28 August A very interesting retrospective: "Venice Fifty Years Ago: The Mostra of 1947," showing the films that were presented at the Venice FilmFest in 1947. Just a sample: *The Stranger* by Orson Welles, *Die Morder Sind Unter Uns* by Wolfgand Staudte, *Gente del Po* (first film) by Antonioni, *Caccia Tragica* by Giuseppe De Santis, *Odd Man Out* by Carol Reed, *Le Diable au Corps* by Claude Autant-Lara, *The Woman on the Beach* by Jean Renoir, *Leave her to Heaven* by John Stahl, *Spellbound* by Alfred Hitchcock, *Farrebique ou les Quatre Saisons* by Georges Rouquier, *The Story of G.I. Joe* by William Wellman, *Admiral Nakhimov* by Vsevolod Pudovkin, *Quai des Orfevres* by Henri-Georges Clouzot. In competition today (with my personal prediction that it will win the Golden Lion): *Historie Milosne* by Jerzy Stuhr (Poland). Dedicated to Krzysztof Kieslowski--with whom Stuhr worked in a number of films (including *Trois Couleurs: Blanc*), "to express his gratitude for Kieslowski's helps and suggestions for the script up to the eve of his death," *Historie* features Stuhr in four roles: a college professor, a priest, an innmate, and a soldier engaged in relationships with women of different ages. Of these characters Stuhr said: "Its is essentially a single character, a jedermann of medieval theater. The different social positions condition the bahavior and language of each person. For an actor, it's marvelous to have four roles to wrap around himself at once." In the "Noon" section, *The Locusts* by Patrick Kelley (USA) with Kate Capshaw, Jeremy Davies (a sure Oscar nomination for best non supporting actor), Vince Vaughn, Ashley Judd. Michel Piccoli's directorial debut with *Alors, Voila,* (France). After the screening, Piccoli met with the public and of the title he said that he dislikes titles that explain the film and this title stands for a sentence a la "Once upon a time,..." nothing more. Somebody invoked the name of Jacques Tati, while I was waiting for the name Godard to appear, but nothing happened until I went up to him and mentioned Uncle Jean as a "presence" in the film. He replied, though relunctantly: "Vous avez raison." Well, if Michel Piccoli tells me that I'm right....:-) Gloria Monti ---- Online resources for film/TV studies may be found at ScreenSite http://www.sa.ua.edu/screensite