For starters, The appetizer of the 81st edition of the Venice Film Festival opens with the world premiere of Beetlejuice Beetlejuice. A “unique” title like the 1988 film (Beetlejuice) that Tim Burton had the courage to exhume and re-propose with the highly anticipated sequel, full of stars that shine in an exceptional cast: Michael Keaton in the role of the titular demon, Catherine O’Hara, Winona Ryder in the role of Lydia, now mother of his sulky teenager played by Jenna Ortega. “I’m not going to make a big sequel for money,” Burton said a few hours before the premiere, with the cast at his side. “I wanted to do it for very personal reasons.”
Venice Film Festival, never so many stars
Fulvia Caprara
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice was the push he needed to fall in love with cinema again: “I’ve gotten disillusioned with the film industry over the last few years, so I wanted to do something that felt personal and real. Beetlejuice reenergized me to get back to doing the things I love to do with the people I love, which is even more special with the new cast that has really meshed with his spirit,” the director said. The film arrives 36 years after audiences first met the Deetz family. While the original Beetlejuice remains a hit, Burton said he never quite understood why it “was such a success.” “There are so few opportunities to be in something that is 100 percent original and unique,” Keaton said, joking about his character’s evolution. “I think my character has matured,” the actor added. “As soft and sensitive as he was in the first film, I think he’s even more so in this one.”
First Day of the Venice Film Festival: Glamour on Show, from Tim Burton to Monica Bellucci
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice opens in theaters around the world next week promising record attendance, but despite an exceptional cast Burton jokes: “It’s not going to win any Academy Awards for special effects. It doesn’t matter. It’s part of the DNA of the project.” Winona Ryder was 15 when she played Lydia for the first time: “The first time was a really special experience, just to be able to do it again was a dream come true,” the actress said. “My love and trust for Tim is so deep. You feel safe and also completely free.” In addition to Ortega, new to the world of Beetlejuice are Justin Theroux, who plays Lydia’s sleazy boyfriend and manager, Willem Dafoe as a dead cop/actor, and Monica Belluci as a soul-sucking ghost seeking revenge on her ex, Beetlejuice. Bellucci calls him by his first and last name, even though he is currently her life partner: «For me it was a great honor to become part of this cast and of Tim Burton’s world», says the actress, who then loosens up a bit and celebrates her cinema-love: «Tim is an artist, a director, a filmmaker who is able to create fantastic, scary and funny situations. This helped me create a character with a strong duality. She is evil but fascinating: a metaphor for life because we all have emotional scars».
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Among the next stars expected on the red carpet, Angelina Jolie, Brad Pitt, George Clooney, Lady Gaga. Artistic director Alberto Barbera is beside himself: “It’s been years since we’ve seen such a presence of stars, actors and actresses from all over the world in Venice like this year. It’s the opposite of last year. Last year there was a lot of concern that the absence of talent on the red carpet” due to the Hollywood strike “could somehow undermine the effectiveness of this Festival machine”, says Barbera, according to whom today on the contrary “expectations are very high, the hope that I have for myself and for everyone is that these expectations will not be disappointed, that the result will confirm the expectations and that the films will be liked as much as we who selected them did”. Isabelle Huppert, president of the jury of the 81st edition of the Venice Film Festival, says she is “excited and honored to be here, I started a long story with Venice a long time ago. I am worried about the things that everyone worries about: making sure that cinema continues to live because now it is very weak”.
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