Just over a month ago the announcement of withdraw from the scenes: “I no longer have the energy,” he said during an interview during the Festival de la Cinémathèque Of Paris who had called him as a guest of honor. Before, in 2022, there had been the Oscar at the career paid to him by Hollywood. But for the Australian director Peter Weirwhich will take place on August 21st 80 years old, awards season isn’t over yet. The 81st Venice Film Festival – which is racing against time to give the first previews before the spotlight of the world of world cinema all shifts to Cannes – has in fact decided, on the proposal of the director Alberto Barbera, to honor him with Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement. «The Venice Film Festival and its Golden Lion are part offictional of our profession – declared Weir, in accepting the proposal – Being rewarded for our life’s work as directors is a great honor».
An award-winning film career
And award-winning films – from critics and the public – in his career which was effectively interrupted in 2010 with «The way back», the director symbol of Australian new wave he signed several. Since one of the first, still filmed in the beautiful, wild and mysterious Australia, «Picnic at Hanging Rock» from 1975, a fascinating and elusive film that revealed him to the world and opened the way for him to Hollywood. A film that told the mystery afternoon of a group of students and professors of a boarding school near the Hanging Rock massif in Victoria who disappear during an ascent of the mountain. Based on the novel by Joan Lindsay, the film represents the prototype of the cinema that Weir would then create with other means in Hollywood: films capable of attracting the general public with credible stories, but of satisfying even the most demanding palates of film critics.
The recording of «Dead Poets Society» and «Truman Show»
It is his signature under films like «The fleeting moment» (1989) with an unforgettable Robin Williams in the role of Professor Keating, who made generations of students dream and move, his are «Witness – The witness» (1985), with his companion Harrison Fordstory of the little Amish witness to a murder who becomes, with his mother, the target of the corrupt police and «Mosquito Coast», where Ford is a visionary who wants to build his “paradise” on the Honduran Mosquito Coast. But it is certainly «Truman Show» of ’89, apologist for the invasiveness of the media world in the life of Jim Carrey (and in ours) to represent the cinematic testament of an author who, in contrast to peers such as Martin Scorsese And Ridley Scottcompared the life cycle of directors to that of volcanoes: «For film directors, like volcanoes, there are three main phases: active, dormant and extinct. I think I’ve achieved the latter! Another generation is out there calling ‘action’ and ‘cut’ and good luck to them.” Extinct as a volcano, perhaps. But for the director who linked his name to actors like Ethan Hawke, Jim Carrey, Robin Williams, Harrison Ford, River Phoenix it’s still time to receive rewards.
