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The dysfunctional drama Rachel Getting Married lifted the Venice Film Festival out of its midpoint crisis where not film has become the clear favorite. The final stretch of the Festival is turning to be a really good turn around for the festival.

The Festival head Marco Mueller maintains that Venice got off to such a slow start because he planned it in such a way that he could steal some limelight from the Toronto Film Festival, which has already started.

Now with several titles still yet to come including the Kathryn Bigelow’s The Hurt Locker on Thursday and The Wrestler by Darren Aronofsky just goes to show that The Venice film festival can still exist even after Toronto begins.

Mueller complained that Toronto had been particularly aggressive with the Lido this year, trying to put producers in an “us or them situation.”

“Despite that kind of pressure, more than 20 titles are screening in Toronto after Venice,” he boasted.
Speaking at a press lunch on Wednesday, Mueller also responded to mounting criticism over this year’s lineup by countering that “the selection simply reflects the state of cinema today.”
Mueller claimed that he had already secured two “high-profile Hollywood titles” for next year “if we like how they turn out.”

But it was the world premier of the Anne Hathaway starrer Rachel Getting Married that gave the festival a fresh pair of legs. That it got released before its North American bow in Toronto must have given Mueller some satisfaction.

Anne Hathaway plays a recovering addict out from rehab to attend her sisters wedding to wreck havoc in the proceedings.

“It was so much fun to be the combustible element,” Hathaway said at a packed press conference, which reinfused the fest with a top-tier feel. “I have enjoyed playing so many of my roles, but this was definitely by far the most complex.”

Demme revealed that he shot this naturalistic, at times hilarious drama “as Dogma as possible,” referring to the now defunct Danish film movement against image manipulation.

“Rachel” follows two docus for Demme, who praised Sony Pictures Classics for getting him back into the feature game.

“If Sony Pictures Classics had not decided to make this film, it would not exist,” said Demme, after lamenting that some of his previous features have suffered from “an absence of commitment” on the part of studio distribution execs. “I had told myself: ‘I can’t have that experience again.’ ”

Click the thumbnails to see the new hi resolution pictures.