Leigh’s latest, Peterloo, one of his weakest films, arrives in Venice with extra-baggage, suffering from the stigma of being rejected by Cannes Film Fest, in a year in which the usually reliable annual Croisette event was not particularly strong!

Don’t assume that there isn’t a place for you in this world. There is, there is, but you have to make it. You have to make your place in this world. I come from a background in Chicago where I looked at the movies like this foreign country, there was no place for me there. And just through trying and staying optimistic and trying to grow as an actor, or as a human being, I made a place for myself at the table–John C. Reilly

Orson Welles’ troubled feature, The Other Side of the Wind, which was in production for 15 years, and then went into a limbo for four decades, was finally restored (in the best manner possible) and publicly unveiled, courtesy of Netflix (who else?), as a special event of the 2018 Venice Film Fest.

The real life character of Cleo, that for me was this nurturing, mothering presence. This film forced me to see her as a woman, and as a woman that comes from a disadvantaged social class, and also from indigenous heritage, living in a society where class, money, and race are directly related. So it was intense, and in some instances very painful–Cuaron