By Belle Burke

In this spectacularly beautiful city, the 63rd Venice International Film Festival (Aug. 30-Sept. 9) tended to pass over the spectacular, both in films and in star power, awarding the Golden Lion for best film to a low-key Chinese film, Still Life (Sanxia Haoren) directed by Jia Zhang-Ke, a "surprise film" not named until the last minute. And although Zhang-Ke has passionate fans, in my opinion Still Life was a missed opportunity. Based on the construction of the Three Gorges Dam, a monumental project on the Yangtze River that destroyed communities and dispossessed millions, Jia chooses to focus on two couples who’ve been separated by the upheavals and return to see if reuniting is a possibility. Jia works in the particular and at his own rhythm, resulting in beautiful images. But in this instance he seems to have trivialized a man-made disaster of monumental proportions by narrowing his focus to the point where we are denied the context.

For the most part, the other awards also went to smaller-budget productions: the  Silver Lion for best director to Alain Resnais, welcomed here with reverence, for Private Fears in Public Places, based on an Alan Ayckbourn play on the theme of isolation. A special award was created for Nuovomondo, an unpretentious gem about Sicilian immigrants in the early 1900s by Emanuele Crialese, Sicilian himself, who shot the final part in Buenos Aires, stand-in for  Ellis Island.  According to one juror, Crialese lost for best picture by one vote and thus a new category was created for him. Another special jury prize went to Mahamat-Saleh Haroun from Chad for Daratt (Dry Season), the story of a young man setting out to avenge the death of his father, who was killed by a war criminal in Chad who was then given amnesty.

Distributed among the various categories were over 20 U.S. films.  Of the other major prizes, Ben Affleck won Best Male Actor for Hollywoodland, directed by Allen Coulter, and Helen Mirren was a foregone conclusion as Best Actress for her portrait of Queen Elizabeth in Stephen Frears' The Queen. David Lynch's Inland Empire gave rise to the usual questions ("What was it all about?"), the usual advice to not even look for a plot, and little enthusiasm. However, Lynch did receive the Golden Lion Career Achievement award, which was rumored to be the reason why Inland Empire (which, according to Lynch's dictates), must ALWAYS be written in caps as INLAND EMPIRE) was snatched away from Cannes and given to the Venice festival.

Venice also did not exhibit a marked taste this year for thrillers or big productions, or even big stars.  The Black Dahlia caused little stir compared to Hollywoodland, and there seemed to be a strong preference for "the other side of America," as in  Spike Lee's When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts, Emilio Estevez's Bobby, and David Leaf and John Scheinfeld's documentary The U.S. vs. John Lennon.  A seeming preference for smaller, darker films? Infamous, written and directed by Douglas McGrath with Toby Jones starring as Truman Capote, was compared favorably to last year's Capote.  Or are filmgoers becoming more selective, more interested in subject matter and technique than in entertainment?  At this year's festival, at any rate, this appears to be the case, exemplified also by the growing number of Asian films -- for example, Tsai Ming Liang's I  Don't Want to Sleep Alone, an almost static film shot at night in Kuala Lumpur in which it is difficult to discern any action at all.

Venice is indisputably unique, but it is still an Italian city, therefore overflowing with rumors, accusations, denials, and counter-accusations. The first Rome Film Festival, opening soon, is considered either (a) an insult and a threat to Venice, or (b) unimportant and to be ignored.  But of course there will be contestations, both for the films to be shown and for government funding.  Venice is in dire need of new venues for its festival, having long since outgrown the existing theater spaces, but is trying to take the high ground, saying that the Venice festival is so prestigious that anything Rome does cannot diminish it.  The Venice festival director was also quoted as saying that Rome would get only Venice's "leftovers," but this was officially denied.  And now a final quote by Venice Mayor Massimo Cacciari, who likes to have the last word: "Venice against Rome? That's like Truffaut against James Bond." There will be more to come — much more — on this topic.