Roman Polanski return to Venice Film Festival after winning the Grand Jury Prize in 2019 with The officer and the spy. At the Lido the Oscar-winning director for The pianist there isn’t (he can’t leave Switzerland), there’s his new film The Palaceselection out of competition and in theaters from September 28th.
The atmospheres are far from the 2019 film, also in this case produced by Luca Barbareschi and Rai Cinema: Polanski he enjoys tellinga swirl of grotesque characters And surreal with the clear intention of satirizing a colorful and insufferable group of human beings unaware of their human inconsistency», this is how the artistic director of the festival Alberto Barbera defined the film.
The Palace: the plot of the film by Roman Polanski
To the Palace Hotelimmersed in the mountains of Switzerland, like every year, rich and spoiled guests converge from all over the world to celebrate the advent of the new year. It’s the eve of 2000, the year of the Millennium Bug, for someone the end of the world. The fabulous hotel staff, led by director Hansueli (Olivier Masucci), is preparing to perfectly organize the dinner and party of New Year’sas well as putting themselves at the service of the eccentric guests to say the least.
There is the very rich Bill Crush (Mickey Rourke) who has not booked any rooms, but demands her usual suite, the Marquise Constance (Fanny Ardant), worried about her dog who can’t defecate in the snow, demands a piece of lawn in her room, there’s the porn star Bongo (Luke Barbareschi), now appreciated only by old men like him, the ninety-year-old billionaire Arthur William Dallas III (John Cleese) who, for the wedding anniversary with his 22-year-old wife, gives her a real penguin. Polanski portrays a hodgepodge of excessive characters and enjoys laughing about them».
The Palacea comedy about self-centeredness that pervades the world
For Fortunato Cerlinoin the role of Tonino, Hansuel’s deputy, this film takes its nourishment «from the commedia dell’arte, all the characters look like grotesque masks. The Palace it has something grotesque, comical and funny, but also dramatic and melancholy. «It’s a fresco on today’s world, it goes beyond comedy, and the character I play is the emblem of self-centeredness and how people bow down to the new selfie god – he comments Barbary – now we live in the pornography of feelings and communication”.
The Palace It’s a funny comedy at times, some sketches are a hoot. From Roman Polanski, however, much more was expected. The director of Pianist he just mocks his circus characters. The plant in some ways resembles that of Triangle of Sadness by Ruben Östlund, where the Swedish director knows how to fly to other shores.
Mickey Rourke (Photo Abramowska)
Fanny Ardant: “I’ve never played such a stupid woman”
“I knew PolanskiI had already worked with him several years ago in the theater – he says Fanny Ardantin one of the funniest roles in the film – I found a passionate man, with the joy of working in his 90s, who stays on set from night to morning and goes in search of the absolute and the particular. Working with him is a privilege. I have never played such a roleI enjoyed playing such a stupid and crazy woman who has a great love for her dog ».
iO Woman © REPRODUCTION RESERVED