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Future of Cinema Clouded by Uncertainty, Venice Jury Chief Huppert Says

The 81st Venice Film Festival Jury member Isabelle Huppert poses during a photocall on the day of the opening ceremony of the 81st Venice Film Festival, Venice, Italy, August 28, 2024. (Reuters)
The 81st Venice Film Festival Jury member Isabelle Huppert poses during a photocall on the day of the opening ceremony of the 81st Venice Film Festival, Venice, Italy, August 28, 2024. (Reuters)
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Future of Cinema Clouded by Uncertainty, Venice Jury Chief Huppert Says

The 81st Venice Film Festival Jury member Isabelle Huppert poses during a photocall on the day of the opening ceremony of the 81st Venice Film Festival, Venice, Italy, August 28, 2024. (Reuters)
The 81st Venice Film Festival Jury member Isabelle Huppert poses during a photocall on the day of the opening ceremony of the 81st Venice Film Festival, Venice, Italy, August 28, 2024. (Reuters)

Cinema has been weakened in recent years and its survival cannot be taken for granted, French actress Isabelle Huppert said on Wednesday as she took charge of the main jury at the Venice Film Festival.

The 11-day event draws together film-makers from around the world, giving them an invaluable opportunity to promote work that might otherwise not gain global prominence.

But beyond the Venice Lido's glamorous red carpet, movie veterans worry about the future of the industry: box office sales have not yet recovered from the COVID pandemic, raising questions about the long-term financial viability of movies.

"What concerns us all is that cinema continues to live on as much as possible. We know that it has been weakened in recent times," Huppert said at the traditional news conference to mark the start of the world's oldest film festival.

"I am not a director, I am only an actress, but we know what it represents in terms of courage, endurance, solitude, determination, to ... make a film," she added, saying her goal was to help cinema keep going "for as long as possible".

"But that's why a festival like Venice exists, it's like an ecosystem that is more necessary than ever to proclaim these values. So I'm really happy to be here," Huppert said.

Huppert, 71, has appeared in over 120 films and has won the best actress award twice at Venice, in 1988 and 1995. She and her family also run two small art house cinemas in Paris.

Global cinema box office takings are estimated to have hit almost $34 billion in 2023, according to data from Gower Street Analytics, an increase of 30.5% on 2022, but still 15% below average annual returns from 2017-2019, before COVID hit.

However, sales have declined again this year in the United States - the biggest movie market in the world, setting alarm bells ringing.

US director Debra Granik, who is the head of the jury for Venice's more experimental Horizons section this year, thanked Huppert for addressing the "elephant in the room".

"That's why we all showed up here because we want to see this art form thrive,” Granik said.

The Venice festival opens on Wednesday night with the world premiere of Tim Burton's "Beetlejuice Beetlejuice", which is being shown out of competition. The event ends on Sept. 7 when Huppert will announce who has won the top Golden Lion award.

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‘Beetlejuice Beetlejuice’ Prepares to Open 81st Venice Film Festival

Director Tim Burton signs autographs, on the day of a photocall for the film "Beetlejuice Beetlejuice", which is screening out of competition, at the 81st Venice Film Festival, Venice, Italy, August 28, 2024. REUTERS/Yara Nardi Purchase Licensing Rights
Director Tim Burton signs autographs, on the day of a photocall for the film "Beetlejuice Beetlejuice", which is screening out of competition, at the 81st Venice Film Festival, Venice, Italy, August 28, 2024. REUTERS/Yara Nardi Purchase Licensing Rights
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‘Beetlejuice Beetlejuice’ Prepares to Open 81st Venice Film Festival

Director Tim Burton signs autographs, on the day of a photocall for the film "Beetlejuice Beetlejuice", which is screening out of competition, at the 81st Venice Film Festival, Venice, Italy, August 28, 2024. REUTERS/Yara Nardi Purchase Licensing Rights
Director Tim Burton signs autographs, on the day of a photocall for the film "Beetlejuice Beetlejuice", which is screening out of competition, at the 81st Venice Film Festival, Venice, Italy, August 28, 2024. REUTERS/Yara Nardi Purchase Licensing Rights

The 81st edition of the Venice Film Festival is kicking off in Hollywood fashion with the world premiere of “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” Wednesday evening on the Lido.

