As I took a vaporetto from Venice Marco Polo airport, I used to be surprised to see an enormous gray submarine rising from the lagoon.
When the 2 vessels drew nearer, I noticed the unmistakable determine of Denzel Washington on board, waving frantically at me, surrounded by Italian naval officers.
Momentarily, I assumed I might need to rescue Denzel from his captors – then realised it was a stunt to advertise his movie Crimson Tide, a thriller set on a submarine.
Stars: George Clooney, Sandra Bullock and Jack Nicholson have all made latest appearances on the pageant
It was 1995, and I used to be on my first go to to the Venice Movie Competition, held yearly on the finish of August on the sybaritic island of the Lido, with the lagoon on one aspect and the lapping waters of the Adriatic on the opposite.
The movie pageant is the oldest, and arguably essentially the most glamorous, on the earth.
It celebrated its seventieth version final 12 months. Remarkably, it makes little try to advertise itself to the hordes of vacationers who descend on Venice every summer season.
On the airport and on the mainland, within the neighborhood of St Mark’s Sq. and so far as the Rialto Bridge, there are not any posters for the pageant and completely nothing to point that a few of the planet’s greatest film stars are on the town.
It’s as if the town fathers have taken a vow of omerta, to permit the Italian cognoscenti to benefit from the pleasures of the pageant to the exclusion of sweaty foreigners.
Boats and sweetness: The Venice Movie Competition coincides with the colorful pageantry of the town’s Regatta Storica
But, in contrast to the Cannes Movie Competition, the place it’s just about unattainable for strange mortals to attend the red–carpet screenings, anybody can purchase tickets to the premieres and galas at Venice. They go on sale on the ticket sales space on the Lido (simply accessible by water-bus from the mainland).
I’ve not often seen queues, because the sales space is hidden away within the leafy shadows of the On line casino constructing.
At Venice the actors stroll the pink carpet, signal autographs and take pictures with the followers. So even in the event you fail to get a ticket, a selfie with a film star is a good comfort prize.
Final 12 months, the pageant opened with the world premiere of sci-fi thriller Gravity. Stars can’t arrive by limo on the Lido. As an alternative George Clooney arrived by water-taxi, accompanied by his co-star Sandra Bullock and director Alfonso Cuaron. On the press convention, when requested how he ready for the position of an astronaut, he joked: ‘Sandy and I did lots of Bikram yoga collectively.’
Afterwards, the gala dinner was within the magnificent setting of the sea-front Excelsior Resort, in two massive marquees on the seaside. This resort – a favorite of Quentin Tarantino when he served as jury president, the pinnacle of the panel judging the movies – is the primary hub of the pageant, and the terrace is a superb place to get pleasure from a sundowner.
Mild and shade: George Clooney (left; second left in shot, white shirt) arrives in Venice by water-taxi in the course of the 2013 pageant; Julie Christie (proper), experiencing a darker aspect of Venice – because the setting for Do not Look Now
Lots of the stars select to remain within the extra secluded Cipriani Resort, positioned within the verdant Giudecca island. Set primarily in a fifteenth century pastel-coloured constructing, it was opened in 1958 by Giuseppe Cipriani. The story goes that Giuseppe was impressed by the sunshine of the late night solar setting on the lagoon to create a cocktail that captured the color of the sundown.
And so the bellini was born, with its combination of prosecco and peach puree. No customer to the resort would dream of ordering anything in Harry’s Bar, named after Giuseppe’s son.
Just like the Excelsior, the Cipriani Resort has its personal personal moorings, free water-boat shuttle service and a stunning restaurant, Cips, which faces the Grand Canal.
It additionally has an Olympic-size pool and pleasant gardens.
The infamous Venetian lover Giacomo Casanova is alleged to have loved many trysts there.
It was right here on this identical backyard, because the night sunshine rippled by way of the bushes, that I attended a dinner for that modern-day lothario, Jack Nicholson.
He was starring within the Sean Penn-directed film The Crossing Guard.
Penn, producer Harvey Weinstein, actor Spike Lee and The Exorcist director William Friedkin have been friends, and it was a relaxed affair, with Nicholson carrying his trademark shades through-out dinner.
In the direction of the top of the night our host, an Italian media mogul, received as much as toast Nicholson.
