Venice under water as complex dam system fails to activate

VENICE, Italy - Venice's St Mark's Square was under water on Tuesday after a newly installed system of mobile artificial dams failed to activate.

Residents -- long accustomed to perennial "acqua alta" or high water events -- pulled on their rubber boots once more to deal with flooding that reached a high of 1.37 meters (4.5 feet) above sea level in the afternoon.

The waters drowned St Mark's Square -- the Renaissance city's lowest area at about one meter above sea level -- and invaded the famous basilica as many shopkeepers blocked their entrances with wood panels to keep the water out.

A massive flood defense system called MOSE aimed at protecting Venice's lagoon during high tide was finally installed in October.

The network of water-filled caissons is designed to be raised within 30 minutes to create a barrier capable of resisting a water rise of three meters above normal. 

But on Tuesday the system failed to swing into action because the forecast erroneously predicted a rise of only 1.2 meters (four feet) above sea level.

"To activate MOSE a bigger forecast is necessary," Venice Mayor Luigi Brugnaro told the Italian news agency Agi.

"We will have to review the rules of the command post."

The water reached a peak of 1.87 meters (six feet) above sea level on November 12, 2019, one of the highest ever recorded. Dozens of churches with UNESCO World Heritage status were damaged.

The MOSE infrastructure project began in 2003 but was plagued by cost overruns, corruption scandals and delays.

The project has cost about seven billion euros ($8 billion), versus an original estimate of two billion. 

Agence France-Presse

Different kind of mask

A tourist tries on a carnival mask in Venice Thursday. According to the Venice Hoteliers Association, floods in November and fears of the spread of the 2019 Novel Coronavirus have led to a 10 percent decline in hotel bookings ahead of the Venice Carnival, which begins Saturday.

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Not so 'Welcome to Venice'

A tourist pushes her floating luggage in a flooded St. Mark's Square, in Venice, Wednesday. 85% of the city was flooded, the high-water mark hitting 187 centimeters (74 inches) late Tuesday, inching close to the highest level ever recorded was 194 centimeters (76 inches) during infamous flooding in 1966. 

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Glamorous Venice Film Festival courts controversy

ROME -- Global superstars Lady Gaga, Ryan Gosling and Vanessa Redgrave descend on Venice this week as the annual film festival kicks off Wednesday to controversy over the inclusion of Netflix productions and there being just one female director in competition.

Some 21 features will be locking horns for the prized Golden Lion, which will be awarded on September 8 at the Palazzo del Cinema on the Venice Lido, the iconic setting for Luchino Visconti's masterpiece "Death in Venice."

The festival jury is chaired by Guillermo Del Toro, last year's winner with "The Shape of Water."

Australian Jennifer Kent is the only woman gunning for the Golden Lion this year, with "The Nightingale."

The lack of female directors was blasted by feminist associations in an open letter sent on August 11 to the festival's artistic director Alberto Barbera.

The letter was a reaction not just to the festival's male-centric selection but also to statements by Barbera, who in a recent press conference explained that he made his choices based on "the quality of the film and not the sex of the director."

"If we impose quotas, I resign," he said, defending a selection criticized as "politically incorrect," especially compared to the latest edition of Cannes, which saw a call for gender equality in cinema.

A number of films being shown in Venice have been picked up by streaming service Netflix, including the the Coen Brothers' "The Ballad of Buster Scruggs."

Starring Tim Blake Nelson, James Franco and Liam Neeson, "The Ballad of Buster Scruggs" features six tales about the Wild West narrated by Joel and Ethan Coen.

The inclusion of Netflix films and their contemporaneous release in theatres and online has drawn the wrath of Italy's two major cinema associations Anec and Anem, who feel people will stay at home rather go out to watch the movies.

"I can't see any reason why a film by (director of Golden Lion contender "Roma" Alfonso) Cuaron or the Coens should be excluded just because they're produced by Netflix," Berbera said during the press conference presenting the festival to reporters last month.

'FIRST MAN' 

The star-studded festival kicks off with "First Man", the new film from the Oscar-winning director of "La La Land" Damien Chazelle.

The film, which stars Canadian Ryan Gosling, follows the life of astronaut Neil Armstrong in the years leading up to 1969, when he became the first man to walk on the moon.

