Director Noah Baumbach will be back on the Lido with his latest creation, White Noise, opening the 79th edition of the Venice Film Festival on August 31. This will be the first time that a Netflix original has been given the honour there.
Venice in recent editions has become a privileged launching pad for Netflix’s Oscar hopefuls, because tough laws in France do not allow a streaming site to showcase its titles unless it agrees to a theatrical release followed by a waiting period of 15 months.
White Noise will play in Competition, with a great star cast of Adam Driver, Greta Gerwig and Jodie Turner-Smith. Based on a 1985 novel by American author Don Delillo, it follows Jack (Driver), who becomes renowned as a professor of Hitler studies at a liberal arts college. Married to Barbette (Gerwig), they and their children are shaken when an “ airborne toxic event” brings them at the doorstep of death.
Baumbach, who has directed notable movies like Margot at the Wedding and The Meyerowitz Stories (which competed for the Palm d’Or at the 2017 Cannes), was last on the Lido (the quaint island off Venice mainland where the Festival takes place) with Marriage Story (Driver and Scarlett Johansson). It went on to clinch six Oscar nominations, including Best Picture, Best Original Screenplay, Best Actor and Best Actress.
Marriage Story explores how while marriage can get stale, love remains. It is a tough work (also inspired by Baumbach’s divorce from actress Jennifer Jason Lee), but poignant and painful, underlining in red how money and the law can make a mess of things.
White Noise is expected to lead several great films – many from the Netflix basket – including the highly anticipated Andrew Dominik’s Marilyn Monroe drama “Blonde,” starring Bond girl Ana de Armas (“No Time to Die”) as the Hollywood icon.
The complete Venice selections will be announced in Rome later today (July 26).