Massive names: Angelina Jolie places in an look on the 2004 pageant; Denzel Washington has additionally attended
However he was so tipsy that he stumbled, barely managing to remain upright. As he stared blankly at Nicholson, it was clear he had momentarily forgotten Jack’s title, so – flashing that well-known grin – the actor got here to his rescue by shouting: ‘Jack!’ Each-one burst out laughing, and the media man appeared relieved to have escaped a ‘This is Johnny!’ scene.
British movies have been properly represented final 12 months with the world premiere of Philomena, attended by Judi Dench and Steve Coogan.
They stayed on the 14th century palace within the gilded splendour of the Resort Danieli (which additionally incorporates a nineteenth and twentieth Century palace) a number of gondola-lengths from the Bridge of Sighs.
It’s a resort steeped in celluloid heritage, with Moonraker, On line casino Royale and The Vacationer, which starred Angelina Jolie and Johnny Depp, being filmed there.
The Restaurant Terrazza Danieli, with its breathtaking views of the lagoon, might be the most well-liked spot in Venice for marriage proposals.
Final 12 months, the resort terrace performed host to a lavish get together thrown in honour of that 12 months’s jury president, Bernardo Bertolucci, the Oscar-winning director of The Final Emperor.
The theme was Bertolucci’s biggest hits so, displaying a wierd sense of humour, the resort’s chef had organized for the butter to be sculpted in homage to Marlon Brando’s well-known intercourse scene in Final Tango In Paris.
One huge movie set: Daniel Craig and Eva Inexperienced (proper of shot) filmed the climax of On line casino Royale in Venice
If cinema doesn’t float your boat, the pageant coincides with two spectacular occasions – the Regatta Storica and the unmissable arts and structure extravaganza, the Biennale.
Venice has hosted the Regatta Storica, the historic ceremonial pageant and gondola race down the Grand Canal, since 1315.
On the primary Sunday of September, hundreds congregate to catch a glimpse of the attractive boats and the brightly colored individuals who compete in conventional Venetian costumes for hotly contested prizes of pennants and the title King Of The Oar.
Little has modified since Canaletto painted the scene in 1740 – other than air pollution.
Pity any gondolier who falls into the water. When filming David Lean’s Summertime, Katharine Hepburn needed to fall into the canal backwards. She suffered a persistent eye an infection for the remainder of her life which she blamed on the Venetian waters.
Probably the greatest locations to look at all of the regatta motion is the terrace of the Resort Bauer Palazzo, the place Madonna threw her get together to have a good time the premiere of her movie about Wallis Simpson, W.E. Above the terrace, the love scenes from the long-lasting Venetian thriller Do not Look Now, starring Donald Sutherland and Julie Christie, have been shot.
Value exploring is the thirteenth century church of San Nicolo dei Mendicoli (St Nicholas of the Beggars), which Sutherland’s character is restoring within the movie.
Stars of a unique type: Characters from the large hit Despicable Me pose in a water taxi on the Excelsior Resort
It’s located within the tranquil quarter of Dorsoduro – and its shady courtyard, overlooking somewhat canal, offers a welcome respite from the vacationers and the scorching solar. The success of the film helped the church increase the funds vital to revive it.
A preferred restaurant with festival-goers is Locanda Cipriani on the romantic island of Torcello, the primary Venetian island to be inhabited, and nonetheless blissfully peaceable, with sheep usually wandering round its fairly city sq.. The island options in Betrayal, Harold Pinter’s play about marital infidelity (impressed by his personal real-life affair with Joan Bakewell).
The restaurant backyard is the scene of many marriage proposals – but when the large query fails to materialise over a meal there, within the close by cathedral courtyard is a stone throne, supposedly constructed by Atilla the Hun. Legend has it that whoever sits on will probably be married inside a 12 months.
Casanova would have run a mile.
This 12 months’s pageant opens on August 27 with the world premiere of Birdman, starring Michael Keaton and Naomi Watts.
On this period of perpetual change, there’s something life-affirming concerning the old-world glamour of the Venice Movie Competition. With its choice of cinema from everywhere in the world, it’s following in one of the best traditions of Venice’s favorite son, the famend adventurer Marco Polo.
If he have been alive at this time, it’s absolutely a pageant he would wish to discover.
Frank Mannion is a movie producer whose film The Quispe Ladies received Finest Cinematography at Venice 2013.
