So you want a film festival

Here comes another festival in Venice. You can sort of tell. The pool at the Cipriani is roped off, for insurance reasons. You can't get a drink at the Gritti, and nobody will empty your ashtray. They're looking for faces. And who isn't. They can look all they want. 


There are Lions of Venice, minted every year. And there are lions. Yes, there are. 

Are you in Church now, dear man? Is your Quaker wedding concluded, and are you still in your white shirt, cufflinked? Does your watch chain sweep clear of your cartridge belt, and do you know the time? Have you come to this arena, of all places, combed as you are, with hope? 

Then give people that. Change the world, if that's not asking too much; and be the face of it.




















Mr Cooper in Venice
1955


Fred Zinneman, director
Carl Foreman, screenplay
  blacklisted
Floyd Crosby, cinematography
  blacklisted
Gary Cooper as Will Kane
High Noon
United Artists, 1952©


Solidarity election poster
  Republic of Poland
  At High Noon, 4 June 1989