L'Italo-Americano

L'Italo-Americano THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 2022 www.italoamericano.org 4 NEWS & FEATURES TOP STORIES PEOPLE EVENTS W h e n i t c o m e s t o g l a m o r a n d n a t - ional pop- ularity, the Festival del Cinema di Venezia is the I t a l i a n e q u i v a l e n t o f t h e Oscars. The connection with t h e f a m o u s U S c i n e m a t i c awards runs even deeper, w h e n y o u c o n s i d e r h o w , often, the movies triumph- ing on the Lido end up with a statuette in Los Angeles, too. In 2022, the Festival cel- ebrates its 79 th edition even if, to be truthful to its history, it has been running for longer – and we'll see why in this very article – each edition a mirror to the styles, trends, aesthetics of the times in which it had taken place. When you look at the Festival del Cinema in retrospective, and you do so by widening your per- spective to include not only cinema, but all that moves around it, then these two weeks on the Lido, Venice's own way to introduce the world to the cold season, t u r n i n t o a n i m p o r t a n t instrument to understand a n d f r a m e t i m e s a n d moments. Take this year's edition, for instance: it'll always be remembered as t h e o n e w h e n U k r a i n i a n P r e s i d e n t V o l o d y m y r Zelenskiy called on the world of cinema and, by extension, the arts, not to forget the horror of war, lest the names of its victims are forgotten. If there is something that art, in all its forms, knows how to do is to offer a voice, a face, a page to sorrow and pain, making universal the per- s o n a l , a n d p e r s o n a l t h e universal. But there is also another s i d e t o t h e F e s t i v a l , o n e that isn't explored or taken into account often, that of its "places:" the Lido, of course, but also the Palaz- zo del Cinema and the Palazzo del Casinò loca- tions where the history of cinema has been made and i c o n s o f m a n y a n e r a sashayed through. But also hotels and cafés in the old city, places we can experi- ence ourselves. So, let us read the histo- ry of the Venice Film Festi- val as if it were a novella. Let us walk through its set- tings and present its pro- tagonists. It's a tale that s t a r t e d i n 1 9 3 2 a n d i t ' s from there that we'll begin. But first, we should intro- duce its backdrop, the Lido di Venezia. We couldn't start from anywhere else. The Lido is one of the most p o p u l a t e d i s l a n d s i n t h e l a g o o n , a s t r i p o f l a n d s t a n d i n g , a l m o s t a s a defense, between the city Continued to page 6 The places, faces and flavors or the Mostra del Cinema di Venezia The Golden Lion symbol of the Venice Film Festival (Photo: D-VISIONS/Shutterstock) FRANCESCA BEZZONE

• Cover