Scotland+Venice Diaries: Clooney and Cocktails

31 August marked the opening of the Venice Film Festival so we donned our most fabulous clothes, boarded the not-quite-as-fabulous vaporetto and sped across the lagoon to Lido.

After a minor diversion through Movie Village we were running late and had to by-pass the red carpet in order to make our film on time! We heard the cheering and whooping from afar and accounts from friends say George made a glamorous entrance among starlets in full-length gowns and other celebs including Tim Burton. The place was definitely buzzing with crowds of fans, paparazzi and riot police.

We finally landed at the ‘PalaBiennale’, the huge 1700 capacity festival tent for the public behind the main Sale Grande (where the celebs are). Sitting down for The Ides of March with a Spritz in our centre-court seats, the atmosphere and anticipation were incredible.

Although clearly not an Oscar winner, the film did have its edge-of-the-seat moments and is definitely worth a trip to the cinema. The best screen presence was unsurprisingly George Clooney; however in donning the director’s hat, he appeared little in the film, leaving room for (the not quite so suave) Ryan Gosling who nonetheless delivered a captivating performance.

We finished the night with post-film cocktails at an impromptu salsa party in an eclectic mosaic-clad hotel.

Ciao amici,

Emma and Alex