From Venice to Istanbul and Back

Hagia Sophia in Istanbul - where Christianity & Islam converge

(Venice, Italy) A couple of weeks ago, I spontaneously decided that I had to take a plane trip outside of Italy. I had not been out of the country for ten years, and wanted to see if I had regained my right to freedom of movement -- a topic that needs a book, not a blog post to examine. Simply, I wanted to go out of Europe, get my passport stamped, get a breath of fresh air, and come back home.

After checking a bunch of cities and airfares, I decided to go to either New York or Istanbul, leaving on Thursday and returning on Sunday; the decision rested on whether an old friend was free to meet me in New York. He was not, so off to Istanbul I went, despite some well-meaning friends who said that I was crazy -- Ataturk Airport was the target of a terrorist attack on June 28 that killed 45 people and wounded more than 230 others, and Turkey is under a state of emergency due to the attempted coup on July 15, 2016.

Istanbul in the evening

I am happy to report that the trip could not have been smoother. I slid through all the checkpoints at Marco Polo Airport, and boarded a direct Turkish Airlines flight (did you know they have been chosen by Skytrax as the "Best Airline in Europe" for six consecutive years?) that zoomed me to Istanbul in 2 1/2 hours, including a nice meal and large selection of movies. I picked The Big Short, which I had never heard of before, which shows how out of the loop I am considering that it was nominated for five Academy Awards and is about the housing bubble and financial crisis.

Mother Goddess in Istanbul Archaeology Museum

I also chose Istanbul because it was familiar. I had been to Turkey twice before, fascinated by the ancient symbol of the female divinity, Cybele, a Mother Goddess that stretches back about 12,000 years -- a lot of that research ended up in my second novel, Harley's Ninth. Plus, Venice and Istanbul aka Constantinople, the capital city of the Roman Empire, have a long, complex history. And, it was inexpensive. (CAT TRAVEL TIP: try to travel during wars and coups because the prices go way down.)

View from Rooftop Terrace of Levni Hotel, Istanbul

I picked a boutique hotel right in the center, the Levni Hotel & Spa, that had a roof terrace with spectacular views, a warm and welcoming staff, and a terrific Turkish breakfast buffet with exotic offerings and honey dripping from the comb. The location could not have been better -- it was within walking distance to most of the major sights, and steps away from the new Marmaray metro system that zooms you underneath the Bosphorus strait in four minutes, connecting the European and Asian sides of Istanbul.

Grand Bazaar

It had been about 15 years or so since I was last in Istanbul, but I felt immediately at ease. The first afternoon I walked around, inhaling the exotic scents in the air, listening to the Islamic call to prayer resounding from the minarets on the mosques, and chatting with the shopkeepers. Everyone was friendly and eager to express how they felt about the political situation, which I knew very little about. Even if they didn't agree with their president, Receo Tayyip Erdogan, who used to be the Mayor of Istanbul, they said they took to the streets to protest the coup because they loved their country, and didn't want to lose it to a foreign power.

Basilica of San Marco in Venice

Although Italy is Catholic Church Headquarters with the Pope down in Rome, and church bells ringing constantly throughout the day, it is a secular republic. The Republic of Venice herself was more influenced by Constantinople than by Rome, which is why the architecture here has an Eastern flavor.

And although the majority of people who live in Turkey are Sunni Muslims, and there are calls to prayer wailing from the mosques throughout the day, it, too is a secular republic. The first President of the Turkish Republic, Musttafa Kemal Ataturk, abolished the Ottoman Caliph, who was also the Sultan, the supreme religious and political leader, on March 3, 1924, and the last caliph went into exile. It would be sort of like abolishing the Queen of England, who is also the Head of the Church of England. (Americans don't have this system:-) 

INTERESTING ASIDE: If the Imperial House of Osman were still in existence, the current Caliph would be Bayezid Osman, who is now 92-years-old, lives in the States and used to work in the New York Public Library.

Sultan Ahmed Mosque aka the Blue Mosque

Later the first day, when I finally made it to the Sultan Ahmed Mosque, which Westerners call the Blue Mosque, it was closed except for prayer, so I said I wanted to pray, which was true -- even though I was obviously not a Muslim -- and they let me in. You must take your shoes off and put a scarf over your head. The interior was radiant, with hand-painted blue tiles covering the walls.

Inside the Blue Mosque - Photo: Cat Bauer

Sultan Ahmed I ascended to the throne in 1603 when he was only 14-years-old. When he was 19, he commissioned the architect Sedefkar Mehmet Aga to build the mosque based on the design of the Byzantine Christian church Hagia Sophia, located a few minutes away. The mosque was constructed in about seven and a half years, from 1609-1617; Sultan Ahmed was so dedicated to his project that he personally worked as a laborer.

