Venice reclaims spotlight as 1st COVID-era film fest opens

VENICE — Venice is reclaiming its place as a top cultural destination with the opening of the Venice Film Festival — the first major in-person cinema showcase of the coronavirus era after Cannes canceled and other international festivals opted to go mostly online this year. Italian director Andrea Segre, whose documentary of an ethereally empty Venice during lockdown was screened Tuesday, said the festival is sending the message that despite the risks and complications, “we need theaters for cinema.” “It’s like if you say to a painter that he can show his painting, or his fresco, only through the web,” Segre said in an interview on the Lido. “It will be an experiment on the ground of how to confront an important event” in the COVID era, he said in presenting this year’s Venice lineup. That means no sightings of Venice regulars George Clooney and Brad Pitt arriving by water taxi, no red carpet photo ops with Lady Gaga, who premiered “A Star is Born” here, or Joaquin Phoenix, whose “Joker” won Venice’s top prize, the Golden Lion, last year before going on to Oscar glory. You look at the restaurants at night, they’re empty.” “To relaunch Venice, and tourism in general, we need this virus to end,” he said, looking out at an eerily empty canal.