However the most eagerly awaited appearance on the red carpet will undoubtedly be that of provocative pop superstar Lady Gaga, who stars in the out-of-competition "A Star is Born."

Bradley Cooper plays a hard-drinking country artist who discovers a young singer played by Gaga and is also making his directorial debut with the film.

The pair also wrote and recorded new songs for the film, the third remake of the entertainment industry romance classic.

Among the major names expected on the lagoon are Frenchman Jacques Audiard -- who this time is taking on the Western genre with "The Sisters Brothers" -- and his countryman Olivier Assayas, in competition with the comedy "Non-Fiction," starring his favorite actress Juliette Binoche.

Grand Prix winner at Cannes in 2015 and Oscar winner for best foreign film the following year with his first feature film "The Son of Saul," the Hungarian Laszlo Nemes will return to big competition with "Sunset."

Big things are also expected from "The Favourite," a period drama by Greek director Yorgos Lanthimos that plunges viewers into the court of Queen Anne at the beginning of the 18th century and stars Emma Stone and Rachel Weisz.

As every year, the festivfal will award two Golden Lions for their career to 2 film giants, in this case the 81-year-old British actress Vanessa Redgrave and Canadian director David Cronenberg.

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Tequila and cigars: Clooney's stag party in Venice

VENICE - George Clooney said goodbye to bachelorhood in Venice on Friday with a stag party at his favorite restaurant with a host of Hollywood chums.

The actor had swept into the floating city on Friday with his British fiancée Amal Alamuddin on a watertaxi dubbed "Amore", zipping up the Grand Canal to cheers from fans at the start of nuptials set to draw out over the weekend.

As evening approached and girls across the world sobbed, he set out in black tie for an all-boys do with friends to celebrate one of his last nights as a single man.

After shaking off paparazzi, Clooney headed to Da Ivo near Saint Mark's Square where his security detail was spotted lurking as the star and friends dined on the venue's prized Venetian and Tuscan delicacies.

He was then reported to have headed to the luxurious Cipriani hotel where he was set to sleep, but not before rounding off the evening with some shots and cigars.

The 53-year-old actor had 100 cases of his own tequila label flown in for his wedding and was expected to crack open bottles of the award-winning tipple at the stag party.

Clooney's Lebanon-born bride-to-be was spotted in a long red gown heading off to her own soiree at the fresco-adorned Aman hotel with close friends including Ellen Barkin -- who threw the 36-year-old human rights lawyer a hen party several weeks ago.

Matt Damon, Cindy Crawford and her husband Rande Gerber -- tipped to be Clooney's best man -- were just a few of the stars in Venice for the wedding, with Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie and musician Bono tipped to follow on Saturday.

- 'When I fall in love' -

The couple are expected to be officially married in a civil ceremony on Monday, but will have to work hard not to succumb to a hangover before then with a party for 130 or so guests at a reception on Saturday.

The rich and famous will be escorted by police boats to the exclusive seven-star Aman resort within the 450-year-old Palazzo Papadopoli to keep over-excited Clooney admirers and hundreds of photographers at a distance.

They'll be met with lashings of fizz and canapes in the garden, an oasis sheltered from the bustle of the canal, before sitting down in the main library to a sumptuous five-course dinner, according to a source close to the hotel.

The Aman's restaurant will be turned into a nightclub where they'll dance the night away, with Lana Del Rey reportedly preparing to serenade the couple and Clooney dedicating the song "When I fall in Love" to Alamuddin.

A string orchestra and jazz trio are also expected to perform a number of songs, including the uber-romantic "Smoke gets in your eyes", a ballad made famous by The Platters in 1958.

Rome's former mayor Walter Veltroni, a long-term friend of Clooney's, will be performing the civil ceremony, which is likely to be held in the town hall, the stunning Ca' Farsetti 14th century palace opposite the Aman hotel.

Alamuddin moved to Britain as a three-year-old and her rights work has involved representing Wikileaks founder Julian Assange.

Clooney was married once before, to "Mad Men" actress Talia Balsam, but the pair split in 1993, just before his breakout role in "ER" propelled him to the status of global sex symbol.

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