Hagia Sophia

The next day, I went to the Hagia Sophia, which means "Holy Wisdom." The Hagia Sophia was constructed as a Greek Orthodox Christian church under Byzantine Emperor Justinian I between 532 and 537, which I find astounding. How did they built such a masterpiece in four and a half years?!

Constantine the Great mosaic in Hagia Sophia c. 1000

HISTORY REFRESHER: Roman Emperor Constantine I reunited the Empire under one emperor in 324, and was the first Roman emperor to legalize Christianity, eventually becoming a Christian himself. He did not consider Old Rome for his capital because of its declining infrastructure and dusty old monuments like the Colosseum and Circus Maximus. 

Constantine decided to found New Rome, or Constantinople, on the ancient Greek city of Byzantium, which was strategically located on the European side of the Strait of Bosporus, and closer to the geographic center of the Empire (can you image how humongous the Roman Empire was?). 

So, unlike pagan Rome, Constantinople was inspired by the Christian God aka Jesus Christ, although Constantine constructed plenty of temples to pagan deities. He died in 337 CE. In 391, Emperor Theodosius the Great made Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire.

According to legend, Venice was founded at noon on March 25, 421. Before that, it was a bunch of islands in a lagoon, inhabited only by fishermen. Venice became a Byzantine territory, and then grew into a Republic.

The Western Roman Empire ended in 476.

Muhammad was born in 570.

The Byzantine or Eastern Roman Empire was conquered by the Ottomans in 1453.

Jesus on the throne with 

Emperor Constantine IX Monomachos & Empress Zoe donating money

11th Century Mosaic in Hagia Sophia

Hagia Sophia remained Orthodox until 1204 when Constantinople was conquered by the Fourth Crusaders, led by the wily Venetian, the blind, 90-year-old Doge Enrico Dandolo -- who died in Constantinople and was buried in the church. It was then converted to a Roman Catholic cathedral, which it remained until 1261 when the Byzantines reconquered Constantinople, and put it back the way they wanted it -- Greek Orthodox.

Marker of the tomb of Enrico Dandolo

When Constantinople was conquered by the Ottoman Turks under Sultan Mehmed II in 1453, he ordered that Hagia Sophia be turned into a mosque (and destroyed Enrico Dandolo's tomb). Then, the mosque morphed into a museum in 1935 under Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, who led the Turkish War of Independence and transformed Turkey into a modern republic, becoming its first President.

It's an architectural miracle that Hagia Sophia is even standing after nearly 1500 years, let alone after going through all that chaos!

Çemberlitaş Hamamı

Another reason I went to Istanbul was that I really wanted to experience the hamam, or Turkish Bath again, an experience that had a profound affect on me so many years ago. I stumbled on the Çemberlitaş Hamamı, which was built by the architect Sinan in 1584, and established by Nurbanu Sultan, wife of Sultan Selim II and mother of Sultan Murat III.  

By researching this post, I have just discovered that there are several theories as to who Nurbanu Sultan was, and one of them is that she was Venetian! She was prominent under the era known as the Sultanate of Women, when women of nobility exerted strong political power in the Ottoman Empire. The most powerful women were the Sultan's mother, whose title was Valide Sultan, and his wife, whose title was Haseki Sultan. As a wife and a mother to two sultans, Nurbanu was both Haseki and Valide Sultan, a strong diplomatic force, communicating with the likes of Catherine de Medici, and maintaining relationships with European countries. 

Çemberlitaş Hamamı

Back to the beautiful energy of the hamam. Men and women are divided into separate baths, which is a good thing because there is something truly divine about the female Turkish energy. They are strong, motherly and kind, with an impish sense of humor. First I was led upstairs to the dressing rooms, where I took off my clothes, put on a pair of black panties, wrapped a towel around me, and stepped into a pair of rubber slippers. 

Çemberlitaş Hamamı

Then I was led into the hot room, and directed to lie upon the impressive marble slab among mostly Turkish women, who were in various stages of being scrubbed and washed. Naked except for the panties, I gazed up at the sunlight streaming through the circles in the dome and relaxed, listening to the chattering of the Turkish women. 

After about ten minutes, a lovely woman whose name sounded something like Susan used a loofa mitt to scrub the dead skin off my body. Susan did not speak much English, but she did manage to tell me that she was the mother of three using hand language. 

Çemberlitaş Hamamı

Next, a bucket of bubbles was poured over me, which made me feel like a child being pampered by a loving mother. Susan washed and massaged my body, then led me over to a marble basin, where she washed my hair.

After that, I was led upstairs for an oil massage. Waiting for me was Halime with a grin on her face, eyes full of joy, who greeted me as if nothing could delight her more than to give me a massage. Halime had the perfect touch, and hit all the right spots, humming a Turkish tune the entire time. She struck a deep chord within me, sharing such beautiful feminine energy that it made me teary-eyed. It was the Mother Goddess come to life. In fact, the experience was so enchanting that I went back the next day and did it all again.
 

