Tim Burton has described feeling “a little lost” as a filmmaker before returning to his roots with the new star-studded sequel to his 1988 cult horror film “Beetlejuice.”
Beetlejuice The opening film of the Venice Film Festival, Beetlejuice features the original cast, including Michael Keaton in the role of the titular ghoul Catherine O’Hara and Winona Ryder as Lydia – now the mother of her own sullen teenager, played by Jenna Ortega.
“Over the last few years, I’ve become a little disillusioned with the film industry. I’ve kind of lost myself,” Burton said Wednesday. “I realized that the only way I can be successful is if I love doing it. With this one, I just had fun and loved doing it.”
“I didn’t want to make a big sequel for the money. I wanted to do it for very personal reasons.”
The film reunites audiences with the Deetz family. Lydia, now the host of a cheesy ghost-hunting show, returns to the haunted house on Winter River with her stepmother Delia (O’Hara) and her grumpy daughter Astrid, who opens a portal to the afterlife.
Ryder, who was 15 when she first played Lydia, said returning to Beetlejuice was “one of the most special experiences of my life.” “My love and trust for Tim is so deep and there was a sense of playfulness and willingness to try things,” she added. “You feel so safe in your nonsense, but you also just feel completely free.”
Ryder also told Keaton that one of her favorite parts was “being able to look you in the eyes again.”
When asked how he approaches the evolution of his character more than three decades later, Keaton joked, “As slick and sensitive as (Beetlejuice) was in the first film, I think he’s even more so in this one. Just his overall caring nature and his sense of social mores and his political correctness.”
Burton said he had been thinking about a sequel for some time and that filming “Wednesday” had “re-energized” him. “And meeting Jenna (the “Wednesday” star) was obviously a very important thing for me.”
“Working with her and just thinking about the character Lydia and what happened to her 35 years later, and thinking about my own life, what happened to having children or relationships.”
Ortega said she “looked up to a lot of those actors” and she had to make sure she “didn’t copy Winona’s work from back then… but still incorporated aspects that make (the characters) similar.”
Other new additions to Beetlejuice include Justin Theroux, who plays Lydia’s sleazy boyfriend and manager, Willem Dafoe as a dead cop and Monica Bellucci as a soul-sucking demon seeking revenge on her ex Beetlejuice.
The film will premiere out of competition at the 81st edition of the film festival, which opened to great anticipation on Wednesday. Hollywood names such as George Clooney, Angelina Jolie, Daniel Craig, Cate Blanchett, Brad Pitt, Joaquin Phoenix and Lady Gaga are expected to walk the red carpet over the next 11 days.
During the event, members of the festival jury, including chairwoman Isabelle Huppert, expressed their concern about the “very weak” state of contemporary cinema. “I am worried about the things that everyone is worried about. Making sure that cinema continues to live, because it is very weak now,” Huppert told the press.
“It is very difficult to make a film. A film is not just an individual achievement, but something we present to the world. That is why I am worried whether our world will still reach people. That is why the Venice Film Festival is necessary.”
American filmmaker Debra Granik said she was “relieved” when Huppert addressed the obvious problem.
“We understand that the generations gathered here need this (festival) to continue telling the stories that are not covered in the mainstream,” Granik said. “Festivals today are perhaps festivals of resistance. Swimming against the tide.”
Before accepting the festival’s prestigious Golden Lion for lifetime achievement, Sigourney Weaver was close to tears as she spoke about the role her acting has played in empowering women, including U.S. presidential candidate Kamala Harris.
“The thought that my work could have something to do with their advancement makes me very happy,” Weaver said. “Because it’s true. So many women come up to me and thank me.”
The three-time Oscar nominee also reflected on Hollywood’s changing approach to aging actors: “I think they suddenly decided that older women could actually play interesting characters and started writing a lot of older female characters.
“Suddenly we stopped being a joke and a mother-in-law and we started being real people, because in fact a large part of our audience is made up of real people.”
