Yesterday and today Venice Film Festival has been punctuated by great movies, in competition and in the other section. But the spotlight has been turned on another aspect that enhances the vitality of cinema, its ability to attract, and sometimes co-opt, personalities usually distant from art-house cinema, sharing energy and power of attraction for the benefit of the audience or the fans approaching cinema venues to follow their heroes. It happened yesterday with the passage in the Orizzonti section of Pippo Mezzapesa‘s Ti mangio il cuore, the debut movie for singer and TV host Elodie. Olivia Wilde’s Don’t Worry Darling stars former One Direction’s Harry Styles, now a solo Pop star revered by legions of devoted young people. Elodie was convincing both in her role as Marilena, a Gargano mafia woman who escapes her fate. She explained she chose to make her film debut because she “wanted a different and deeper experience than music”. And she was besieged by fans throughout the day. Harry Styles – also surprising in his first time as an actor – will be responsible for an actual invasion of fans on the Lido today. And maybe he will share the audience with another showbiz sex symbol, the Turkish Can Yaman, who is still not confident with art-house cinema but is building a career with popular series after starting with telenovelas. It’s easy to imagine what will happen: film lovers, who experience the Festival as an island, a circle for initiates, will be overwhelmed by screaming fans who will overwhelm everything. And they will grumble against that “alien invasion” that, in the name of showbiz “, dirties” their passion and the film world itself. However, in these “fluid” times and half-empty teathres, a question comes to mind: if characters from other worlds choose to measure themselves against cinema, or even just to come on board as guests for a ride, bringing with them legions of fans who generally don’t go to the movies, are we sure that for cinema this is bad news?
Cinema and its guests