Inside the Harem

There were so many other rich experiences, too many for this post. The Sultan's Palace and its Harem, the Archaeology Museums, more mosques, the spicy food, the Grand Bazaar, the Spice Bazaar, the Bosphorus, the streets filled with tame cats -- and tame dogs -- the Turkish coffee, the Turkish tea, the Turkish Delight, the silks, the gold, the mosaics. 

Istanbul was the perfect place to dash off to, that ancient city that spans both Europe and Asia, exotic and quixotic, crammed with the history of humanity. None of the internal turmoil within Turkey touched me at all; I was obviously American, and was welcome everywhere I went.

Turkish cats watching a big cat sneak up on a kitten in a tree

On the way back to the airport, I decided to try the new rail system, the Marmaray, which was about 30 seconds outside the hotel. I had to make one switch, and ended up chatting all the way to the airport with a Turk named Ali who lived in London. I remarked how friendly everybody was, and he said, "It is because you are a guest, and it is part of our culture to be good hosts to our guests."

When we arrived at the airport, we stopped outside for a smoke. A stranger came over and asked if we needed a light. "You see?" Ali said. "He doesn't know you or me. He only saw us searching for a lighter."

Ciao from Venezia,
Cat Bauer
Venetian Cat - The Venice Blog

A World of Enchantment at T Fondaco dei Tedeschi in Venice

Grand Canal from the Rooftop Terrace of T Fondaco dei Tedeschi

(Venice, Italy)  A great deal of my life in Venice has been spent living on the Grand Canal right at the Rialto Bridge, so the Fondaco dei Tedeschi, at the foot of the bridge, has been a major part of my personal landscape. It was my post office, where I waited in line to buy stamps, mail packages, and pay my bills. It was enjoyable because many of my neighbors had to wait in the same lines, so going to the post office was like a social event.

T Fondaco dei Tedeschi - Photo: DFS

The Fondaco dei Tedeschi was originally constructed in 1222 as the headquarters and restricted living quarters for the German merchants in Venice, which was then the center of the world's trade. It was destroyed by fire in 1505. 

The German market was so important to the wealth of Venice that the Fondaco was rebuilt immediately using the geometric principles of the Renaissance. The new, even more majestic building was inaugurated on August 1, 1508, and functioned as a palace, warehouse, and market. Then, under Napoleon, it transformed into a customs house, and morphed into a post office under Mussolini.

Rialto Bridge currently being restored by Renzo Rosso from water entrance of DFS

Just about 17 years ago, on October 1, 1999, I moved into my apartment at San Polo 622 with a balcony that overlooked the Grand Canal, and a full-frontal view of the Rialto Bridge. As time went on, and unregulated tourism became more rampant, I witnessed various forces battle for control of the Rialto area.

Aerial view Fondaco dei Tedeschi - Photo: Archdaily

In 2008, the post office sold the Fondaco dei Tedeschi to the powerful Benetton family of Treviso, who hired Rem Koolhaas, the renowned Dutch architect, and his firm, OMA, to transform the beloved structure into a shopping and cultural center. The next player in the picture was the DFS Group, the Hong Kong luxury travel retailer, a subsidiary of LVMH, the French multinational luxury goods conglomerate, headquartered in Paris.

The reconstruction took place behind covered scaffolding, closed to the public. Venetians are always suspicious of change and braced for the worse.

Thursday night Gala at T Fondaco dei Tedeschi

We have finally arrived in the year 2016. After a VIP bash on Thursday night, the T Fondaco dei Tedeschi once again opened to the public on Saturday, October 1st. I am thrilled to report that it is teeming with excitement, magic, and joy. The restoration of the structure itself is simply spectacular. When it was a post office, the Fondaco dei Tedeschi felt stark and Mussolini-like; now it feels bright and vibrant, like an elegant, exotic bazaar.

T Fondaco dei Tedeschi - Photo: Cat Bauer

Philippe Schaus, the Chairman & CEO of DFS was aware that they "were the guardian of something close to people's hearts," and took that responsibility seriously. According to The Moodie Davitt Report, Schaus said they had three major responsibilities:

1. To make sure that the architecture was consistent with its history.

2. To create something which adds value to Venice and elevates the profile of the city -- to add a dimension so people can stay in Venice longer, and don't need to go to Milan or Rome for shopping.

3. To bring a level of service to the building that the customers of DFS have come to expect. They created 500 jobs, and had to decide how to fill them -- should they hire people away from other retailers, or train employees from scratch? 

Silva Shehata & Missoni scarves exclusive for the Fondaco

To me, the hiring was the most exciting element of the project -- DFS decided to recruit young people and give about half of them their very first job opportunity. According to Nuova Venezia, over 400 people have been specially trained to work in the structure; half are in their first job; 80% have been given a permanent contract; and over 70% are women.

