Cryptic film baffles Venice festival

VENICE, Sep 8 (Reuters) The Venice film festival has a reputation for screening obscure auteur movies.

But Daniele Huillet and Jean-Marie Straub's ''Quei Loro Incontri'', or ''The Meeting'', must rank among the most baffling films ever shown in the prestigious festival's main competition.

The picture is divided in five parts, each featuring two people delivering philosophical dialogues between classic Greek characters.

The conversations about humanity are those of the ''Dialogues with Leuco'' by Italian writer Cesare Pavese, and in the film they are interspersed with long silences.

Nothing happens. The characters stand still in a wood or on a hill and in the opening chapter are mostly seen from the back. Apart from their voices, the only other noise is that of birds singing and water streams trickling.

At a media screening this week, film critics started walking out barely 10 minutes into the one-hour movie, although it did win applause by a group of fans.

The French-born filmmakers directed another movie on the same work by Pavese 27 years ago. Now both in their 70s, they could not come to Venice because of health problems. Straub however sent a message, almost as cryptic as his work.

He thanked festival director Marco Muller for his ''courage'' in picking ''The Meeting'' for the competition, noting that his previous films had never won in Venice.

Then he added, apparently referring to the tight security on the Lido: ''I would not be able to celebrate in a festival where there are so much public and private police looking for a terrorist. I am that terrorist. As long as American imperialistic capitalism exists, there won't be enough terrorists in the world. All the best, Jean-Marie''.

Asked about the meaning of the film, a member of the mostly non-professional cast told Reuters: ''You should ask the directors, I am not a cinema expert. But these are dialogues about how the world goes.'' The film was panned at a popular public notice board on the Lido where ordinary movie-goers scribble their views.

''Please tell us: is this a mega joke?'' one asked. Another advised the directors: ''If you were traumatised as a child, you should go and see a psychiatrist''.

Reuters PB VV1301