Ghouls, Gotham and Gaga as Venice film festival opens

The Venice Film Festival kicks off Wednesday with a devilish debut of Tim Burton's "Beetlejuice" sequel and a surge of star power for the glitzy competition on the sun-splashed Lido.

Lady Gaga, George Clooney, Daniel Craig, Julianne Moore and Brad Pitt are among the A-listers expected in Italy's watery city for this year's edition of the world's longest-running festival, known as "La Mostra".

Arriving via water taxi from across the Venetian lagoon for the 10-day event, the celebrities will return some big-budget Hollywood pizzazz to the venerated festival following a low-key edition last year due to the Hollywood strike.

First up is the out-of-competition world premiere of "Beetlejuice Beetlejuice", featuring Michael Keaton as the chaos-causing ghoul alongside Winona Ryder, Catherine O'Hara and Monica Bellucci.

Then on Thursday, all eyes are on Angelina Jolie, making a star turn as Maria Callas in "Maria", Pablo Larrain's biopic about the opera diva's tormented life.

It is among 21 international films vying for the top Golden Lion prize to be awarded September 7.

"There hasn't been such a consistent presence of star actors from so many countries perhaps for more than 20 years," festival director Alberto Barbera told AFP, adding that their presence "can only do good" to bring attention to films.

Much anticipated is the dark psychological thriller "Joker: Folie a Deux", the sequel to US director Todd Phillips' 2019 Venice-winning film loosely based on the DC Comics characters and set in a gritty Gotham City.

The sequel brings back Joaquin Phoenix, who won an Academy Award for his depiction of the failed clown descending into mental illness, this time paired with Lady Gaga as his sidekick and love interest Harley Quinn.

Daniel Craig stars in "Queer" from Italy's Luca Guadagnino, an adaptation of the William Burroughs novel set in 1940s Mexico City, while Australian director Justin Kurzel's "The Order" features Jude Law as an FBI agent investigating white supremacy in the Pacific Northwest.

Venice regular Pedro Almodovar, of Spain, is back with his first full-length film in English, "The Room Next Door", with Moore and Tilda Swinton.

Nicole Kidman stars with Antonio Banderas in the erotic thriller "Babygirl" from Dutch director Halina Reijn, about a powerful woman CEO who embarks on a torrid affair with a much-younger male intern.

The roster also includes US director Brady Corbet's "The Brutalist", featuring Adrien Brody as a Hungarian Jewish architect who emigrates to America after World War II and embarks on a project promising to change the course of his life.

- War, onscreen -

Despite the fanfare of the studio films and their stars, the festival still welcomes lesser-known directors and experimental formats, while providing a venue for the exploration of difficult, topical subjects.

The festival includes two documentaries about the Ukraine war, with "Songs of Slow Burning Earth" by Ukrainian director Olha Zhurba described as an "audiovisual diary of Ukraine's immersion into the abyss".

"Russians at War" sees Russian-Canadian filmmaker Anastasia Trofimova embedded with a Russian army battalion in eastern Ukraine, its young soldiers struggling to understand why they are fighting.

Such questions fuel "Why War" by Israel director Amos Gitai, based on correspondence between two of the 20th century's brightest minds -- Albert Einstein and Sigmund Freud -- on the subject of war.

Sweden's Goran Hugo Olsson delved into 30 years of public broadcasting archives for "Israel Palestine on Swedish Television 1958–1989", weaving footage from both sides of the ongoing conflict in what the director has called his "most painful film" to date.

All four films are playing out of competition.

- Cult classic -

With "Beetlejuice Beetlejuice", fans of Burton's dark and oddball cinematic approach get to revisit his 1988 cult classic 36 years later.

The "Edward Scissorhands" director updates the non-conventional family drama centred on protagonist Lydia, played by Ryder, whose teenage daughter (Jenna Ortega) discovers a mystery in the attic, accidentally unleashing mayhem once again on the Deetz household.

Netflix -- which has seen great success debuting its films on the Lido before their small-screen release -- is absent this year.

Instead, Apple TV+ is presenting Jon Watts' action comedy "Wolfs" with Pitt and Clooney playing rival professional fixers, and thriller series "Disclaimer" with Cate Blanchett, Kevin Kline and Sacha Baron Cohen.

At Wednesday's opening night, "Alien" star Sigourney Weaver will receive an honorary Golden Lion for lifetime achievement.