I spent several hours interviewing dozens of employees in the Fondaco dei Tedeschi on Saturday. I have never met a group of people who were so excited and grateful for their jobs. It seemed like most nationalities, languages, and skin colors were represented, from every continent in the world (maybe not Antarctica:-). Most of the employees I spoke to were from Venice or the Veneto. Even if they had been born in China, Brazil, India, Africa, Southern Italy or beyond, they had either stayed on after attending university here or had arrived as children with their families.

The employees were professional, enthusiastic, and courteous -- and remember, I was talking to them on their very first day on the job. A 25-year-old woman in the shoe department lowered her voice and said, "I want to tell you something. I have never had a job before in my life. We have created an entire world inside the T Fondaco dei Tedeschi, filled with people from all over the globe. I see this not as just a job, but an opportunity for a career."

A tall, 23-year-old man, brimming with confidence, told me that he had been born in the Ospedale Civile, Venice's ancient hospital. This was not his first job, but it was the platform from which he wanted to launch the rest of his life. He said he wanted to be a manager, and, judging by his demeanor, he has a good chance of achieving his goal. Another young man told me that he was not sure, exactly, what he wanted to do with his life, but he was positive he wanted "to be in this world, the world of fashion."

Fiori from Venice & Giulia from Jesolo in cosmetics

What was personally rewarding was that I encountered people I know in everyday Venetian life, almost unrecognizable in their newly-styled look.

Up in cosmetics, a young Venetian woman smiled at me: "But I know you already. You go to my gym!"

Over in men's fashions, a young Russian student told me, "But I know you already! From the library at the university."

As I was wafting through the perfume section, another young woman asked me if I wanted to try a scent.

"What is it?"

"The Merchant of Venice."

I paused, then grinned: "I know the owner of your company, Marco Vidal. You are in good hands. He is passionate about his product and about Venice."

Chinese-French DJ MIMI XU at opening gala T Fondaco dei Tedeschi

It was like a marvelous mini Venetian empire, filled with an international buzz, with a strong presence of the Far East. T Fondaco dei Tedeschi combines history, culture, luxury, and local products under one roof, products that give back to the Venetian community. On the ground floor, there are select wines and food, along with a splash of products created by local artisans and businesses.

For example, the Ceccato family has been around for four generations. The Venetian clothing brand, Emilio Ceccato, is the official supplier of gondoliers' uniforms, which you can buy yourselves -- that is a real Venetian souvenir. A percentage of each purchase goes directly into supporting the gondoliers of Venice, helping to keep the ancient profession alive. I was at the very first presentation of the official logo a couple years ago, and I was there when the gondoliers got their very first check, which I wrote about here:

News from Rialto - Gondoliers of Venice Go Global

Escalator at T Fondaco dei Tedeschi

Philippe Starck, the legendary French designer who lives on the Venetian island of Burano, together with Massimiliano Alajmo, the legendary 3-star Michelin chef, and his legendary brother and partner, Raffaele -- they are responsible for the current Ristorante Quadri in Piazza San Marco -- have created a café/restaurant called "Amo," which means "I love" in Italian. The café part of Amo will open on October 15, and the restaurant part sometime in the near future. 

TIP: As soon as you enter the Fondaco, stop at the front desk and ask if you need a ticket to visit the rooftop terrace with a spectacular panoramic view of Venice. Due to space and safety, only a limited number of people are allowed up on the terrace at one time. They are still experimenting with the best way to control the line, so be warned that there could be a wait at the top anywhere from five to thirty minutes, or you might get lucky and score a singular view of Venice.

Once on the top floor, you will enter a contemporary cultural venue and meeting place, which kicked off with "Under Water," a video installation by the Italian artist, Fabrizio Plessi, a familiar face around Venice.

Ancient well in former medieval courtyard

The biggest complaints I've heard are that the ancient well that was in the center of the Fondaco was moved off-center and that the floor is too contemporary and slick. I've also read some negative comments on the Internet. All I can say is that after living in Venice for nearly two decades, where gossip is an artful weapon, the only way to draw a correct conclusion is to witness something with your own eyes and ears and form your own opinion.

OMA, the architectural firm founded by Rem Koolhaas, has created a page on its website filled with a description of the project, articles about the gala opening, images from social media, and more, so click over there if you would like more information.

Cat Bauer on terrace of T Fondaco dei Tedeschi

To me, the T Fondaco dei Tedeschi has pumped fresh blood into Rialto, the heart of Venice itself, a zone that was in desperate need of a transfusion.

Ciao from Venezia,
Cat Bauer
Venetian Cat - The Venice Blog

For Those Who Read - Mind-blowing Chanel & Cini Exhibitions in Venice - #VeniceBooks

Magic Ingredients that make a Book - Mindful Hands at Cini Foundation

Updated August, 2026

(Venice, Italy) As an author, I am in awe of the written word. The mysterious way words pour out of one's mind and onto the page is, to me, a little miracle, originating from somewhere above. And then to have those words bound together to create a tangible book is like giving birth to an entire world. Contained between the covers of a book is a universe of possibilities.

