Kim Novak Lifetime Achievement Award at 82 Venice Film Festival
By Moira Sullivan
 |
| Kim Novak Lifetime Achievement Award, September 1, 2025 © La Biennale di Venezia |
The 82nd Venice Film Festival in 2025 ran from 27 August to 6 September 2025. Venice is the oldest film festival of international film festivals, and a distinguishing attribute is that it is an artistic film festival attracting independent filmmakers and scripts that are complex and layered, provoking intelligent introspection. Theatrical productions that are attractive to general audiences are also screened, but most of the films are selected to be appraised by a talented group of film critics and a distinguished jury. Unlike Cannes, any critic who wants to attend the press conferences is allowed entrance. The reviews reveal a multiplicity of viewpoints even if the most commercial of these forums are backed by big business blogs such as Deadline Hollywood, Hollywood Reporter, and IndieWire. Deadline Hollywood is a focused blog on the entertainment industry acquired by Penske Media Corporation since 2009. Compared to Cannes, the festival clearly has more funding for publicity, and the internet is inundated with images from the festival. The most irritating media cliché is reporting on the length of a standing ovation, which has nothing to do with the quality or content of a film. It is customary at Venice and at Cannes that the audience shows their appreciation for the film and is a warm collective gesture to the cast and crew. Most blogs copy from each other, so the fact that Venice accepts all kinds of media and permits entrance to press conferences adds to the splendor of this festival.
 |
| Kim Novak’s Vertigo |
Novak attributes the success of her films to Columbia co-founder Harry Cohn, who ran the studio for four decades. She praised his ability to select good scripts for her, and most of them contributed to her reputation as one of the most highly paid actors in Hollywood. In almost every picture, she is commented on for her beauty, even by children. Harry Cohn assigned publicist Muriel Roberts to work exclusively with Kim Novak.
 |
| Kim Novak in Jeanne Eagles, 1957 |
The 1957 biopic Jeanne Eagles is based on the real-life story of an actor who is ruthless in getting roles, including stealing a part from an established actor who later kills herself. The film was made the same year as Vertigo and shows her acting ability far more than Vertigo. At the Master Class at the 82nd Venice Film Festival, Kim Novak was asked if there was a film she would like to single out in her repertoire, and she said it was Jeanne Eagles, but Vertigo remains her favorite film. Vertigo was praised by a critics poll made in 2012 by Sight & Sound composed of 646 men and 199 women. It is still used 13 years later as the benchmark of its success, but looking closer at the poll's history reveals its artifice.
Novak made 12 pictures for Columbia between 1954 and 1964: Phffft (1954), Pushover (1954), Five Against the House (1955), Picnic (1955), The Man with the Golden Arm (1955), The Eddy Duchin Story (1956), Jeanne Eagels (1957), Pal Joey (1957), Bell, Book and Candle (1958), Middle of the Night (1959), Strangers When We Meet (1960), The Notorious Landlady (1962), Boys' Night Out (1962), and Kiss Me, Stupid (1964). She reports that she left Hollywood after Cohn died because the quality roles he offered her could not compare to the scripts she was given after his death. During this time, she lived in Big Sur, surrounded by an artist colony. When her home was destroyed by fire, she moved to Oregon. During this time she devoted herself to painting.
Novak was introduced to the audience at Venice for her Lifetime Achievement Award by Guillermo del Toro, who provided a compelling description of her artistry, including her vulnerability, which he claimed inflected a precious quality to her films. When she received the award, she exclaimed, "This is for you. I am you, and you are me." During the lengthy applause, she could be seen saying, "Thank you, thank you - this is you - it's for you." There's never been a more gracious and warm acceptance by a rare actress of the screen than Kim Novak. Even young people who didn't grow up with her were astonished by her generosity and candidness. She reported that she painted, which helped her with her manic depression, and was forthright about how important it is to use art for recovery. Probably the best interview with Novak to listen to is Robert Osborne's TCM interview with her in 2013, when she was guest of honor, in which she explained her background. She revealed how the studios required her to be made over: her teeth, her hair, her clothing, and her name, and that the role of Vertigo was therefore symbolic of this makeover process for women.
 |
| "San Francisco Cinematic Icon Award" |
Kim Novak, 'Girl With a Dream' by Moira Sulliavan, San Francisco Examiner, June 2012.
Kim Novak Old Mint: San Francisco Museum and Historical Society, 2012. Well, she was here in San Francisco briefly to meet the press yesterday, as the Giants lost to the Astros and the fans began massing downtown, jamming up traffic.
Kim Novak arrived in San Francisco, and then...she entered the Old Mint Building for a fundraising dinner for the museum. Inside she was to receive the "San Francisco Cinematic Icon Award," an award apparently the first of its kind. An onstage interview inside the Old Mint with Kim Novak took place by Turner Movie Classics’ Ben Mankiewicz. The "San Francisco Cinematic Icon" award was given out by the fundraising enterprise "Standing Ovations," which stood for the award and one of the three fundraising dinners for the museum since 2010. In 2012 their dinner honored Italian American Heritage, and the year before an event for “San Francisco Luminaries".
The San Francisco Museum and Historical Society displayed Kim Novak's artwork June 16-24 at the Old Mint. On her show entitled "Life is But a Dream," Novak says, “My style of painting is the result of striving for the marriage of impressionism and expressionism. I have always been influenced by life as it exists around me—touched by my past, the world of make-believe—and concerned with what affects life today and how it might affect life tomorrow. Through the use of symbolism, I have found a way to vent life’s frustrations and experience the freedom of self-expression. This is the ultimate reward that comes to the visual artist.” Highlighting Ms. Novak's appearance was a press release: "San Francisco Museum and Historical Society Presents 'Standing Ovations' Honoring San Francisco and the Movies." A parallel show at the Old Mint celebrates movies and filmmakers that have put San Francisco on the map. See Kim Novak: San Francisco's Cinematic Icon.
Movie Magazine International
Comments
Post a Comment