Jude Law became ‘obsessive’ Putin watcher for role as Russian leader
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British actor Jude Law (left) as Russian leader Vladimir Putin and Paul Dano as Vadim Baranov in a scene from The Wizard Of The Kremlin.
PHOTO: SCREENDAILY/X
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VENICE – British actor Jude Law on Aug 31 said he became an “obsessive” watcher of Mr Vladimir Putin as he prepared for his role as the Russian leader in his new film, The Wizard Of The Kremlin. It premiered at the Venice Film Festival.
Law, 52, bears an uncanny resemblance to Mr Putin, aping his scowl and distinctive walking style in the film by French director Olivier Assayas, which charts the rise of the former intelligence officer.
“There’s a lot of footage one could watch and, personally when I start going down that rabbit hole, it becomes sort of obsessive,” he told journalists. “You’re looking for ever more, newer material.”
Portraying Mr Putin was a challenge because of his famously deadpan expression, he said. “The tricky side to me was that the public face that we see (of Putin), we see very, very little,” Law added. “There’s this mask.”
Law credited his likeness to the real Mr Putin to “an amazing make-up and hair team”, adding that he had no fear of repercussions.
Based on a bestseller
The movie, which runs for 2½ hours, is an exhaustive look at Mr Putin’s career muzzling political opponents, cowing oligarchs and enriching his entourage.
It is told through the eyes of fictional political adviser Vadim Baranov, played by American actor Paul Dano, 41. It is based on a top-selling book of the same name by Italian author Giuliano da Empoli.
Assayas said it was first and foremost a story about authoritarianism, with Russia’s transition from a chaotic democracy in the late 1990s to Mr Putin’s modern autocracy a warning for the West.
British actor Jude Law attends the red carpet for Le Mage Du Kremlin (The Wizard Of The Kremlin), which is presented in competition at the 82nd International Venice Film Festival.
PHOTO: AFP
“We made a movie about what politics has become and the very scary and dangerous situation we all feel we are in,” he explained.
Early reviews were mixed. While The Hollywood Reporter praised Law and Dano for their performances, it said the film “gets bogged down in too many characters and events”.
Screen International was more positive, praising “a screenplay dense with incident” and “fast-moving, sleek direction”.
Jarmusch return
The Wizard Of The Kremlin is one of 21 films competing for the top prize at the Venice Film Festival, a key platform for international launches, which runs until Sept 6.
Other highlights on Aug 31 include the premiere of Father Mother Sister Brother, the latest film from independent American director Jim Jarmusch, with a stellar cast that includes Cate Blanchett, Adam Driver and regular collaborator, US singer Tom Waits.
The Broken Flowers (2005) director has called it “a kind of anti-action film”, featuring three separate dysfunctional families in conversation in the rural upstate New York, Dublin and Paris.
Jarmusch told reporters he was “disappointed” that the main distributor for the film, art-house streaming platform Mubi, had accepted investment from a venture capital fund with links to the Israeli military.
Director Jim Jarmusch (second from left) with actors (from left) Luxembourg actor Vicky Krieps, Cate Blanchett, Charlotte Rampling, Luka Sabbat, Mayim Bialik and Indya Moore arriving for the screening of Father Mother Sister Brother.
PHOTO: AFP
“My relationship with Mubi was started much before that and they were fantastic to work with on this film,” Jarmusch told reporters. “I was, of course, disappointed and quite disconcerted by this relationship.”
Israel’s siege of Gaza has been one of the main talking points in Venice, with an open letter denouncing the Israeli government and calling on the festival to speak out more forcefully gathering thousands of signatures.
Several thousand anti-war protesters shouting, “Stop the genocide!”,
Sept 3 will see the premiere of The Voice Of Hind Rajab about the real-life killing of a six-year-old Palestinian girl in Gaza by Israeli forces in 2024.
Directed by Franco-Tunisian Kaouther Ben Hania, the production has attracted heavyweight Hollywood support from Brad Pitt, Jonathan Glazer and Joaquin Phoenix, who have joined as executive producers.
Other in-competition films that have made a mark so far in Venice include Greek director Yorgos Lanthimos’s darkly satirical Bugonia starring Oscar-winner Emma Stone, about two conspiracy-obsessed misfits who kidnap a pharmaceutical company chief executive.
Opening night feature La Grazia by Italy’s Paolo Sorrentino about an Italian president grappling with indecision about euthanasia drew plaudits, as has compatriot Gianfranco Rosi’s sumptuous black-and-white documentary about Naples.
Aug 30 saw Mexican director Guillermo del Toro (The Shape Of Water, 2017) deliver a new and big-budget adaptation