Just as astonishing is the ability of human beings to read. The transformative act of reading books is like projecting private movies inside our minds, each one of us adding our own unique elements. We use our powerful imaginations to lift the words off the page and formulate new ideas, create characters and pull concepts out of the shadows. A book is a window into the cosmos.

Chanel - Ritz in Paris, 1937 - Photo: Jean Moral/Brigitte Moral

The Woman Who Reads

Fashion icon Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel (August 19, 1883 - January 10, 1971) was a voracious reader. The Woman Who Reads exhibition from Culture Chanel has whisked elements from her library in Paris here to the Ca' Pesaro palazzo, Venice's museum for modern art.

The Woman Who Reads - Chanel

Books became Gabrielle Chanel's best friends when she was dumped in a convent along with two sisters at the formative age of 12 by her father, an itinerant peddler, after her mother, a laundress, had died. The nuns at the orphanage taught her to sew, but when Gabrielle came of age she became a seamstress who moonlighted as a cafe entertainer, earning her nickname by singing a tune about a lost dog named "Coco." She was a hit with the aristocracy, who took her under their wing.

Chanel created many myths and legends about her past, so the details are foggy -- except for the details of her birth, which were recorded, so we do know that she was a Leo with a Capricorn ascendant and a Pisces moon. (If you want more juicy details about how a poor orphan morphed into a wealthy fashion icon, pick up "Coco Chanel: The Legend and the Life" by Justine Picardie.) 

The Woman Who Reads - Chanel

Throughout her life, Chanel palled around with a Who's Who of artists, writers, and musicians, and had affairs with prominent men, but her greatest love was Boy Chapel, who introduced her to Eastern philosophy and helped get Chanel's business off the ground. A philanderer who ended up marrying an aristocrat while maintaining his affair with Chanel, Boy Chapel crashed his car and died on December 21, 1919. Chanel was devastated, and proclaimed: "Either I die as well or finish what we started." The exhibition hints that the relationship continued beyond the grave.

The Woman Who Reads - Chanel

From the press notes: 

"In her apartment at 31 rue Cambon, the book shelves square up to the Coromandel lacquer panels. The comforting presence of the writings would accompany her and inspire the construction of her own pieces.

From the solitude of her years in the orphanage of Aubazine until the end of her life, books and their authors guided Gabrielle Chanel’s path. They nourished her imagination and responded to her mystical quest for the invisible, and showed her how, over time, her own view of the world might be set in place.

This dialogue through the ages, from antiquity to her contemporaries, is underlined in particular by the works of Homer, Plato, Virgil, Sophocles, Lucretius, Dante, Montaigne, Cervantes, Madame de Sévigné, Stéphane Mallarmé, and resonates with the writers she knew and admired like Pierre Reverdy, Max Jacob and Jean Cocteau. This diversity allowed her to find in her own vocabulary - that of fashion - a modernity that defied its own temporality and projected itself far beyond it.

In Venice, one of Gabrielle Chanel’s main sources of inspiration, the public will discover these works for the very first time."

The Woman Who Reads - Chanel

Filled with Chanel's fashions, books, handwritten notes, statues, designs, paintings by the likes of Picasso, and much, much more, The Woman Who Reads is like visiting the inside of Gabrielle Chanel's mind, and brings new depth to the woman who "wrote with fabric." Chanel No. 5 morphs from perfume to magic potion; the little black dress is a foundation no woman should be without.

Chanel carried a handwritten note inside her wallet, an excerpt from "The Sentimental Initiation” by Joséphin Péladan:

The life we lead always amounts to so little, the life we dream of, that's the great existence because it will continue beyond death.

The Woman Who Reads (La Donna Che Legge) will run through January 8, 2017. You will be lost without the catalog, so bring your reading glasses for the tiny script, and definitely get the headset (included in the ticket price).

Mindful Hands - Cini Foundation

Mindful Hands. Masterpieces of Illumination from the Fondazione Giorgio Cini

Meanwhile, over at the Giorgio Cini Foundation on the Island of San Giorgio Maggiore, there is another amazing book-related exhibition going on, Mindful Hands. Masterpieces of Illumination from the Fondazione Giorgio Cini.

During the Mediaeval and Renaissance times, illuminated manuscripts were handwritten, hand-painted, and hand-bound, using a potpourri of natural ingredients. Silver and gold, peacock feathers, eggs, and precious stones like lapis lazuli were some of the components of the magical concoctions. Initials, borders and miniature illustrations supplemented religious text; as time went on secular topics were also illuminated. There was some serious alchemy going on.

