VENICE – Amid a lineup of in-competition and out-of-competition films, difficult true-life stories took center stage at the Venice Film Festival on a day that also saw a queen of cinema, Kim Novak, receive the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement.
The star, visibly moved and smiling in an elegant black dress wrapped in a green and black silk stole, was welcomed by a standing ovation lasting over eight minutes. She thanked the audience, stating, “I am you and you are me,” and paid tribute first and foremost to her parents. “My father gave me the system of values I believe in,” Novak said, “and my mother, from when I was a shy little girl, taught me to be the captain of my own ship. Their words formed me.” Her recognition was preceded by a passionate laudatio from director Guillermo del Toro.
The return of Marco Bellocchio was also highly anticipated. In *Portobello*, a six-part television series for the new HBO Max streaming platform (set to launch in March), Bellocchio tells the terrible judicial ordeal of Enzo Tortora. The first two episodes premiered at the Lido. Tortora is portrayed by Fabrizio Gifuni, who previously worked with the director on the Aldo Moro series, *Esterno notte*.
The Tortora affair “was a wound that left a deep mark on the backdrop of an Italy that was, in the meantime, changing its face,” explained Bellocchio. “I became fascinated by this story also to understand how such a popular figure had accumulated so much dislike. He was a man of total freedom in taking positions, one who had served seven years of exile for criticizing RAI and its leadership and who fought for free television. In those years, he wrote things of great force as a character who was neither Christian Democrat nor Communist, and a Freemason.”
The competition section also featured two biopics about figures who could not be more different: mixed martial artist Mark Kerr and 18th-century preacher Ann Lee. Benny Safdie tells the story of the MMA champion in *The Smashing Machine*, with blockbuster star Dwayne Johnson (The Rock) in the most complex role of his career alongside Emily Blunt. The film follows the fighter’s path through the history of combat sports, which earned him a place in the prestigious UFC Hall of Fame.
“I wanted to be in a film like this, different from my usual ones,” explained Johnson. “When you are in Hollywood, everything revolves around the box office and they put you in a corner. They want you to represent only what people want you to do. I’ve made many successful films that I enjoyed, some fun and some less so, but this time I was looking for something more, to tell stories that come from my past.”
Meanwhile, Mona Fastvold’s *The Testament of Ann Lee* jumps back nearly three centuries. The historical musical biopic, an epic fable co-written with her husband Brady Corbet (*The Brutalist*), stars Amanda Seyfried in an award-caliber performance as Ann Lee, the 18th-century preacher who founded the Shakers, a movement of radical Quakers for whom singing and dancing were an integral part of their rituals.
“It is very interesting to talk about female leadership at this moment,” explained the director, “and for me personally it was important to try to make a film, a work of art like this, in a world that is very dominated by men. I always try to create an empathetic culture for everyone, and I found this element in the story of Ann Lee.”