Atonement kicks off Venice fest
2007-08-30 13:37
Venice - The Venice film festival marked its 75th anniversary on Wednesday with a sparkling opening gala and world premiere of British psychological drama Atonement starring Keira Knightley.
An evening of pomp and fireworks saw Knightley take to the red carpet along with co-stars James McAvoy and Vanessa Redgrave, plus their youthful director Joe White.
Also on hand were compatriot Kenneth Branagh and the stars of his detective thriller Sleuth, Michael Caine and Jude Law.
Tony Gilroy, director of the legal drama Michael Clayton starring George Clooney, was there, but Clooney himself was not expected to make his entrance until Thursday.
Atonement, based on the best-selling novel by Ian McEwan, follows the consequences of an impressionable girl's tragic misreading of events at an upper-class English home in the years leading up to World War II.
Lifetime of guilt
The girl Briony, the younger sister of Knightley's character Cecilia, sentences herself to a lifetime of guilt after causing her childhood idol and Cecilia's lover Robbie Turner (McAvoy) to be sent to prison before he leaves to fight in the war.
Working from novels "makes my work much easier," said Knightley, who also worked with Wright in his adaptation of Pride and Prejudice.
McEwan's novel is "a beautifully drawn character study," she told reporters.
Redgrave, who plays Briony as a successful novelist late in life, said: "The feeling of guilt is inescapable for the child and lasts all through her life?Doing damage to people you love - that's awful."
Steamy film
Despite a preponderance of British and US entries this year - nine of the 22 candidates for the Golden Lion in the main competition - the festival also boasts a sizeable Asian contingent, leading with the new erotic spy thriller from Oscar-winning Taiwanese director Ang Lee, Se, Jie (Lust, Caution).
The steamy film, set in Shanghai in the 1940s, is based on a short story by Eileen Chang.
"No story of Eileen Chang's is as beautiful or as cruel as Se, Jie," said Lee, whose Brokeback Mountain took the top prize in Venice in 2005.
Festival director Marco Mueller let drop on Wednesday that the "surprise film" to be screened next week will be from an Asian country, specifying only that it is a country other than China, South Korea or Japan.
"Only from Asia do we have that special kind of present," Mueller told a news conference, adding: "It will be a brand new film - he's still mixing it - by an Asian master."
All 22 of the films in competition will be world premieres, a feat achieved only once before - last year.
Another 22 films will vie for prizes in the avant-garde Horizons and Horizons Documentaries categories, while 13 will be screened out of competition during the festival, which runs through September 8.