During the Napoleonic suppressions in 1792, 1798, and 1810, many books and illuminated manuscripts that had been safeguarded in convents, monasteries, confraternities, and professional societies began to circulate on the market. Beautifully illuminated pages were sliced right out of their books and put onto the antiques market.

The letter "C" - Mindful Hands

For the first time in over 35 years, a large part of the collection of Mediaeval and Renaissance miniatures acquired by Vittorio Cini back in 1930-40 is on display, and it is really something to see.

The exhibition is deliberately staged to appeal to the general public, which is not that easy to do when displaying pages cut out of books. But the layout is fascinating, and it is so beautifully lit that it is like stepping into a Wonderland. I literally gasped when I entered the central room with its twinkling lights illuminating the illumination.

"Q" on loan from the Benedictines

The show opens with a rare reunion between a book and a long-lost page. The Benedictine Basilica of San Giorgio Maggiore loaned their enormous book quintessentially named "Q," to the exhibition. Q is an Antiphonal for the Common Office of the Saints, or, more simply, a book with sung parts of the liturgy, a really big choir book so all the monks could see to sing along. Q is displayed next to a page that had been sliced out of that same choir book in the past and is now part of the Cini collection. So the lonely page is finally back with the rest of its family.

Upstairs is equally amazing. There is a riveting video, Cuttings, that documents the production of a parchment sheet, down to the lamb; how the pigments and colors are made from an assortment of precious stones and other elements; and how the whole thing is bound together.

Facsimile Book of Hours - Mindful Hands - Cini Foundation

A small Book of Hours, or Offiziolo, is one of the most sensational parts of the exhibition. Commissioned in the late 15th century by Federico il Moro, the Duke of Milan, to be presented to Charles VIII, the King of France, a Book of Hours was sort of like a prayer for the day. There is a little facsimile that you can actually touch and flip through the pages, while the original remains inside a glass case. Month by month blow-ups are decked upon a wall.

Original Book of Hours

Mindful Hands. Masterpieces of Illumination from the Fondazione Giorgio Cini runs through January 8, 2017, just like Culture Chanel. The Woman Who Reads. Is it a coincidence that both exhibitions concerning books are showing at the same time? If you are interested in knowledge, they are both so refined and delicious that it is worth a trip to Venice to give your mind a sweet treat.

Ciao from Venezia,
#VeniceBooks
Cat Bauer
Venetian Cat - The Venice Blog

21 Quickie Reviews from the Venice Film Festival 2016

Press Room at the Venice Film Festival

(Venice, Italy) The Venice Film Festival had excellent energy this year. The great line-up and new, bright-red Sala Giardino theater contributed to the positive vibes. I also think the President of the Jury influences the festival, and this year it was Englishman Sam Mendes who held the reins, famous for directing American Beauty, and the James Bond films Skyfall and Spectre.

From an American point of view, a couple of interesting folks also on the jury were the avant-garde Renaissance woman, Laurie Anderson, who among her many claims to fame, was NASA's first artist-in-residence (!), and Josh Oppenheimer, best known for his documentaries The Act of Killing and The Look of Silence. The jury was cool.

The Woman Who Left

The Golden Lion, the top prize, went to the nearly four-hour Filipino film, The Woman Who Left, directed by Lav Diaz, which I did not see. Here is the review from the Financial Times.

Go to Biennale for a complete list of all the awards.

In addition to stars, my ratings suggest the venue where you should see the film: Multiplex, Arthouse, Drive-in, Stream-it, or Someplace for Free.

Here are the 21 films I managed to see (whew), in the order in which I saw them:

Emma Stone & Damien Chazelle

1. *****La La Land, directed by Damien Chazelle, starring Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling - if you've read my previous post, you will know that I fell in love with La La Land (as did Tom  Hanks), and predict it will win some major Academy Awards, including best picture. Read the review from Deadline Hollywood. Emma Stone won the Volpi Cup for Best Actress. Watch it at a MULTIPLEX with someone you love, and then BUY it to watch time and again.

Michael Fassbender & Alicia Vikander

2. ***The Light Between Oceans, directed by Derek Cianfrance, starring Michael Fassbender and Alicia Vikander. Terrific performances and heartbreaking story about what constitutes motherly love. Read the review at The Independent. Watch it at a MULTIPLEX or STREAM-IT.

Jeremy Renner & Amy Adams

3. ****Arrival, directed by Denis Villeneuve, starring Amy Adams and Jeremy Renner. Amy Adams is an expert linguist called in by the military to try to communicate with aliens who have landed on Earth. Read the review at Indie Wire. Watch it at a MULTIPLEX or STREAM-IT.

