(By Denis Greenan).
The 74th Venice Film Festival has
kicked off in fine style with the well-received latest offerings
from American indie director Alexander Payne and Mexican fantasy
moviemaker Guillermo del Toro.
The opening film of the 74th Venice Film Festival, Payne's
Downsizing, was met with warm applause Wednesday night.
The audience hailed the American director and the cast, led
by Matt Damon.
Italian President Sergio Mattarella was among the pleased
spectators.
The Guardian gave the film five stars and called it a
"miniature masterpiece".
"Damon stars as a man who shrinks down to the height of five
inches in Payne's sci-fi comedy, a winningly inventive tale of
masculinity in crisis", it said.
Variety said the fest opened "on an upward trajectory" with
Payne's sci-fi comedy "eliciting plenty of praise and bolstering
the Lido's status as a prime awards-season launching pad".
"Payne and stars Matt Damon, Hong Chau and Kristen Wiig
pranced down the red carpet on a balmy evening promoting the
Paramount pic in which humans agree to get shrunk down in order
to live luxuriously in a government resort as part of an effort
to save the planet from overpopulation.
"The paparazzi had a feeding frenzy."
Variety also praised jury chair Annette Bening's "stirring
speech" on the magic of cinema.
On Thursday del Toro's in-competition fantasy horror film The
Shape of Water got a warm press reception.
The poetic offering tells the love story between a dumb girl
(Sally Hawkins) and a mysterious amphibious creature over which
Cold War America and the USSR are fighting.
The film was presented by the Mexican director, Hawkins,
costars Octavia Spencer and Richard Jenkins, and score author
Alexandre Desplat.
Of the top-notch cast, only Michael Shannon was missing.
Giving it four stars, the Guardian said Del Toro's fantasy
has a "monster-sized heart".
"Sally Hawkins stars as a cleaner smitten with a scaly
underwater beast in this cold war-era creature feature that
melds ravishing romance with B-movie thrills," the British daily
said.
The fest runs through September 9.
photo: Downsizing cast and director
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