You can add Jane Campion’s new film, “The Power of the Dog,” to what I keep hearing will be an absolutely astonishing 2021 Venice Film Festival. (Variety)
If you remember, the film was aiming to premiere at Cannes, but the Netflix issue at the heart of that festival hasn’t been solved. A real shame since Campion remains the only female director to ever win the Palme d’Or with 1993’s “The Piano.”
The synopsis for “The Power of the Dog” is said to follow “two brothers in 1920s Montana as they come to blows over the fact that one of them marries a woman secretly. The upset brother then wages war against the new addition to the family.”
And so, with Denis Villeneuve’s “Dune” also Venice-bound, it all begs us to ask the question; will Venice outshine Cannes this year? This is having some in the industry buzzing, but don’t be fooled, Cannes is still the Mecca of cinema. If you’re looking for Oscar-buzz then, yeah, maybe Venice wins, but, in terms of pure world cinema quality, Cannes always gets the top spot.
With that being said, I am continuing on with my Venice predictions, updated below, and it is looking like it will be a mighty fine edition filled with big names. Just look at some of the titles destined for the Lido this year:
"Dune" - Denis Villenueve
"Soggy Bottom" - Paul Thomas Anderson
"Blonde" - Andrew Dominik
"The Power of the Dog" - Jane Campion
"The Tragedy of Macbeth" - Joel Coen
"Benediction" - Terrence Davies
"The Card Counter" - Paul Schrader
"The Hand of God" - Paolo Sorrentino
"Spencer" - Pablo Larrain
"Fire" - Claire Denis
"Decision to Leave" - Park Chan-wook
"The Eternal Daughter" - Joanna Hogg
"Driftwood" - Michel Franco
"Il buco" - Michelangelo Frammartino
"Mona Lisa and the Blood Moon" - Ana Lily Amirpour
"House of Gucci" - Ridley Scott
Compare the above to Cannes 2021 filmmakers (Anderson, Carax, Verhoeven, Farhadi, Weerasethakul, Baker, Audiard, Hansen-Love, Ozon) and it’s a fair fight.