Psychosight on Venice 80

At the Venice Film Festival this year, the eyes seem to be on the unconscious, both individual and collective. Starting from the opening film, Comandante, in which we breathe the war, which comes with its hurricane winds and does not seem to cease. Io Capitano is about the terrible and long-standing issue of migrants, which he describes in a realistic and raw way. He wants to make those in denial understand what it means to leave their homeland and risk their lives to pursue hope and find all the human violence. Related to this is the grotesque and ruthless tale of El Conde, where all forms of totalitarianism are denounced in addition to the cruelty of Pinochet. Again, questions about ongoing identity and sexual changes through the myth of a daughter of Frankenstein who emancipates herself as a subject no longer artifactual in Poor Things. Manifesto of the dream of a more accessible and freely expressed female sexuality. And Liliana Cavani’s Existential Questions. A reflection on the need for authenticity in relationships and intimate ties and the need for love as a first necessity. When it is missing, however, absolutely, and is replaced by violence, the gaze comes to Dogman. The camera is pointed at the psychic world of an abused child. Instead of the collective unconscious, Origin is an overview of the link between racism, the Holocaust and “castes” in India. Then Amor takes us through the experiences of those left behind when a parent takes their own life. Mestro tells the all-personal, wrenching, painful story of an existential journey, expressing the need for emotional solidity and a different sexual choice. In Ferrari, the focus is on the protagonist’s moody condition and instability in feelings. The dysfunctional family and its repercussions are the protagonists instead of Aeneas. From Psycholidus, for now, that is all. But one could go on with the films of Venice 80, which increasingly put on display the fragility and strength of the human psyche.