Birth of the Mostra
It was in Venice, in 1896, that Alexandre Promio, operator for the Lumière brothers, captured one of his best-known shots: a panorama of the Grand Canal from a boat. This was the first intentional tracking shot (parallel movement of the camera in relation to the subject). With this entry into the world of cinema, Venice had already established itself as an important city in the 7th art. In 1932, it made its mark with the creation of the Mostra Internazionale d'Arte Cinematografica. The festival was named the first international exhibition of cinematographic art. Like its French neighbor, the Festival de Cannes, it remains a benchmark for the profession and the world of the 7th art. The first Mostra, the brainchild of the president of the Venice Biennale and other colleagues, was not yet a competition. The festival simply presented a number of films that went on to become veritable classics, such as Frank Capra's Amour défendu (1932) and James Whale's Frankenstein (1931). The hottest stars of the day flocked to this first Venetian film event: Greta Garbo, Clark Gable, not to mention Italian director Vittorio de Sica. The Mostra appears briefly in La Dame sans Camélia (1953) by Italian director Michelangelo Antonioni. For almost 90 years, at the end of summer, the world's top cinema stars have gathered on the Lido beach to attend the presentation of prizes and awards: the Lions, like the Palmes at Cannes and the Ours at the Berlin Festival.
The assets of heart
Whether by stealth or for the entire plot, Venice is featured in over 200 works of fiction. While all these films are obviously of different styles, one film genre is particularly attached to the city: romance. If this category is cliché, it is also totally in keeping with the universal vision of Venice: that of the city of love. Indeed, Venice is the homeland of the King of Hearts, Casanova, whose detestable persona is depicted in Fellini's 1976 film. The film, set in Rome's Cinecittà studios, is called Fellini's Casanova. In this way, the director supports a personal vision of the character rather than an actual biography. Some of the romantic works set in Venice also tell the story of tourists, such as Jane (Katharine Hepburn) in Holidays in Venice (1955), a single woman in her 40s who crosses paths with a seductive antique dealer, or Bruce Willis and Michelle Pfeiffer in A Life Together (1999), who come to the beautiful Veneto to strengthen their relationship. Directors can't resist filming the city's finest stereotypes, such as the romantic gondola ride shared by Serge Reggiani and Martine Carol in Les Amants de Vérone (1949), André Cayatte's adaptation of Romeo and Juliet.
Spleen and wanderings
In addition to romance, Venice is also a fertile breeding ground for melancholy wanderings and other torments. Thus, in the drama category, we find Orson Welles' unrivalled Othello (1952), which took two years to make and three actresses to play Desdemona (Lea Padovani, Cécile Aubry and Betsy Blair). Also worth mentioning is Michael Radford's adaptation of The Merchant of Venice (2004), starring the legendary Al Pacino, Jeremy Irons and Joseph Fiennes. The plot takes place in gloomy, decadent Venice, and denounces the injustices done to Jews at the end of the 16th century, when they lived in seclusion in the ghetto. Venice's cinematic image is sometimes less than glowing, as the city is depicted as abandoned or dying. This is the case in two films by Italian director Luchino Visconti: Senso (1954) and Death in Venice (1971). Senso tells the story of Countess Livia Serpieri, in love with an Austrian officer who betrays her: she finds herself embroiled in the plots of the Carbonari and the Italian Risorgimento. The film depicts Venice in ruins. The film provoked controversy at the Venice Film Festival, and was ignored by the jury, who preferred to award the Golden Lion to Renato Castellani for Giulietta e Romeo. Death in Venice presents a Venice devastated by cholera, and serves as the backdrop for the heart-rending story of a sick professor and his unavowable passion for a young ephebe. The professor's death on the Lido beach is absolutely sad.
Pursuit and destruction
But the Veneto is also a place for adventure and action, as in Braquage à l'italienne (2003), where Charlie Croker (Mark Wahlberg) and his team (Donald Sutherland, Edward Norton, Mos Def...) plan the perfect heist in Venice. Everything goes off without a hitch, but that's without taking into account the presence of a traitor in their midst... The famous James Bond also invites himself to the Italian city, as in Moonraker (1979), where 007, played by Roger Moore, takes us on a chase across the Venetian lagoon, and also in Casino Royale (2006), where the seductive agent, this time in the guise of Daniel Craig, takes his conquest to the magnificent Hotel Cipriani. Let's not forget the spectacular scene of the collapse of the Benedetto Marcello Conservatory, fortunately only fictionalized. In the action film genre, let's not forget Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck's The Tourist (2010) or Ron Howard's Inferno (2016). A suspenseful remake of Anthony Zimmer's French film, The Tourist, starring Angelina Jolie and Johnny Depp, takes viewers on a sensational journey through the Venetian lagoon. Particularly noteworthy are the scenes shot at the luxury Hotel Danieli and the Mercati di Rialto. Inferno is the third installment in the adventures of Robert Langdon (Tom Hanks). The famous symbology expert is on a quest for his memory, across Europe and particularly Italy. While many of the film's settings are in Florence, the Basilica di San Marco stands out, once again lending its magnificent finery to the cinema.
