Technically, Day Four at the Venice Film Festival started at midnight for me, walking out of the after party for “Babygirl” still abuzz, trying and failing to slyly make it onto the water taxi headed to star Harris Dickinson’s after after party under the noses of A24 employees. The preceding event was one of the few gatherings happening during the festival to invite over some press to rub elbows with lead Nicole Kidman, director Halina Reijn, and company, as well as director Christos Nikou (“Fingernails”) and actress Taylor Russell (“Bones and All”) who are each serving on a different jury at La Biennale this year.
While that all made for an exciting start, the day’s offerings made for a more lowkey Saturday, with earlier screenings of films like “Battleground” and “And Their Children After Them,” both competition titles, only drawing moderate buzz. Even the premiere of Israeli filmmaker Amos Gitai’s “Why War,” a film whose inclusion at the festival was so controversial that 300 artists signed a letter in protest of the festival screening it due to the assertion that it was “created by complicit Israeli production companies that contribute to apartheid, occupation and now genocide through their silence or active participation in artwashing,” was mostly unremarked upon by people actually on the Lido. (For his part, Gitai stated at the film’s press conference that “Why War” hadn’t received any Israeli state money.)
What ultimately drew the greatest crowd was the latest film from Australian director Justin Kurzel, “The Order,” which is an Amazon film internationally, but an upcoming Vertical Entertainment release in the United States. Starring Jude Law, Nicholas Hoult, Tye Sheridan, Jurnee Smollett, and Marc Maron in an extended cameo as real life outspoken radio personality Alan Berg, “The Order” tells the story of cops chasing a group of bank robbers in the Pacific Northwest who become forerunners for the modern white supremacist domestic terror movement.
“It felt like a piece of work that needed to be made now. It’s always interesting finding a piece from the past that has some relevant relationship to the present day,” said Law at the Venice press conference for the film, according to Variety. However, rumor has it that “The Order” was seen as one of the more difficult films for a major company to release during a contentious election year, given how the subject matter aligns with some of the most vocal supporters of a certain former Republican president currently running for office.
Reviews were mostly positive for what is essentially the type of action thriller that would skyrocket up the streaming charts once it is available for rent. A fellow festivalgoer told me if I wanted a more indepth depiction of that crowd, the Critics’ Week section of the festival is screening a documentary titled “Homegrown,” from director Michael Premo, that follows the lives of three members of Proud Boys, a white nationalist group that participated in the January 6 insurrection.
But one popular notion that it seems time to dispel here: reports of how much applause a film got are wildly inflated. Using “The Order” as an example, no, it did not get a 10 minute standing ovation. Just like any other premiere, attendees clapped for the cast and crew throughout the film’s credit. The real applause length to keep track of is how long the audience claps after the credits are over, and the film’s present talent are ostensibly free to now leave the Sala Grande. For “The Order,” this section of the applause was around three minutes, still not bad for a competition title.
Within 15 minutes, the tides were already turning, with the more grown up, dressed to the nines crowd leaving the theater, and Venice’s younger, streetwear-laden attendees filing in for the premiere of Harmony Korine’s latest film “Baby Invasion.” At the press conference for the film earlier in the day, the “Spring Breakers” filmmaker, who was at the festival just last year with “Aggro Dr1ft,” the first project he produced through his new multimedia design collective EDGLRD, made a point of calling out Hollywood for its lack of embrace for the creatives and the forms of entertainment like gaming and livestreaming that command the attention of the youth.
“What’s happening in Hollywood — and you’re starting to see Hollywood, I think, crumble creatively — is that they’re losing a lot of the most talented and creative minds to gaming and to streamers,” said Korine. “IShowSpeed is a movie, Kai Cenat is a movie.” Proving his provocative point, the shoutouts to the two giants in the livestreaming space went over the heads of most of the conference attendees.
But the kids that get it, got it, and the reaction to the midnight premiere of “Baby Invasion” ending with a rapturous applause from the viewers that stuck around to see the abstract first-person shooter inspired project. However, it technically kicking off Day 5 means there shall be more to come on the film in the next diary, which should also cover “The Brutalist,” an over three hour epic from “Vox Lux” director Brady Corbet, which is slowly becoming the talk of the town after a couple preview screenings that occurred the day before its premiere.
Keep reading IndieWire each day to learn about more highlights from the Venice Film Festival, whether it is Competition Jury president Isabelle Huppert’s defense of cinema, audiences fawning over Angelina Jolie as Maria Callas, or Nicole Kidman livening up the Lido with “Babygirl.”
