TOlla Venice Exhibition 2023 saturday the second of september is the day of Master by Bradley Cooperprotagonist and director: unfortunately he decided not to come and present it – as he did in 2018 for A Star is Born (his first time behind the camera) out of respect for the Hollywood actors and screenwriters’ strike. Second title in the race Slowly by Stefano Sollimaand out of competition The Palace by Roman Polanski, ninety years old. They say it’s his farewell to the cinema: we don’t want to believe it.
Master by Bradley Cooper
Bradley Cooper is Leonard Bernstein, Carey Mulligan his wife Felicia, Matt Bomer her lover. But in the cast of the biopic Master – in December on Netflix – there are also Maya Hawke, Sarah Silverman, Josh Hamilton, Scott Ellis, Gideon Glick, Sam Nivola, Alexa Swinton and Miriam Shor.
Unconventional loves
«At my house we listened to many albums of opera and classical music. I spent hours imagining conducting an orchestra, putting all the effort of an eight-year-old. In particular, we were playing a Leonard Bernstein etching all the time,” Cooper explained. “So the light I needed to make Master it had actually lit many years before I came across the project. After a year of research, and after taking the time to rework everything, I realized that the aspect that struck me most was the marriage between Lenny and Felicia. It was a true, unconventional love that I found infinitely fascinating: this is the story I wanted to tell. I will always be grateful to his children – Jamie, Nina and Alex – for letting me into their family and their hearts: it has been one of the greatest joys of my career ».
Bradley Cooper and Carey Mulligan on the set of “Maestro” (photo Jason McDonald/Netflix ©).
Slowly by Stefano Sollima
With the usual suspects of Italian cinema (Pierfrancesco Favino, Toni Servillo, Valerio Mastandrea, Adriano Giannini, plus the always good Francesco Di Leva), Adagio tells the story of sixteen-year-old Manuel, who finds himself entangled in a business far beyond his strength: followed by criminals who want to eliminate him – considering him a dangerous witness – he will have to ask for protection from two ex-offenders, old acquaintances of his father…
Adriano Giannini in “Adagio” (photo Emanuela Scarpa).
Criminal Rome
«After my experiences abroad, I’m finally back to talking about my city. Rome has changed, and so have I: I observed it with different eyes as I walked its streets at a different pace. An adage» explains Sollima. “This is the tale of the inexorable, poignant decline, of three old legends of criminal Rome in search of an impossible redemption in a world even more cynical, chaotic and ferocious than the one they had governed in the golden years. A world that crushes family, friendly and fraternal relationships without leaving other ties between men other than money. A city governed by chaos, corruption, cynicism and asphyxiated by the torrid heat, devastated by fires and the darkness of blackouts… But there is a glimmer of light: the new generation».
The Palace by Roman Polanski
Oliver Masucci, Fanny Ardant, John Cleese, Bronwyn James, Joaquim De Almeida, Luca Barbareschi, Milan Peschel, Fortunato Cerlino, Mickey Rourke spend the New Year between 1999 and 2000 in The Palace, a luxury Swiss hotel. Which, in reality, it is Gstaad Palacealready set of many films: Return of the Pink Panther by Blake Edwards with Peter Sellers in 1975; Christmas in Love by Neri Parenti with Christian De Sica, Danny De Vito, Massimo Boldi, Ronn Moss, Sabrina Ferilli in 2004; I travel alone by Maria Sole Tognazzi with Margherita Buy in 2013…
Fanny Ardant in “The Palace” (photo M. Abramowska).
Class conflict
«For almost half a century I have frequented the Gstaad Palace in Switzerland, where an extremely wealthy and multilingual elite stays, around which the proletariat of the workers moves. These two worlds are, in their own way, hilarious, even grotesque at times. Everything separates them, starting from their political opinions» says Polanski.
They are united only by the figure of the hotel manager, who takes care of everyone and tries to please everyone, sometimes actually having to put up with both customers and staff. With diplomatic skill, he finds a way out of the most unlikely situations. The idea of making a film about this exotic world came to me immediately. It was supposed to be a comedy, a bit brusque and sarcastic, severe towards the characters, but not without a touch of indulgence and sympathy».
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