<img src="https://img.lemde.fr/2023/09/01/0/0/5120/3413/664/0/75/0/d25f560_1693577343092-268077.jpg" srcset=" https://img.lemde.fr/2023/09/01/0/0/5120/3413/556/0/75/0/d25f560_1693577343092-268077.jpg 556w, https://img.lemde.fr/2023/09/01/0/0/5120/3413/600/0/75/0/d25f560_1693577343092-268077.jpg 600w, https://img.lemde.fr/2023/09/01/0/0/5120/3413/664/0/75/0/d25f560_1693577343092-268077.jpg 664w, https://img.lemde.fr/2023/09/01/0/0/5120/3413/700/0/75/0/d25f560_1693577343092-268077.jpg 700w, https://img.lemde.fr/2023/09/01/0/0/5120/3413/800/0/75/0/d25f560_1693577343092-268077.jpg 800w" sizes="(min-width: 1024px) 556px, 100vw" alt="Adam Driver at the premiere of Michael Mann's " ferrari"="" at="" the="" venice="" film="" festival,="" august="" 31,="" 2023."="" width="100%" height="auto">
The sun rose over the Venice Film Festival. Peter had woken up much earlier, at 4:30 am, to find the best position on the railing that runs along the red carpet. His features drawn, his voice drawling, the Swede struggled to stay focused. In Gothenburg, he works for a tooling company. On the lagoon, his tools were rudimentary: two umbrellas securing seats for his daughter and wife, who were still in bed, and a notebook, which he asked the passing stars to sign.
For the past 10 years or so, during his vacations, the forty-something has scoured the major film festivals in search of autographs. "In general, I love Venice, but this edition is really rotten, there will be very few Americans," he grumbled under his breath, referring to the Hollywood actors' strike, which has prevented most of them, since July 14, from promoting their films.
With his cap protecting his raptor-like eyes, Peter resembles the meticulous killers in the films by his favorite directors, Michael Mann and David Fincher. As it happens, both are in Venice, showing their films Ferrari and The Killer, respectively, both in competition. "This year, those will be my two main objectives," said the autograph hunter.
For its 80th edition, the Mostra Internazionale d'Arte Cinematografica is seeing American films making a comeback after years of a pandemic-caused drought, while the stars, with a few exceptions, are conspicuous by their absence. The paradox is all the more striking given that the Hollywood delegation is largely made up of films distributed by the strikers' number-one enemy: streaming platforms. In France, Ferrari will be released directly on Amazon Prime Video and The Killer on Netflix, which is presenting four other films at the festival, including Bradley Cooper's Maestro and Wes Anderson's The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar.
These are all films whose actors were unable to return to La Serenissima, with the notable exception of Mann's film, which was granted an exemption due to the production's "independent" status. At a press conference on August 31, Adam Driver, who plays the racing driver and car manufacturer Enzo Ferrari, reiterated his "solidarity" with his striking colleagues and their main union, SAG-AFTRA, and singled out the platforms: "Why is it that a smaller distribution company like Neon and STX International [respectively, the distributors and producers of Ferrari] can meet the dream demands of what SAG is asking for (...) but a big company like Netflix and Amazon can't?" he asked.
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