Russian director Aleksander Sokurov's "Faust," a new take on the German legend about the quest for knowledge at all cost, won the Golden Lion prize at the Venice Film Festival on Saturday.
Russian 'Faust' wins Venice's Golden Lion
"Faust" tells the tale of a professor, played by Johannes Zeiler, who craves knowledge and sells his soul for the love of Margarete, played by Isolda Dychauk. The Mephistopheles character is played by Anton Adasinskiy.
Dense and difficult to watch, "Faust" was nevertheless one of the critics' top choices among the 23 in-competition films at Venice this year. It marks the final chapter in Sokurov's four-film look at the relationship between man and power that began with "Moloch" in 1999 about Hitler, "Taurus" a year later about Lenin and the 2005 film "The Sun" about Japanese Emperor Hirohito.
Venice's best actor award went to Michael Fassbender for his portrayal as a sex addict in Steve McQueen's "Shame," while the best actress award went to Deanie Ip, who plays an aging domestic servant opposite her master in Hong Kong director Ann Hui's "A Simple Life."
Detox seizure may have killed WinehouseDid Amy Winehouse die from trying to save her life? People reported that her father, Mitch Winehouse, says the troubled singer may have suffered an overdose from a powerful anti-anxiety drug and suffered a seizure during detox. "Everything Amy did, she did to excess," Winehouse said at a taping of Anderson Cooper's show Anderson, which debuts Monday. "She drank to excess and did detox to excess." According to the singer's father, she was trying to get clean once and for all. But, the rampant addictions she battled for years may have left her too weak. The final cause of death will be determined after an official inquest. Mitch Winehouse said previously that no illegal drugs were found in his daughter's system after she died at age 27 in July.
MUSIC TO COMMEMORATE 9/11: Cellist Yo-Yo Ma and singers James Taylor and Paul Simon were among those participating in the Sept. 11 anniversary commemoration at the World Trade Center site. Ma performed a mournful piece by Bach, while Taylor sang the melancholy "You Can Close Your Eyes" and Simon strummed a raw version of "The Sound of Silence." Other musical elements in the commemoration include the Brooklyn Youth Chorus and bagpipers from the fire department, police department and the port authority.