Ghouls, Gotham and Gaga as Venice film festival opens

Venice, Italy — The Venice Film Festival kicks off Wednesday with a devilish debut of Tim Burton’s “Beetlejuice” sequel and a surge of star power for the glitzy competition on the sun-splashed Lido.

Lady Gaga, George Clooney, Daniel Craig, Julianne Moore and Brad Pitt are among the A-listers expected in Italy;s watery city for this year’s edition of the world’s longest-running festival, known as “La Mostra.”

Arriving via water taxi from across the Venetian lagoon for the 10-day event, the celebrities will return some big-budget Hollywood pizzazz to the venerated festival following a low-key edition last year due to the Hollywood strike.

First up is the out-of-competition world premiere of “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice”, featuring Michael Keaton as the chaos-causing ghoul alongside Winona Ryder, Catherine O’ Hara and Monica Bellucci.

Then on Thursday, all eyes are on Angelina Jolie, making a star turn as Maria Callas in “Maria,” Pablo Larrain’s biopic about the opera diva’s tormented life.

It is among 21 international films vying for the top Golden Lion prize to be awarded Sept. 7.

“There hasn’t been such a consistent presence of star actors from so many countries perhaps for more than 20 years,” festival director Alberto Barbera told AFP, adding that their presence “can only do good” to bring attention to films.

Much anticipated is the dark psychological thriller “Joker: Folie a Deux,” the sequel to US director Todd Phillips’ 2019 Venice-winning film loosely based on the “DC Comics” characters and set in a gritty Gotham City.

The sequel brings back Joaquin Phoenix, who won an Academy Award for his depiction of the failed clown descending into mental illness, this time paired with Lady Gaga as his sidekick and love interest Harley Quinn.

Daniel Craig stars in “Queer” from Italy’s Luca Guadagnino, an adaptation of the William Burroughs novel set in 1940s Mexico City, while Australian director Justin Kurzel’s “The Order” features Jude Law as an FBI agent investigating white supremacy in the Pacific Northwest.

Venice regular Pedro Almodovar of Spain is back with his first full-length film in English, “The Room Next Door,” with Moore and Tilda Swinton.

Nicole Kidman stars with Antonio Banderas in the erotic thriller “Babygirl” from Dutch director Halina Reijn, about a powerful woman CEO who embarks on a torrid affair with a much-younger male intern.

The roster also includes US director Brady Corbet’s “The Brutalist,” featuring Adrien Brody as a Hungarian Jewish architect who emigrates to America after World War II and embarks on a project promising to change the course of his life.

War, onscreen

Despite the fanfare of the studio films and their stars, the festival still welcomes lesser-known directors and experimental formats, while providing a venue for the exploration of difficult, topical subjects.

The festival includes two documentaries about the Ukraine war, with “Songs of Slow Burning Earth” by Ukrainian director Olha Zhurba described as an “audiovisual diary of Ukraine’s immersion into the abyss.”

“Russians at War” sees Russian-Canadian filmmaker Anastasia Trofimova embedded with a Russian army battalion in eastern Ukraine, its young soldiers struggling to understand why they are fighting.

Such questions fuel “Why War” by Israel director Amos Gitai, based on correspondence between two of the 20th century’s brightest minds — Albert Einstein and Sigmund Freud — on the subject of war.

Sweden’s Goran Hugo Olsson delved into 30 years of public broadcasting archives for “Israel Palestine on Swedish Television 1958-1989,” weaving footage from both sides of the ongoing conflict in what the director has called his “most painful film” to date.

All four films are playing out of competition.

Cult classic

With “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice,” fans of Burton’s dark and oddball cinematic approach get to revisit his 1988 cult classic 36 years later.

The “Edward Scissorhands” director updates the non-conventional family drama centered on protagonist Lydia, played by Ryder, whose teenage daughter (Jenna Ortega) discovers a mystery in the attic, accidentally unleashing mayhem once again on the Deetz household.

Netflix — which has seen great success debuting its films on the Lido before their small-screen release — is absent this year.

Instead, Apple TV+ is presenting Jon Watts’ action comedy “Wolfs” with Pitt and Clooney playing rival professional fixers, and thriller series “Disclaimer” with Cate Blanchett, Kevin Kline and Sacha Baron Cohen.

At Wednesday’s opening night, “Alien” star Sigourney Weaver will receive an honorary Golden Lion for lifetime achievement.