George Clooney has become a staple at the Venice Film Festival over nearly three decades
VENICE, Italy — VENICE, Italy (AP) — George Clooney just makes sense in Venice.
Like many people, he considers it one of the most beautiful cities in the world. Unlike most, however, he also owns a 15-bedroom villa a few hours away on Lake Como that famously co-starred in “Ocean’s Twelve.”
In the nearly 30 years since he attended his first Venice Film Festival with “Out of Sight,” he’s become something of a fixture. It’s a place where he’s enjoyed many significant moments, from his wedding at the Aman Venice to the debut of “Good Night, and Good Luck,” which earned him his first Oscar nomination for best director.
Last year he attended with “Jay Kelly,” in which he plays a movie star who travels to Italy for a lifetime achievement award. Life will imitate art this year as Clooney receives the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement Award on the festival’s opening day.
Here is a look back at some of Clooney’s most memorable Venice moments.
As legend has it, Clooney’s long term love affair with Venice began with the festival’s premiere of Steven Soderbergh’s Elmore Leonard adaptation “Out of Sight.” Then 37 and doing press alongside Jennifer Lopez, the actor would also make another big jump soon: Leaving “ER” the following February.
This Coen brothers joint, co-starring Catherine Zeta-Jones, premiered out of competition at the 60th Venice Film Festival, alongside titles like “Matchstick Men,” “Once Upon a Time in Mexico” and “The Dreamers." Clooney’s nearby Italian residence was already as famous as him, and a stakeout spot for amateur and professional paparazzi.
In a profile that fall, while shooting “Ocean’s Twelve,” Vanity Fair writer Ned Zeman observed: “That an affable, self-effacing Kentucky-born Hollywood actor is fast becoming the most popular public figure in Italy says a little about Italy and a lot about Clooney, who isn’t Italian, doesn’t speak Italian, and lives here only in summertime.”
Clooney’s acclaimed black-and-white dramatization of journalist Edward R. Murrow’s clash with Joseph McCarthy began its successful run in competition at the 62nd Venice Film Festival. Though it lost the Golden Lion to Ang Lee’s “Brokeback Mountain,” it did go on to pick up six Oscar nominations including for Clooney’s directing.
During the trip, he also inspired a cocktail still served at the ritzy Hotel Cipriani on Giudecca. One night he retreated to the hotel’s Bar Gabbiano where his friend, the legendary bar manager Walter Bolzonella, mixed him a drink of lemon, sugar, vodka, cranberry juice, ginger and Angostura bitters and named it Buona Notte in honor of the film. The two would later name a prosecco, passionfruit and elderflower cocktail La Nina after Clooney’s mother, which was served at his wedding.
Tony Gilroy’s “Michael Clayton,” which nabbed Clooney an Oscar nomination for his turn as the titular law firm fixer, played in competition at Venice. The top prize went again to an Ang Lee film: “Lust, Caution,” which also beat out the likes of “I’m Not There,” “Atonement” and “The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford.”
This Coen brothers comedy featuring Clooney and Brad Pitt opted to debut out of competition in the opening night slot. Clooney said it completed his “trilogy of idiots” for the Coens, following “Intolerable Cruelty” and “O Brother, Where Art Thou?”
“Looking at the parts we are playing, I’m very concerned about what you think of us,” Clooney said at the press conference. Pitt, who’d won the festival’s acting prize the year prior, added: “Like George … I’m not sure if I should be flattered or insulted.”
Another opening night, out of competition slot debut for this Clooney-directed campaign thriller starring Ryan Gosling and Philip Seymour Hoffman. As usual, Clooney was peppered with political questions in which he observed that, “It’s a very difficult time to govern.”