To make the sequel, Tim Burton reunited with several key cast members from his 1988 horror-comedy, including Michael Keaton playing the titular ghoul, Catherine O’Hara, and Winona Ryder as Lydia, now mother to her own sullen teen played by Jenna Ortega.

“I’m not out to do a big sequel for money,” Burton said a few hours before the premiere, with his cast alongside him. “I wanted to make this for very personal reasons.”

The reason, he said, was that he'd become disillusioned with the film industry in the past few years. “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” was the kick he needed to fall in love with the process again, The AP reported.

“I just realized if I’m going to do anything again, I just wanted to do it from my heart. Something that I wanted to do,” Burton said. “It’s a bit like the Lydia character. Sometimes your life takes a little bit of a turn, you go down a different path. I sort of lost myself a little bit.”

The film comes 36 years after audiences first met the Deetz family. Though the original “Beetlejuice” was a hit, the tenth highest grossing film of 1988, and remains a beloved staple, Burton said he never quite understood why it was such a success. In fact, he didn’t even watch it to prepare to make this one. He remembered the spirit well enough.

“There are so few opportunities to be in something that you can say is 100% original and unique,” said Keaton, who joked about his character's evolution.

“I think my character has matured,” Keaton said. “As suave and sensitive as he was in the first, I think he’s even more so in this one.”

“Beetlejuice Beetlejuice,” which Warner Bros. opens in theaters worldwide next week, may be a major Hollywood studio release, but it was made with a scrappy and improvisational energy which extended from the cast to the crew, who were often building puppets on the spot.

“It’s not going to win any Academy Awards for special effects,” Burton laughed. “It doesn’t matter. It’s part of the DNA of the project.”

The film finds Ryder’s Lydia, now the host of a cheesy ghost-hunting television show, her stepmother Delia (O’Hara) and Ortega’s Astrid going back to the old Winter River home after the death of Charles. Astrid is a reluctant presence: Her character is just as surly as Lydia was as a teen, but unlike her mother, she doesn’t believe in ghosts.

“I was a huge fan of the first one,” said Ortega, who met Burton working on the popular Netflix series “Wednesday.” “He’s somebody I trust immensely.”

Ryder, who was 15 when she first played Lydia, found the experience of the sequel very similar even 30+ years later.

“It had been such a special experience, the first one, and just to be able to come back to it was a dream come true,” Ryder said. “My love and trust for Tim runs so deep. There’s a sense of playfulness where you can try things and you know if it’s bad he won’t use it ... You feel safe and also completely free.”

In addition to Ortega, new to the world of Beetlejuice are Justin Theroux, who plays Lydia’s sleazy boyfriend and manager, Willem Dafoe as a dead cop/actor, and Monica Belluci as a soul-sucking ghost out for revenge against Beetlejuice, her ex.

Theroux observed that the playful atmosphere on set existed without the “normal downward pressure of a studio film.”

And everything in “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” was special to Burton, from the music to the references and homages to Italian and Spanish cinema and the “dumb movies” he loves.

“(It was) getting back to the things I love doing, the way I love doing them, and the people I love doing them with. I realized that’s the only way for it to be a success. I have to love doing it. It didn’t matter how it turned out. I just enjoyed and loved making it with all of these people,” Burton said. “It’s like a weird family movie.”

“Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” is premiering at the festival out of competition, kicking off a busy 10 days on the Lido, which will soon be swarming with movie stars, from George Clooney and Brad Pitt, to Lady Gaga and Angelina Jolie.

The Venice Film Festival runs through Sept. 7.