At the Venice Film Festival, Andrea Pallaoro’s film The Echo Chamber, featuring Alicia Vikander, Luca Marinelli, and Susan Sarandon, received an enthusiastic eight-minute standing ovation at its global debut on Sunday night.
The narrative of the movie is derived from the last script by Bernardo Bertolucci, which he was perfecting before his passing in 2018 in Rome.
In the film, Marinelli portrays a gifted music producer battling with drug addiction, with Vikander playing a compassionate physiotherapist who aids him, and Sarandon as a renowned vocalist who engages him to produce her return album.
There was a heartfelt reception to the film, culminating in a prolonged embrace between Alicia Vikander and Susan Sarandon as the auditorium lights turned on.
The project is spearheaded by Nicola Giuliano of Rome’s Indigo Film, who secured the rights to Bertolucci’s screenplay and brought on Pallaoro to lead it.
Pallaoro, along with Bertolucci’s initial co-writers, Ilaria Bernardini and Ludovica Rampoldi, revised the screenplay. This film marks a new direction for Pallaoro, known for writing his own screenplays for his earlier works: Medeas, Hannah, and Monica.
During the film’s press conference earlier in the day, Sarandon discussed the challenges she faces in Hollywood due to her support for Palestinian rights, expressing gratitude towards Pallaoro for his bravery in casting her.
“I’ve still had movies taken away recently because there are agencies that are telling people not to hire me still. But that’s the power structure. Internationally, I feel welcomed by the people,” she responded to Deadline’s query about her potential future collaborations with film studios.
Daniel Hayes is a business journalist with a focus on market trends, startups, and corporate strategies.
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