In late August on the Lido, with September approaching, the Venice Film Festival once again takes on the feel of an annual ritual: critics and film lovers are easy to spot by their bright red festival bags, while the main conversations unfold inside the theaters and outside them, where some wait for screenings and others try to secure seats for the most sought-after films.
This year, the island is preparing for a particularly visible Hollywood presence. After the Cannes Film Festival left every Netflix production out of competition, Venice placed three films from the American streaming company in its main lineup: Jay Kelly by Noah Baumbach starring George Clooney and Adam Sandler, Luca Guadagnino’s meToo drama After the Hunt with Julia Roberts and Ayo Edebiri, and Kathryn Bigelow’s return to feature filmmaking with House of Dynamite, starring Rebecca Ferguson, known for playing Juliette Nichols in the series Silo and Lady Jessica in Denis Villeneuve’s Dune.
Netflix is also one of the sponsors of the festival’s opening film, Grace by Paolo Sorrentino. The director’s new work continues his familiar line of stories about elderly men who inspire nearly total admiration from those around them.
The film’s central character is Italian President Mariano De Santis, played by Sorrentino regular Toni Servillo. He is preparing to leave office, yet he cannot come to terms with two blows at once: the death of his beloved wife and the tormenting suspicion that forty years earlier she had been unfaithful to him. His closest friend becomes the main suspect.
Although the Italian presidency, much like the German one, is largely ceremonial, De Santis still holds important bureaucratic powers. Among other things, he delays signing a new law legalizing euthanasia, despite persistent pressure from his daughter, played by Anna Ferzetti.
At the same time, the president’s best friend, portrayed by Massimo Venturiello, may be either a traitor or merely a figure shaped by De Santis’s own suspicions. He hopes to take Mariano’s office after his departure and brings him two pardon requests to sign, one from a man and one from a woman, each of whom killed a spouse.