'Baaria' kicks off Venice Film Festival

September 02, 2009 The 66th edition of the Venice Film Festival got underway Wednesday with an epic and sentimental homage to the Sicilian Oscar-winning director Giuseppe Tornatore and a gala ceremony hosted by Italian actress Maria Grazia Cucinotta. With its screening, Tornatore's "Baaria" became the first Italian film to open the storied Venice festival in nearly a quarter century, and it caused ripples even before its official world premiere: earlier in the day Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi -- who also owns the country's largest media empire -- called the work a masterpiece and said that no "real" Italian should choose not to see the film. In a press briefing, Tornatore, best known for the Oscar-winning "Cinema Paradiso," said the film was his most personal project yet.

Subscribe to the Hollywood Reporter and see the entertainment industry from its best angle: the inside looking out. Complete access to real-time news and exclusive analysis that goes behind the scenes from film to television, home video to digital media.

   Subscribe now.