Meanwhile, Dominik’s Marilyn Monroe drama “Blonde” starring de Armas as the Hollywood icon is one of four Netflix original films in the 23-title competition section.Īlso getting a Venice launch from the streaming giant - which is clearly gunning for more Oscars after “Power of the Dog,” which premiered on the Lido last year - is the fest’s previously announced opener, Noah Baumbach’s “ White Noise,” with Greta Gerwig, Adam Driver and Jodie Turner-Smith, which is based on the 1985 novel of the same name by Don DeLillo. Hunter’s play about a morbidly obese recluse, played by Brendan Fraser and also starring Sadie Sink and Samantha Morton. He also denounced the incarceration in Turkey of producer Cigdem Mater, “who is guilty only of having planned a doc - that was never made - on the 2013 Gezi Park anti-government protests,” Barbera said.Īronofsky, a Venice aficionado whose “Black Swan” was the Lido’s opener in 2010, is back with “The Whale,” an adaptation of Samuel D. “It’s often said that film festivals are a window on the world,” said Barbera, noting that “From this window we are witnessing things that we would rather not see, such as the war of aggression on Ukraine.”īarbera added that he and the Venice team are also horrified by the arrests in Iran and the incarceration “for no reason” of filmmakers, Jafar Panahi Mohammad Rasoulof, Mostafa Al-Ahmad, “guilty only of having exercised their right to freedom of expression,” he noted. But fest director Alberto Barbera at the presser made it clear that he has a lot more on his mind than sparking paparazzi and fan frenzies on the Lido.

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