September 27, 2019

Venice and the Venetian Film Festival


Have you ever had something happen so crazy, not even you can believe it? It happened to us at the Venice Film festival, in Italy.  




When Bec and I arrived in Venice, I immediately noticed three things. The architecture that look theatrical. The lagoon. And, the water-bus known as, "Vaporetto." Vaporetto is a bright yellow ferry. It hauls passengers from all over the world. We met Brits, Germans, French, Mexican, Chinese, Indian. Literally a mole sample of the world. We were all doing the same thing. Taking pictures! Bec and I were doing one thing different... We were dragging six hundred pounds of luggage. The cool thing about the Vaporetto is that it moves along at a snails pace, allowing you to take in the beauty. There were multiple stops which are all named after Christian Martyrs. Our stop was Saint Samuelle. When we got half way down the lagoon, past the famous Rialto Bridge, we passed the most magical buildings I have ever seen. These renaissance mansions with dashes of goth and Arabic architecture literally look like buildings floating on the water. 



The streets are lined with beautiful gas lamps that have arms curling like vines. Rose glass lights the lava brick streets. Gondolas pass us us with Opera singers bellowing so loud, their voices echo off the walls.  



The next day, when we woke up, we were even more surprised by this magnificent city. The alleys are not streets, but canals. You can of course walk from island to island, but you have to know where the bridge is and google maps has a nasty habit of leading to water taxi ports. So there is a lot of back tracking and guess work involved in the navigation. Once again we were back on the Vaporetto, this time, we were headed to Lido.  





Ads on buildings advertised the films at the festival, so we knew what was playing. Brad Pitt was a familiar face. As was Johnny Depp, Kristen Stewart, and Joaquin Phoenix. And although we have been to film festivals, we had no idea what Venice's film festival was going to be like. I can tell you the primary difference between this film festival and the others we've been to #STYLE!

When we first got there, it just happened to be as Brad Pitt was walking the red carpet into a premier. Can you freaking imagine? The crowd was screaming. The flashes from the photographers bulbs were blinding. We walked passed the crowd, flashed our ID's and passports and picked up our media passes. We didn't schedule any interviews, but that's because you guys didn't tell us who you wanted us to interview. So, next time, we will have to get your opinion.





Next up on this list is how we joined the press corps as Johnny Depp walked the red carpet and how we got to watch his premiere movie with him. You guys will really like, "Waiting for the Barbarians," by Ciro Guerra. See you guys next week.
Zack Lovelady