the movies I’ve seen previously 7 days and suggest some possible those who win — though remember, there’s no such factor like a sure factor. The film my British-speaking buddies appear to prefer to date is Alps, an intriguing picture from Greek director Yorgos Lanthimos (who gave us another festival favorite, Dogtooth, a couple of in the past). In Alps, a disparate group — a nurse, a paramedic along with a gymnast and her coach — have banded together to create a little crew whose purpose isn’t immediately obvious. Nor have they got a title, until their leader, the paramedic, performed by Aris Servetalis, proposes they call the Alps — they constitute a stalwart and reliable presence inside a world high’s always the chance of loss. Eventually we learn the Alps give a strange but possibly invaluable service: They approach people who've lost family members and impersonate the deceased, in some instances serving as a receptor for a variety of cathartic behavior, in other people simply serving as a stand-directly into assuage grief. Alps is definitely an intellectual exercise first of all, a stark puzzler with modest production values (which means plenty of handheld camera work and cleaned-out colors) that’s engaging enough for that questions it asks in the sly, sidelong way: Chiefly, who're these folks? By extension, who's anybody? Would be the people we all know truly the people we all know, or could they be all impostors? And so on. I’m unsure Alps cuts as deeply as lots of my co-workers appear to consider it will, however it’s still an intriguing bit of filmmaking that may attract some love in the jury here, probably the director’s prize, the Silver Lion. Variety continues to be posting a unique festival edition every day now, the state publication from the festival, featuring a chart where a choice of worldwide experts assign a score to every movie. By Wednesday, the image using the greatest score is Roman Polanski’s Carnage, by having an 8 from 10. The following greatest scores visit George Clooney’s The Ides of March (7.5) and Steve McQueen’s Shame (7.4), which might be the most popular of the festival (although I had been also astounded by the craftsmanship and emotional resonance of Tomas Alfredson’s Mess, Tailor, Soldier Spy). I wasn’t capable of seeing Carnage within Venice, however it certainly includes a strong possibility of winning the Golden Lion, depending, possibly, how preoccupied the jury is (it’s headed this season by Darren Aronofsky) with Polanski’s personal status. European experts and moviegoers have were rather more forgiving of Polanski than American ones, selecting to pay attention to the job as opposed to the fairly certain proven fact that he committed a criminal offense that he never was punished. Politics frequently play a crucial role in festival awards, and that one may go in either case. I’m also very happy to observe that Ann Hui’s tender and superbly crafted Tao Jie, or perhaps a Simple Existence, has additionally found some favor among experts here. (It presently includes a 7.2 about the Variety scorecard.) Andy Lau, possibly most widely known to American audiences from his roles within the Hong Kong Infernal Matters movies, plays a film-biz accountant named Roger who takes it upon themself to take care of his family’s seniors housekeeper, Au Tao (Deanie Ip, a revered actress in Hong Kong cinema and Lau’s real-existence godmother), that has requested to become include a elderly care. The image is remarkably unsentimental, and Hui includes a gift for homing in about the telling detail. In a single sequence, we watch as Au Tao prepares to go to a movie premiere with Roger: She puts on her behalf best clothes — simple products which have clearly been looked after and treasured for a long time — and slips two modest gold and jade rings on her behalf fingers. She removes a tube of lipstick that’s almost completely worn lower — this, too, might have been valued for a long time — and in just a minute that talks volumes concerning the complex relationship between economy and vanity one of the aged, streaks a little on her behalf lips together with her fingers. We have seen her reflection within the mirror she looks adequately pleased. It’s the type of quiet detail we visit the movies for, the whisper that talks even louder than the usual shout. I’m unsure you will see a prize for any Simple Existence, however it’s among individuals movies I’m grateful to possess seen here, and that i hope it finds a bigger audience worldwide. So that as always, I’m sad to depart Venice, a town I’ve grown to like. But Toronto — that will feature a few of the films I’ve skipped here, such as the Ides of March, beckons. So once more, I only say arrivederci, Venice! And beginning Friday, hello, Toronto. Read all Stephanie Zacharek’s coverage from the 2011 Venice Film Festival here.