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George Clooney is the undoubted star of the show as the Venice Film Festival opens for its 83rd edition.
In the nearly 30 years since he first stepped onto the Lido Out of Sight, he’s become something of a staple fixture. It’s a city where he’s enjoyed many significant moments, from his wedding at the Aman Venice to the debut of Good Night, and Good Luck, which earned him his first Oscar nomination for best director.
Now, the actor, director and producer is due to receive a lifetime achievement award but when facing the press, he didn’t appear to want to talk much about the journey that’s led him to be the centre of the spotlight at the world’s oldest celebration of cinema.
Ahead of the prize-giving ceremony on Wednesday, the 65-year-old wanted to discuss anything and everything it seemed but his life on or behind the camera.
Whether it was talk of artificial intelligence,climate change, power brokers in Hollywood and beyond and the state of journalism today, Clooney had two cents and more to spend on a range of topics.
“There’s a great word, kakistocracy, which is a country run by the least qualified people,” he said. “I think maybe we have a kakistocracy right now. But we’ll get through it.”
On artificial intelligence, Clooney said that his industry is going to have to find ways to survive, and that he would “like to avoid being in a tampon commercial 20 years after I’m dead.”
He also criticised the fact that some of the world’s richest men own The Washington Post and X and said that the proposed merger of Paramount and Warner Bros. was “a complicated thing because I don’t know how this works out, I don’t know how it goes through.”
The state we are in
Clooney was by no means alone is decrying the state of current affairs. Jury president Maggie Gyllenhaal also made her feelings clear on a variety of subjects including, sexism, politics and conflicts.
“Look, we could say how are we possibly here talking about movies right now when the world is in a state of emergency,” Gyllenhaal said. “To me the answer has something to do with empathy.”
She also addressed the dearth of female directors in the competition lineup, with only one film directed by a woman. Perhaps in response to critics, just last week, NAZA – a documentary about Gaza co-directed by a woman – was added to the lineup.
“I guess it’s just finally become clear that men make better movies than women do,” Gyllenhaal joked, before speaking about the systemic issues facing female directors, like financing and preconceived notions about high art.
Over the course of 11 days, many stars and celebrities from Hollywood and beyond are expected on the red carpet, from Robert Pattinson to Noel and Liam Gallagher of Oasis.
The sprawling lineup also includes documentaries about , Elon Musk (Musk) and independent Russian journalists covering the war in Ukraine (My Undesirable Friends — Part II: Exile) as well as Palestinian films and a short about U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Minneapolis.
The festival will open with Danny Boyle’s Ink a competition title featuring Guy Pearce as media baron Rupert Murdoch and Jack O’Connell as tabloid newspaper editor Larry Lamb. The movie dramatises Murdoch’s acquisition of The Sun newspaper in 1969 and how Lamb reversed its fortunes from a failing venture into Britain’s bestselling daily.
The Venice Film Festival runs until Saturday 12 September.