Les Beaux Jour d'Aranjuez

4. *Les Beaux Jour d'Aranjuez, directed by Wim Wenders, starring Reda Kateb and Sophie Semin. Usually I love Wim Wenders, but I was so bored that I walked out when Nick Cave put yet another song on the jukebox. Based on a theater piece by Peter Handke, it's one long conversation about life and love shot unnecessarily in 3D. At the screening I saw, the movie accidentally started with French dialogue and Italian subtitles, and I thought I would concentrate to see how good my language skills were, which made it kind of interesting. Then Sam Mendes, President of the Jury, got up and briefly left the theater, apparently to tell them to switch the subtitles over to English, which they did. Too bad! It was better when I couldn't understand exactly what they said. Watch it at a friend's house for FREE while smoking marijuana.

5.***American Anarchist, directed by Charlie Siskel. A documentary about the late William Powell, who wrote The Anarchist's Cookbook, and who died suddenly two months ago on July 11, 2016 of a heart attack without seeing the film. After Siskel grilled Powell about accepting responsibility for all the terrorism inspired by the book, I wondered if Siskel had examined his own conscience about Powell's sudden death. It took a while, but finally Variety wrote a stern review with which I agree. Watch it at an ARTHOUSE or STREAM-IT

6. ****The Bleeder, directed by Phillipe Falardeau, starring Liev Schreiber, who also produced (it's his project), and Schreiber's, real-life wife, Naomi Watts. The Bleeder is a true story based on the life of boxer Chuck Wepner, who inspired Sly Stallone to write Rocky. Here is the Variety review. Since I grew up in New Jersey about the same 70s time period, I thought the film was a lot of fun, and think you should have a light night out and watch it at a MULTIPLEX, go to the DRIVE-IN or definitely STREAM-IT.

Aaron Taylor Johnson, Tom Ford, Amy Adams and Jake Gyllenhaal 

7. *****Nocturnal Animals, directed by Tom Ford, starring Amy Adams and Jake Gyllenhaal won the Silver Lion Grand Jury Prize, which Ford accepted in Italian. I think fashion designer Tom Ford is one of the coolest people on the planet, and my estimation of him has only gotten higher after screening his second film. Set in the world of fashion that Ford knows so well, Amy Adams reads a violent novel written by her ex-husband, which comes to life on the screen. Michael Shannon is fantastic, as always, as a hardened Texas cop. Here is the Guardian review. I hope this film also gets nominated for lots of Oscars. Watch it at a MULTIPLEX or definitely STREAM-IT 

Kasper Collin

8. ****I Called Him Morgan, directed by Kasper Collin. A documentary about the life of the brilliant jazz trumpet player, Lee Morgan, who died too young after his common-law wife, Helen, shot him during a blizzard in New York in 1972. Here is the review from The Guardian. See it at an ARTHOUSE or definitely STREAM-IT; if you love jazz, then BUY it.

The Young Pope

9. *****The Young Pope, directed by Paolo Sorrentino. We screened the first two episodes of a 10-part TV series about the first American Pope played by Jude Law, who smokes, schemes, and drinks Cherry Coke Zero for breakfast, wears designer-pope outfits, and insists that Sister Mary, who raised him, played by Diane Keaton, be his right-hand nun in the Vatican. Here is the review from Deadline Hollywood. It airs starting October 21, 2016 in Europe on SKY and in early 2017 in the States on HBO. I haven't watched a regular television show in almost 20 years, but I will SUBSCRIBE.

Mel Gibson-  Venice Film Festival

10. ****Hacksaw Ridge, directed by Mel Gibson, starring Andrew Garfield. A true story about Desmond Doss, the first conscientious-object to receive the medal of honor. To me, anyone who thinks that war is glamorous should watch this film, which feels only a breath away from actually being there. Here is the review from the Guardian. After each screening, there are usually TV journalists waiting outside the exit to interview the journalists inside who have just watched the film. I was stopped, I think, by RAI, the national broadcasting network in Italy, and asked my opinion. I was so shaken that I said, "I will speak in English. I do not like violent films. They make me physically nauseous. But this was a good film. Mel got his point across." See it at a MULTIPLEX to feel the full impact of war

Safari

11. **Safari, directed by Ulrich Seidl. A documentary about ordinary folks going on holiday in Africa to kill some of the world's most beautiful animals. I walked out. Here is the review from The Hollywood Reporter. STREAM-IT, if you must.

