Venice hails Hollywood's hype
(Agencies)
Updated: 2004-09-03 15:29

John Travolta, playing a shambling alcoholic in his latest movie alongside Scarlett Johansson, and a French movie about failed love caught the eye of critics at the 61st Venice International Film Festival.

US actress Scarlett Johansson(L) smiles as she poses with actor John Travolta during a photo call at the 61st Venice International Film Festival. [AFP]

French director Francois Ozon's "5 x 2" (Cinq fois deux) immediately put itself in contention for the prestigious Golden Lion when it was warmly received by critics at a preview, while a Greek film in competition was slated.

Ozon's film is about five moments in the life of a modern young couple -- five scenes running from separation, back through a dinner with friends, the birth of their child, their marriage and their first meeting.

"I wanted to talks about the couple, of the difficulty that people that I know have living 'a deux'," Ozon told a press conference in Venice.

One of three French films vying for the top prize at the world's oldest film festival, it features strong performances from Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi and Stephane Freiss.

Travolta's film is not in competition, but has caught the eye because of his performance as a dissolute old soak forced to face up to his past.

Set against the sultry backdrop of New Orleans, "A Love Song for Bobby Long" features the star of "Pulp Fiction" slipping effortlessly into the character of an alcoholic, white-haired literature professor, complete with the classic drawl of America's deep south.

Shainee Gabel sentimental first feature tells the story of misfit teenager Johansson returning to New Orleans on her mother's death to find Travolta, the bawdy drop-out professor of the title, and his protege-turned-biographer Lawson Pines, played by Gabriel Macht, living in her house.

The dialogue between Travolta's character and Macht is peppered with literary quotations and allusions.

"A big influence on wanting to write the film is the city of New Orleans itself and the city of New Orleans is kind of a hotbed of writers, like William Faulkner to Tenessee Williams. It's something very vibrant, vital, evocative about the city," Gabel told a press conference in Venice.

Travolta, whose performance as a dying man has won rave reviews here, was taken by the script's literary references.

"I grew up on Tennessee Williams in plays and on screen so when Shainee submitted the script to me it seemed almost a contemporary Tennessee Williams to me."

The story of a three people's rediscovery of their past also features a strong performance from Johansson, who has already won the battle for Venice's hearts and minds with her stunning performance, as well as presence, in last year's festival with Sofia Coppola's "Lost in Translation".

"New Orleans is a character itself in the film. And its such a sexy, dirty hot place to be, that I think it influenced all of us pretty much," said Johansson.

"It's such a spiritual place that the eclipse the characters make in the film couldn't really happen anywhere else, I think."

Johansson, not yet 20, is also on the jury given the task of choosing the recipient of the Golden Lion, the festival's best film of the 21 in competition.

Greek director Nikos Panayotopoulos's entry, "Delivery", set among the immigrants and displaced of Athens' teeming fringes, is a dark, snail's-paced tale of everyday exile and tells the story of a young man who has a brief affair with a junkie.

It was roundly jeered by critics at a preview, a sign that festival director Marco Muller's decision to emphasise Hollywood glitz this year has won Venice's heart so far.

Jonathan Demme's "The Manchurian Candidate" -- a story of money influencing politics which had its European premiere here Thursday -- was well received.

The taut psychological thriller, which stars Meryl Streep as a razor-tongued US senator, features Washington as an US army major suspicious of his experiences in Desert Storm.

Streep said the film, released this summer in the US, "is being very well received at home, because it's such a time that (is) politically very charged and people have all the issues where money influences politics on their minds".

Demme denied the film had any particular political message in an election year.

"I feel that Manchurian Candidate is first and foremost a thriller. I approached it with the idea I was going to try to shape the film like a film I did earlier, 'Silence of the Lambs'," he said.

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