{"id":7293,"date":"2019-09-08T09:11:31","date_gmt":"2019-09-08T07:11:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.queerlion.it\/?p=7293"},"modified":"2019-09-10T09:17:32","modified_gmt":"2019-09-10T07:17:32","slug":"south-africa-channel24-the-main-winners-at-the-venice-film-festival","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.queerlion.it\/en\/south-africa-channel24-the-main-winners-at-the-venice-film-festival\/","title":{"rendered":"South Africa, Channel24: The main winners at the Venice Film Festival"},"content":{"rendered":"

Venice – Joker, a daring take on the comic book villain starring Joaquin Phoenix, won the Golden Lion for best film at the Venice film festival Saturday with Roman Polanski controversially taking second prize.<\/p>\n

It is the first superhero film ever to get this kind of arthouse kudos, and could now be on its way to Oscar glory.<\/p>\n

The last two Venice winners – Roma and The Shape of Water – have gone on to lift the best picture Academy Award.<\/p>\n

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US director Todd Phillips – best known up to now for the slapstick comedy Very Bad Trip<\/em> – paid tribute to Phoenix’s intense performance, saying he was “the fiercest, bravest and most open-minded lion that I know”.<\/p>\n

“Thank you for trusting me with your insane talents,” he said.<\/p>\n

The movie, which The Guardian had described as “one of the boldest Hollywood productions for some time”, has already sparked a heated debate.<\/p>\n

And there were audible gasps when French-Polish director Polanski – a pariah in Hollywood after his rape conviction – was handed the Grand Prix second prize for his Dreyfus Affair drama, An Officer and a Spy<\/em>.<\/p>\n

‘Irresponsible propaganda?’<\/strong><\/p>\n

Within hours of the Joker<\/em> premiere, some warned that Phoenix’s full-throttle portrait of a needy, embittered clown who lives with his mother could empower incels (or involuntary celibates) – the angry, misogynist young men who have been blamed for so much far-right and white supremacist violence.<\/p>\n

Vanity Fair’s Richard Lawson worried that it was “exhilarating in the most prurient of ways, a snuff film about the death of order, about the rot of a governing ethos”.<\/p>\n

He feared that it “may be irresponsible propaganda for the very men it pathologises”.<\/p>\n

But most critics disagreed, with Variety’s Owen Gleiberman saying Phoenix has remade Batman’s arch-enemy as a “Method psycho, a troublemaker so intense in his cuckoo hostility that even as you’re gawking at his violence, you still feel his pain”.<\/p>\n

Other reviews were equally ecstatic, and a sequel with Robert Pattinson playing the Joker’s nemesis Batman is said to be in the offing.<\/p>\n

Phoenix reportedly lost more than 23 kilos (52 pounds) to play the part.<\/p>\n

Phillips defended his film saying the jury “understood what we were trying to say, and I hope that translates”.<\/p>\n

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Polanski wins second prize<\/strong><\/p>\n

But almost as many headlines are likely to be made by Polanski’s win.<\/p>\n

Having spent most of his life as a fugitive from American justice, he was accused of drawing “obscene” parallels between himself and the persecuted French Jewish army officer Alfred Dreyfus, who was the victim of anti-semitism and a miscarriage of justice around the turn of the 20th century.<\/p>\n

Polanski, 86, has been shunned by the big studios for decades after he was convicted of drugging and raping a 13-year-old girl.<\/p>\n

His inclusion in the main Venice competition, which included only two female directors, sparked fury from feminists.<\/p>\n

The French-Polish auteur and Holocaust survivor did not show up at the festival, leaving his wife, French actress Emmanuelle Seigner — who also appears in the film – to pick up his prize to muted applause and a few isolated boos.<\/p>\n

She later told reporters that her husband was “very happy” with his win, saying the “film was very important to him”.<\/p>\n

The head of the Venice jury, Argentinian director Lucrecia Martel, had boycotted a gala dinner for Polanski, only to be forced to clarify that she was not prejudiced against his film.<\/p>\n

Jagger blasts Trump, Johnson<\/strong><\/p>\n

In a year fraught with controversy over sexual politics, festival director Alberto Barbera was also accused of being “tone deaf” for his inclusion of a Black Lives Matter drama by the American Nate Parker, who was embroiled in a rape trail while at university, as well as the director’s cut of Gasper Noe’s 2002 rape shocker “Irreversible”.<\/p>\n

Politics also dominated the awards ceremony with the best actor and actress winners — Italy’s Luca Marinelli (“Martin Eden”) and France’s Ariane Ascaride (“Gloria Mundi”) dedicating their awards to the migrants who “rest forever at the bottom of the Mediterranean sea”.<\/p>\n

Both films contained references to people fleeing poverty and persecution.<\/p>\n

Donald Sutherland, the star of the festival’s closing film, “The Burnt Orange Heresy”, had earlier appealed to reporters to support the migrants’ cause.<\/p>\n

His co-star, Rolling Stones singer Mick Jagger, made a rare foray into politics to attack US President Donald Trump for his rudeness, lies and tearing up environmental controls in the US.<\/p>\n

He also bewailed “the polarisation and incivility in public life” in his native Britain, pointing the finger at its rookie prime minister, Boris Johnson.<\/p>\n

The main winners at the festival:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Golden Lion for best film:
\n<\/strong>Joker (US)<\/em><\/p>\n

Grand Prix:
\n<\/strong>Roman Polanski for An Officer and a Spy<\/em> (France\/Poland)<\/p>\n

Silver Lion for the best director:
\n<\/strong>Roy Andersson for About Endlessness<\/em> (Swedish)<\/p>\n

Queer Lion:
\n<\/strong>El Pr\u00edncipe<\/em> (The Prince<\/em>) – (SA film Moffie<\/em><\/strong><\/a> was nominated in this category)<\/p>\n

Volpi Cup for best actress:
\n<\/strong>Ariane Ascaride (France)<\/p>\n

Volpi Cup for best actor:
\n<\/strong>Luca Marinelli (Italy)<\/p>\n

Best screenplay:
\n<\/strong>Yonfan for No. 7 Cherry Lane<\/em> (Hong Kong)<\/p>\n

Channel24<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/form>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Venice – Joker, a daring take on the comic book villain starring Joaquin Phoenix, won the Golden Lion for best film at the Venice…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6935,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[421],"tags":[1107,1012,1088,88],"class_list":["post-7293","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-press-review","tag-channel24","tag-queer-lion-2019-en","tag-south-africa","tag-venice-film-festival","post-item","post-even"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t