Suki Waterhouse and Ana Lily Amirpour at Venice Film Festival

12. ***The Bad Batch, directed by Ana Lily Amirpour, starring Suki Waterhouse. This should have been a campy, dark-funny film about cannibals living in a wasteland outside US territory, dumped there because there's no place for them in society. Instead, it was too long, and took itself too seriously. Amirpour won the Special Jury Prize; to me, it was because the jury recognized Amirpour's genuine talent. She should lighten up; she got defensive during the press conference when a journalist called her on the violence. Here is the review from JoBlo. Perfect for a DRIVE-IN or STREAM-IT

Dark Night

13. *Dark Night, by Tim Sutton.This film got a lot of praise at the Sundance Festival, but I left. Maybe if I had been living in the States during the shootings in Aurora at "The Dark Knight Rises," I could have related more to the film, but without that prefabricated emotional terror installed, I had trouble connecting. Here is a review from Roger Ebert. STREAM-IT

Voyage of Time

14. ****Voyage of Time, by Terrence Malik. I was really looking forward to this film, and that is often a mistake because your hopes get so high. The images are beautiful, but the voice-over by Cate Blanchett was so... syrupy, and the words so on-the-nose, I almost fell asleep. I would like to see the shorter IMAX version with voice-overs by Brad Pitt. Here is the Variety review. See it at IMAX

Natalie Portman on the Red Carpet at Venice Film Festival

15. ****Jackie, directed by Paoblo Larraì, and starring Natalie Portman is a portrait of the First Lady holding herself and the United States of America together in the days after John Kennedy was assassinated, which I wrote about here (when I just googled my own post, I was amazed to discover how many other writers had used the same headline: Natalie Portman Channels Jackie Kennedy; I thought I was being so clever). Here is the review from IndieWire. See it at a MULTIPLEX or STREAM-IT.

Colm Meany & Timothy Spall in The Journey

 16. ***The Journey, directed by Nick Hamm, starring Colm Meany and Timothy Spall. I had no expectations whatsoever about this film, and was pleasantly surprised. Here is what I told the BBC: "I really enjoyed it. I am an American, and had no idea about that part of history, but I was once married to a first-generation Irishman. Sometime back in the late 80s/early 90s, we drove into Belfast by accident. It was pretty scary. The film shows that if those two can have a conversation, anybody can. It was an entertaining history lesson." Here is the review from Variety, subtitled: IRA v Unionist: Colm Meaney and Timothy Spall play clashing Northern Irish leaders in a juicy bit of backseat political theater. STREAM-IT

Natalie Portman and Lily-Rose Depp at Venice Film Festival

17. **Planetarium, directed by Rebecca Zlotowski, starring Natalie Portman and Lily-Rose Depp as two psychic American sisters seance-ing their way around Europe, Paris in particular, just before WWII. I was curious to see Johnny Depp's 17-year-old daughter, who was lovely to look at and has some riveting qualities, but the movie itself was dull. Here is the review from The Playlist. STREAM-IT

Our War crew

18. *Our War, directed by Bruno Chiaravalloti, Benedeta Argentieri and Claudio Jampaglia. A documentary about a former US Marine, an unemployed Italian and a Swedish guard who volunteer to fight the Islamic State. I left about a third of the way through, and cannot find it reviewed in English, so I don't think you will have much of a chance of seeing it, but if you do, watch it for FREE

Rem Koolhaas

19. ****Rem, directed by Tomas Koolhaas, is a biopic and act of love by the son of "the world's most talked-about architect," which I wrote about here. I have always found the minds of architects fascinating -- they are artists who create structures for human beings, so they must be practical as well as imaginative. Rem is a glimpse into the mind of one of the most intense, renowned architects on the planet, who likes to swim. Here is the review from The Hollywood Reporter. See it at an ARTHOUSE or STREAM IT

Antoine Fuqua, Chris Pratt and Denzel Washington at Venice Film Festival

20. ***The Magnificent Seven, directed by Antoine Fuqua, starring one gal (Haley Bennett) and a whole bunch of guys, including Denzel Washington. Here is the review from Forbes. A typical Hollywood blockbuster with an ethnic cast, it was slick and entertaining, and worth making a trip to the MULTIPLEX or definitely STREAM-IT. Not worth the extra price of an IMAX
 

Julia Vysotskaya and Christian Clauß in Paradise

21. *****Paradise, directed by Andrei Konchalavsky, starring Julia Vysotskaya and Christian Clauß. When the winners were announced in the press room, I had to make a quick decision: stay for the press conference, or see one of the Silver Lion winners; everything, astonishingly, was scheduled at the same time. I bolted to see Paradise, and I'm glad I did. Because I am American, I have had a lifetime of propaganda about Russia and the Soviet Union -- two different entities -- shoved into my ears. Not just another-Holocaust-film, it leaves one hoping there really is a Paradise after all the Hell on Earth. Here is the Variety review. This film was so riveting, elegant and poignant... I am very happy that it won, and I hope everyone goes to see it WHEREVER THEY CAN.

Here is a moving summary of how it feels to leave the Venice Film Festival written by E. Nina Rothe for the Huffington Post:

I felt a pang of anxiety as I left Venice this morning, in the midst of the boats’ rush hour traffic. It was a strange feeling, like knowing that this kind of event, this combination of great films, magnificent interviews and wonderful meetings will never happen again.

Ciao from Venezia,
Cat Bauer
Venetian Cat - The Venice Blog