Anne Hathaway goes classic in an all-black ensemble for the opening night gala of Metropolitan Opera’s “Dead Man Walking” held at Lincoln Center on Tuesday night (September 26) in New York City.
09.09.2023 - 10:45 / deadline.com
With three competition titles across the last four editions, no contemporary filmmaker has been more present on the Venice Lido than director Michel Franco.
The Mexican auteur returned to the Venice competition last night with his latest title, Memory, a taut New York City-set drama with scorching performances from Jessica Chastain and Peter Sarsgaard.
In the pic, Chastain plays Sylvia, a social worker who leads a simple and structured life: her daughter, her job, and her AA meetings. But all is blown open when Saul (Sarsgaard) follows her home from their high school reunion. Their surprise encounter will profoundly impact both of them as they open the door to the past.
“I immediately knew I wanted to be a part of it,” Chastain said of her response after reading Franco’s screenplay.
Brooke Timber, Merritt Wever, Elsie Fisher, Jessica Harper, and Josh Charles also star in the pic, which is looking for a buyer here in Venice. The Match Factory is repping sales.
The film — which was also shot in New York City — was officially confirmed for a SAG-AFTRA interim agreement on Thursday, the day before its premiere. After its first screening in Venice’s Sala Grande, the film received a warm seven-minute ovation.
Below, Franco, Chastain, and Sarsgaard speak with Deadline about how the film came together, and why they believed it was important to obtain an interim agreement and travel to Venice. The trio also shares their overall opinions on the dual Hollywood strikes and Sarsgaard teases the next film from his wife, actor-director Maggie Gyllenhaal.
DEADLINE: Michel, we met last year, and you told me you were shooting a film in New York City. It turned out to be this film, Memory. Where did the idea come from for this story?
Anne Hathaway goes classic in an all-black ensemble for the opening night gala of Metropolitan Opera’s “Dead Man Walking” held at Lincoln Center on Tuesday night (September 26) in New York City.
Marta Balaga “Death Is a Problem for the Living,” now also in Italy. The Finnish black comedy, directed by Teemu Nikki of “Euthanizer” fame, will premiere at the Rome Film Festival in October. “I am so proud of everything we have made together, especially ‘Euthanizer’ and [Venice Horizons Extra winner] ‘The Blind Man Who Did Not Want to See Titanic,’ but this one is certainly the most consistent.
Guy Lodge Film Critic That perky exclamation point sets the tone for “Coup!,” a story of murder, class struggle, One Percent entitlement and a global pandemic that nonetheless unfolds with all the eager, scrappy energy of an off-Broadway musical, minus most of the songs. The pandemic in question is not the one you’re thinking of — Austin Stark and Joseph Schuman’s puckish comic thriller unfolds against the dire backdrop of the 1918 Spanish Flu — but it also sort of is, as its study of wealthy exceptionalism in a time of national crisis is clearly intended to chime with more recent memories of regimented distancing and mixed safety messages from on high.
Jessica Chastain is speaking out to slam a headline that she says is “click bait.”
SAG-AFTRA and WGA strikes.A plethora of stars, including Adam Scott, Lena Dunham and the cast of “New Girl,” have taken to eBay to sell off strange things in an attempt to fill the coffers for out-of-work union members picketing studios. On eBay, a new store has been established by the Union Solidarity Coalition, which is auctioning off celebs’ talents and items to fans.According to the group’s website, it’s hoping to “offer direct financial support to crew members who have lost health insurance due to strike-related shutdowns.”The fund-raiser includes a multitude of listings from A-listers across film and TV that viewers can buy in an effort to raise money for crew members who are financially suffering during the protests.One listing shows “Parks and Recreation” and “Severance” star Scott, 50, offering to walk your dog for an hour — for $3,050!However, your doggo must be located in the Los Angeles area.
Naman Ramachandran The 19th Zurich Film Festival promises to be a star-studded affair with plenty of Hollywood A-list talent attending. Todd Haynes will be honored with the festival’s A Tribute to… Award and will present his film “May December.” Previous recipients include Paolo Sorrentino, Wim Wenders, Olivier Assayas, Claire Denis, Michael Haneke, Oliver Stone, Maïwenn and Luca Guadagnino. “It’s a real honor to celebrate this master of American cinema.
Jessica Chastain stars in Michel Franco’s Memory and some people had been putting thoughts in his head that this collaboration would not happen after she won at the Oscars.