The 21 films in competition at Venice

From the latest Almodovar to the much-anticipated sequel to "Joker", 21 films are up for the prestigious Golden Lion prize at the Venice Film Festival, which runs from Wednesday to September 7.

THE ROOM NEXT DOOR directed by PEDRO ALMODOVAR

with Tilda Swinton, Julianne Moore, John Turturro, Alessandro Nivola (Spain / 107 minutes)

CAMPO DI BATTAGLIA directed by GIANNI AMELIO

with Alessandro Borghi, Gabriel Montesi, Federica Rosellini (Italy / 103 minutes)

LEURS ENFANTS APRES EUX directed by LUDOVIC BOUKHERMA, ZORAN BOUKHERMA

with Paul Kircher, Angelina Woreth, Sayyid El Alami, Gilles Lellouche, Ludivine Sagnier, Louis Memmi (France / 144 minutes)

THE BRUTALIST directed by BRADY CORBET

with Adrien Brody, Guy Pearce, Felicity Jones (UK / 215 minutes)

JOUER AVEC LE FEU directed by DELPHINE COULIN, MURIEL COULIN

with Vincent Lindon, Benjamin Voisin, Stefan Crepon (France / 110 minutes)

VERMIGLIO directed by MAURA DELPERO

with Tommaso Ragno, Giuseppe De Domenico, Roberta Rovelli (Italy, France, Belgium / 119 minutes)

IDDU (SICILIAN LETTERS) directed by FABIO GRASSADONIA, ANTONIO PIAZZA

with Toni Servillo, Elio Germano, Daniela Marra, Barbora Bobulova (Italy, France / 122 minutes)

QUEER directed by LUCA GUADAGNINO

with Daniel Craig, Drew Starkey, Lesley Manville, Jason Schwartzman (Italy, USA / 135 minutes)

KJAERLIGHET (LOVE) directed by DAG JOHAN HAUGERUD

with Andrea Braein Hovig, Tayo Cittadella Jacobsen, Marte Engebrigtsen (Norway / 119 minutes)

APRIL directed by DEA KULUMBEGASHVILI

with Ia Sukhitashvili, Kakha Kintsurashvili, Merab Ninidze (Georgia, France, Italy / 134 minutes)

THE ORDER directed by JUSTIN KURZEL

with Jude Law, Nicholas Hoult, Jurnee Smollett, Tye Sheridan, Marc Maron (Canada / 116 minutes)

MARIA directed by PABLO LARRAIN

with Angelina Jolie, Pierfrancesco Favino, Alba Rohrwacher, Haluk Bilginer, Kodi Smit-McPhee (Italy, Germany, USA / 123 minutes)

TROIS AMIES directed by EMMANUEL MOURET

with Camille Cottin, Sara Forestier, India Hair, Gregoire Ludig, Damien Bonnard, Vincent Macaigne (France / 118 minutes)

EL JOCKEY (KILL THE JOCKEY) directed by LUIS ORTEGA

with Nahuel Perez Biscayart, Ursula Corbero, Daniel Gimenez Cacho (Argentina, Spain / 97 minutes)

JOKER: FOLIE A DEUX directed by TODD PHILLIPS

with Joaquin Phoenix, Lady Gaga, Brendan Gleeson, Catherine Keener, Zazie Beetz (USA / 138 minutes)

BABYGIRL directed by HALINA REIJN

with Nicole Kidman, Harris Dickinson, Antonio Banderas (USA / 114 minutes)

AINDA ESTOU AQUI (I'M STILL HERE) directed by WALTER SALLES

with Fernanda Torres, Selton Mello, Fernanda Montenegro (Brazil, France / 135 minutes)

DIVA FUTURA directed by GIULIA LOUISE STEIGERWALT

with Pietro Castellitto, Barbara Ronchi, Denise Capezza (Italy / 128 minutes)

HARVEST directed by ATHINA RACHEL TSANGARI

with Caleb Landry Jones, Harry Melling, Rosy McEwen (UK, Germany, Greece, France, USA / 131 minutes)

QING CHUN GUI (YOUTH - HOMECOMING) directed by WANG BING

Documentary (France, Luxemburg, Netherlands / 152 minutes)

STRANGER EYES directed by YEO SIEW HUA

with Wu Chien-Ho, Lee Kang-Sheng, Anicca Panna, Vera Chen (Singapore, Taipei, France, USA / 125 minutes)