Venice Forever: The Maison celebrates the 80th Venice International Film Festival

An annual highlight of the Venice International Film Festival, the Cartier Glory to the Filmmaker award is dedicated to a personality who has made a particularly original contribution to the contemporary film industry. For the 80th edition of the festival, the Maison and La Biennale di Venezia recognized American director, writer and producer Wes Anderson. 

Best known for films including The Royal Tenenbaums and The Grand Budapest Hotel, Anderson accepted his award on 1st September at the Sala Grande of the Palazzo del Cinema. The ceremony was followed by the screening Out of Competition of his new work, The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar, featuring Ralph Fiennes, Benedict Cumberbatch, Dev Patel, Ben Kingsley, and Richard Ayoade.

In a spirit of sharing, the Maison is committed to opening dialogue between creative spheres in the footsteps of last year’s theme, Composing for Cinema, the Maison presented a duo of masterclasses, co-hosted by La Biennale di Venezia, that expanded into The Art and Craft of Cinema. World-leading talents arrived at the Palazzo del Casinò to share their experience of creative partnerships that have marked the world of cinema.

The first masterclass saw Damien Chazelle and composer Justin Hurwitz, inviting us behind the scenes of their collaboration. Chazelle, president of the 80th Venice International Film Festival, and Hurwitz worked together on films including Whiplash, First Man, Babylon and La La Land, which had its world premiere at the 2016 edition of the festival. 

The second masterclass gave a rare insight into multiple winners of the Academy Award for Art Direction, set decorator Francesca Lo Schiavo and production designer Dante Ferretti, celebrated for for their work on films including Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, Hugo and The Aviator.

A visual and musical spectacle by musician, conductor, and theatre director Solrey, Ciao Casanova presented a singular immersive experience on 2nd September 2023 at Venice’s Teatro La Fenice. The piece explores the links between cinema and music, evoking a theme dear to Cartier: the enriching creative dialogues that exist between art forms.

Interpreted by the Traffic Quintet, harpist Sylvain Blassel, and mezzo-soprano Brenda Poupard, and supported by Cartier, the performance was open to the public and accessible free of charge, as a shared celebration of the Venice International Film Festival in its 80th edition.

The classical repertoire of Mozart and Vivaldi mingled with the contemporary scores of Nino Rota, John Williams, and Alexandre Desplat. Their strains resonated with excerpts from cult films reworked or created by Solrey herself. While the images metamorphosed onscreen, swaying, doubling and dissolving, they followed a dreamlike trajectory through Venice. From the golden age of Casanova himself to the most iconic and seductive leading men of modern cinema, the figure of the male seducer metaphorically sinks into the gloomy waters of the lagoon, while the women he once magnetised find their liberation to wield power.