VENICE — Walking the streets of the Lido and reading the papers on the first day of the Venice Film Festival, everyone appears to be pinching themselves, wondering whether it is really happening.
Six months into a global pandemic, which took a particularly heavy toll on Italy in its first weeks, the world’s film industry is gathering to mark what it hopes will be its relaunch on the Lido, a sliver of an island that stretches about 12 kilometers between Venice’s lagoon and the Adriatic Sea.
As the number of infections rises again in Italy and across Europe, sparking fears of a potential second wave, eyes across the country have been turning to Venice. Which of the 18 films in competition will be awarded prestigious prizes is almost beside the point. What people are watching for is a sign that a cultural event of such symbolic and financial importance can be held safely in the COVID-19 era.
“Cinema cannot afford to remain in lockdown or the partial isolation into which it has been forced any longer,” Alberto Barbera, the festival’s artistic director, told Ciak, an industry newspaper. In going ahead with the event, Barbera said he wants to do his part to prevent cinema disappearing from our lives altogether. “Now it’s up to the production companies to release the films.”
Jury president Cate Blanchett, with members of the jury Ludivine Sagnier and Matt Dillon | Zunino Celotto/Getty Images
For the region’s economy, too, the festival sends an important signal that things may be headed back to normal. “I promise, the Venice film festival will happen,” Luca Zaia, the governor of Veneto, said earlier this spring.
And here we are. If “miracle” is the first word on everyone’s lips, “safety” is the second.
From the outside, some things haven’t changed: The casino, the theater, the famous Hotel Excelsior all look the same. The area is decked out in red and white as usual.
But take a step inside and the festival looks and feels entirely different this year. There are checkpoints at every entrance, where security staff measure guests’ temperature. Masks are mandatory, both indoors and outside, and there are dispensers of hand sanitizer wherever you look. Journalists and members of the public have to book their tickets online, a solution designed to avoid crowds at the ticket counters and which has another great advantage: The queues that used to last for hours have disappeared.
Inside the cinemas, guests are told to wear their masks during film screenings and are seated in a checkerboard pattern, every other chair, reducing the room’s capacity in half.
The famed red carpet, in front of the Palazzo del Cinema, is blocked from view. Where in previous years, hundreds of young people thronged the area in the hopes of catching a glimpse of their favorite actor, today a 2-meter high wall has been built along the entire walkway. The area is eerily empty; the catwalk can only be seen online or on TV.
There are hardly any spectators or international celebrities, said a photographer outside the Hotel Excelsior, which is usually thronged with photographers capturing a steady stream of high-profile arrivals through their long lenses.
The first day of the festival feels entirely different, a waitress from a nearby restaurant agreed. “But what a miracle that the event is happening, even for us in tourism it is a blessing,” she added. “We spent months with the shutters of our shops closed fearing that we would never pull them up again. Today our tables are almost full,” she said.
The strange atmosphere is what made the “miracle” possible. And on the first day of the festival, everyone seemed to be respecting the rules that we have now grown accustomed to, ready to embrace the festival in its new guise.
Only on the vaporettos, the small boats that take guests from Venice to the Lido, is social distancing nearly impossible at peak times, when they become overcrowded with people.
“People were very disciplined, everyone was wearing a mask,” said Assicurazioni Generali Chief Executive Officer Philippe Donnet, who was in attendance Wednesday night. Holding the festival, he added, sent an important signal about learning to live with the virus. “Even culture has to exist, has to continue.”
“This is a special festival,” the Italian actress and godmother of the party Anna Foglietta reminded everyone in her opening speech. “For the first time, an active participation of the public is required. All this shows that in Italy it is possible to return to culture in safety.”
The risk of an outbreak decreases significantly if people respect the rules, said Andrea Crisanti, the virologist who helped control the epidemic in Veneto. “The exhibition space is large, and there are several outdoor areas, so with the masks and the usual rules that we have learned to respect in recent months, we should be safe.”
Principe Maurice walks the red carpet | Vittorio Zunino Celotto/Getty Images
The important thing, he added, is that if someone should test positive, organizers and authorities act immediately to trace every contact and possible infection.
Despite the risk and uncertainty, the relief after months of closed theaters, paused film sets and postponed releases is palpable. The audiences are smaller.
There are fewer sponsors’ parties and there are not nearly as many international stars. But at least Cate Blanchett, the president of the jury, and Tilda Swinton, the winner of the Gold Lion for Lifetime Achievement award, are both present.
Speaking to a socially distanced audience, Blanchett summed up the prevailing mood: “We are here, and we did it,” she said. “It’s a miracle.”
John Rega contributed reporting. This article has been updated.