“Marco Solari also completes his mission, and I will ask to transfer two of the 8,000 chairs from the Piazza Grande to a small room in the Penthaz (note: in the Cinémathèque suisse), to watch movies together in peace,” declared Alain Berset. In his final speech to open the festival at La Magistrale in Locarno before heading to the Great Square.
Fribourgeois spoke of Swiss cinema, which has taken on new colours. It has been recognized abroad “as it was at last year’s Berlinale”, and will soon benefit Lex Netflix, which people supported last year.
Marco Solari, who emphasized the power of cinema to convey the truth, thanked Alain Berset for his commitment to the seventh art.
The 76th opened early Wednesday afternoon with a retrospective dedicated to Mexican cinema from the 1940s to the 1960s. “Olimpiada en México” (1969) by Alberto Isaac was followed in the evening by other films, such as “El gran Campeón” (1949) by Chano Urueta.
In the middle of the afternoon, the Italian Swiss Orchestra played the soundtrack to Alfred Hitchcock’s The Guest (1927), considered his “first real movie”.
Of the 210 films screened until August 12, seventeen are vying for the Golden Leopard Award. Among them is the song “Dami” by Frenchman Yann Demange, in which Riz Ahmed plays alongside Isabelle Adjani, which will be released on Wednesday evening. But the British star actor, of Pakistani origin, did not come to receive an award due to the strike in Hollywood.
It is not known if Australian actress Cate Blanchett will be there to present a film she is producing: Shayda, which concerns the fate of an Iranian mother and daughter who are forced into exile.
And British director Ken Loach should not give up on Locarnese’s demonstration. His feature film “The Old Oak”, which premiered last May, was announced to be in competition at the Cannes Festival.
On the Place Grande, enthusiasts will still be able to see “The Magnetic Continent” by French director and biologist Luc Jacquet (“The Emperor’s March”) or “Royal Route” by Valezin Frédéric Mermaud after the “Criminal: France” series in particular. Streaming on Netflix.
Voodoa and Portuguese director Basil da Cunha are the only ones this year to defend the Swiss colors in the international competition for the Golden Leopard Award, whose jury is chaired by French actor Lambert Wilson.
Basil da Cunha continues his third feature film, an exploration of the Creole district of Lisbon, where he is based. “Manga D’Terra” marks his return to competition, four years after “O fim do mundo”.
Also in international competitions, we can refer to the French Quentin Dopio as the delirious “Yannick”, the Filipino Love Diaz (Golden Leopard 2014) or the Romanian Radu Jude (Berlinale Golden Bear 2021).
