Venice/Venice is about the blur between reality and fiction, which many artists seem to struggle with. Before I saw it, I read an interview with Jaglom where he said that this film was his homage to Fellini's 8 1/2. I'd say it owes more to some of Fellini's later works, like The Clowns and Intervista, which are a blend of fiction and documentary that many film buffs find hard to stomach. I don't-this kind of experimentation is the kind of work I crave. To see a film by my favorite living filmmaker where he pays tribute to the techniques of my favorite dead filmmaker was irresistible to me.
It's tempting because Jaglom casts himself in a primary role to think that he is the star of the film, but really, Venice/Venice belongs to Nelly Alard. She plays a character who is in love with the films of the director played by Jaglom, but learns soon enough that what she saw on film is not quite the real persona of the man behind them, and her disillusionment is the motor of the film.
Interspersed with the fictional segments are documentary-esque segments of women being interviewed about film and how the films they grew up watching shaped their perceptions of the world around them. Many, many times throughout the film, they said things that came straight from my own mouth, and it was a comfort to know that it wasn't just me who felt that way. Venice/Venice is Jaglom's love letter to the film medium, and how it changes those impacted by it, for good or for bad.
All the same, this film didn't hit me between the eyes and knock me out the way Jaglom's other works, especially Eating, did, and it runs just a tad bit too long for my tastes, but it's still a marvelous piece of work. And it's one that is going to leave me thinking for a long time after, and will, I think, grow on me.
