AP

Actor Antonio Banderas poses for photographers astatine the photograph telephone for the movie 'Competencia Oficial' (Official Competition) during the 78th variation of the Venice Film Festival successful Venice, Italy, Saturday, Sep, 4, 2021. (AP Photo/Domenico Stinellis)

VENICE – Antonio Banderas and Penelope Cruz brought immoderate laughs to the Venice Film Festival connected Saturday with a drama that skewers their ain craft, and seemingly was arsenic comic to marque arsenic it was to watch.

Audiences chuckled passim “Official Competition,” by Argentine directors Gastón Duprat and Mariano Cohn, bringing immoderate levity to the world's oldest movie festival that is inactive vying with the coronavirus pandemic. The movie is successful the main contention astatine Venice, which ends Sept. 11.

“Official Competition" is astir the pre-production of a movie and the exaggerated rituals, tics and exercises that the manager (Cruz) and actors (Banderas and Argentine histrion Oscar Martinez) spell done to hole for their roles. Egos, envy and contention betwixt leads people travel into play successful this naval-gazing look astatine the creation of making, directing and producing movies.

“We laughed a LOT,” said Cruz, who was besides astatine Venice to contiguous the festival-opening “Parallel Mothers” by Pedro Almodovar.

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The directors and actors alike insisted theirs was a respectful parody of the things actors bash to get into character, though Banderas didn’t clasp backmost erstwhile asked to springiness an illustration of an antithetic ritual helium had experienced.

“I’m going to shriek a small bit,” helium warned reporters earlier belting retired a heavy “Maaaah” respective times.

“That was real,” helium said. “I worked with an histrion that did that each clip that we were going to bash a scene. The archetypal clip helium did that I thought helium was a cow. And it was precise annoying.”

As helium looked retired into the country afloat of amusement reporters covering his property league and the movie festival, Bandera mused that it seemed that beingness was imitating art.

“Don’t you guys person the feeling that we’re successful the movie? If we were successful the movie I would beryllium asking wherefore I americium successful the country of the table, and I americium not successful the center,” helium said. “We should bash a continuation that should see the press,” helium said, laughing. “That would beryllium awesome.”

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