Jessica Chastain is continuing the press tour for new movie!
Jake Gyllenhaal is a proud brother-in-law right now!
Michaela Zee Jessica Chastain is encouraging independent producers to sign interim agreements amid the ongoing SAG-AFTRA strike. “If a majority of independent producers, come forward and sign the Interim Agreement deal it will show the AMPTP how wrong they are when they say our contract terms are unrealistic or unreasonable,” Chastain wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter, on Sunday.
It’s interesting how the Venice Film Festival has gone from one of the festivals of the fall festival season to arguably the best film festival in the world now, even overshadowing Cannes in recent years thanks to the fact that Netflix now avoids the Croisette for the most part because of France’s theatrical laws and save their Oscar contenders for the Lido. Venice has had an amazing run, arguably since 2017 when Guillermo del Toro’s “The Shape Of Water” won the top prize and then went on to win the Oscar for Best Picture, which has happened one more time since with “Nomadland” and several key Oscar contenders since).
After just being officially confirmed for a SAG-AFTRA Interim Agreement the day before, the cast of Memory hit the Venice Film Festival red carpet Friday night. Michel Franco’s movie, starring Jessica Chastain and Peter Sarsgaard, was greeted with a seven-minute ovation during its world premiere inside the Sala Grande.
Ellise Shafer Michel Franco’s heartbreaking drama “Memory” earned a strong eight-minute standing ovation at the Venice Film Festival on Friday night as stars Jessica Chastain and Peter Sarsgaard wiped away tears. Franco, Chastain and Sarsgaard embraced as the audience cheered them on, with each taking their turn in the spotlight to accept the applause. After the crowd clapped for several minutes, Chastain was visibly emotional, dabbing at her eyes as she smiled with pride.
Jessica Chastain is looking stunning at the premiere of her new movie!
Sylvia (Jessica Chastain) lives behind an exceptionally well-locked door. Her apartment has three locks of different kinds, keeping out anyone who managed to get past the intercom protecting the front entrance. As a woman living alone with a teenage daughter, perhaps she has her reasons. Just tonight, a man followed her home from her high school reunion, catching the same train, shadowing her from the station and finally sleeping outside her building under a plastic bag. Strangely, she is quite blasé about that: In the morning, she deals with it, demanding this man’s phone and finding someone in his contacts who can come and pick him up.
Peter Debruge Chief Film Critic “Memory” feels like the “Silver Linings Playbook” of Michel Franco’s career: an unexpectedly accessible romance between two damaged human beings, from an independent director who’s been known to put characters through some of life’s most punishing indignities. The previous film of Franco’s that it most resembles is “Chronic,” though the tough-love auteur spares us the bummer ending this time around. In that movie, he followed a hospice nurse through his rounds, then abruptly cut to black when the guy was sideswiped by a car.
It’s hard to encapsulate the cinema of a particular filmmaker in just one word, but if one were to try their hand at it with Mexican maverick Michel Franco, a word that’d come to mind is violence. The filmmaker’s work is built upon the looming expectation of violent transgression, society standing flimsy atop the fragile idea of cordiality.
Oscar winner Jessica Chastain and Emmy nominee Peter Sarsgaard are here in Venice today for the world premiere of Michel Franco’s Memory, which on Thursday was officially confirmed for an interim agreement. At the press conference today, Chastain, sporting a SAG-AFTRA On Strike t-shirt, was asked if she had considered not attending amid the ongoing labor action. She began by saying, “Yes, I was incredibly nervous to be here today, and actually there are some people on my team who advised me against it.” However, she opted to come in support of her union.
EXCLUSIVE: It’s not a given that talent will attend premieres if their movie gets an interim agreement but we can confirm that Oscar winner Jessica Chastain and Emmy nominee Peter Sarsgaard will be on hand to spice up the premieres of new movie Memory both tomorrow in Venice and next week in Toronto.
Naman Ramachandran Mexican auteur Michel Franco’s latest film, “Memory,” starring Jessica Chastain and Peter Sarsgaard, world premieres in competition at the Venice Film Festival. The film is his third successive bow on the Lido after “New Order” (2020), which won the grand jury prize, and “Sundown” (2021). “Memory” follows Sylvia (Chastain), a social worker who leads a simple and structured life revolving around her daughter, her job and her AA meetings.