Poitras documentary wins top prize at Venice Film Festival

“All the Beauty and the Bloodshed,” Laura Poitras’s epic documentary about photographer Nan Goldin and her activism against the Sackler family and their art connections has been awarded the Golden Lion for best film at the 79th Venice International Film Festival. Blanchett won for her performance as a renowned conductor in Todd Field’s “TÁR” and Farrell for playing a man who has broken up with by his longtime friend in Martin McDonagh’s “The Banshees of Inisherin.” “Thank you so much, it’s such an enormous honor,’ Blanchett said, having just flown back to Venice from the Telluride Film Festival where the film also played. Brendan Fraser moved many to tears for his portrayal of Charlie, a reclusive English teacher who weighs 600 pounds and is attempting to mend things with his estranged, cruel daughter Ellie in Darren Aronofsky’s “The Whale.” If standing ovation timers are any indication of reception, some of the most beloved of the festival were Andrew Domink’s “Blonde,” an evocative, semi fictional account of Marilyn Monroe’s life, starring Ana de Armas, and “The Banshees of Inisherin.” “Banshees” got a reported 13-minute standing ovation to “Blonde’s” 14 minutes—nearly double that of most other well-liked films. Another, quite different, French film also charmed audiences and critics: Rebecca Zlotowski’s “Other People’s Children,” about a 40-year-old childfree woman dating a man with a young daughter. Aside from awards, it was a Venice for the books, with high glamour from Timothée Chalamet, who stunned in a red backless halter neck from Haider Ackermann, and Florence Pugh, looking the part of a movie star in a sheer tulle off the shoulder Valentino that slyly evoked both classic romanticism and playful modernity, and high drama, mostly around Olivia Wilde’s “Don’t Worry Darling.” The behind-the-scenes intrigue on Wilde’s film led to some excessive silliness as the world watched the cast’s every move for clues, from where people were seated, to who looked at who during the premiere.