Venice 81 and its emotions 

The air on the Lido is similar to the weather that characterised this Venice 81, from tropical heat to autumn blizzard. The uncertain climate is not only that of the weather but also that of our times. And if cinema has always reflected them, then this festival staged them. Precariousness, doubt, and insecurity were represented. Joker’s great dilemma (am I Arthur, real but desperate, or Joker, fake but worthy of the love of a woman and the masses?) is not far from Einstein’s question to Freud in Why War. The increasingly flamboyant ladies’ dresses at the Excelsior act as a contrast and, at the same time, as a resonance to the despair of the protagonist of those films, so many, about the many wars in the world. Not only those fought with bombs but also those of the humans, terrible conflicts that range in the most varied forms. Familia, when madness acts out in the private family, or April, where it passes through the theme of abortion. And one could go on. Is there hope, then, for us, for art and beauty? It seems to be the question that accompanies us as the gates of this festival close. Dum vita est, vita est. Let us console ourselves in this way and carry within us this emotion and this hope, nourished by that unique and magnificent sunset over the Lagoon.