Costume dramas and fairy tales set the tone for the opening days of the 68th Venice Film Festival. David Cronenberg’s hotly-awaited A Dangerous Method details the collaboration and rivalry between Carl Jung and Sigmund Freud and set on the eve of World War One. “A Dangerous Method” arrived on day three of the festival and has been one of the stronger entries in the 22-film-strong main competition program.

Basically, if the year overall has been stuffed to the gills with good movies then Cannes will have a great edition. But if the vintage is not a good one, it will show down on the riviera. On the other hand, Toronto and the Venice Film Festival (the "Mostra") have the perfect time slot. Because anything that's been done in the first half of the year will be scheduled for a Mostra or a Toronto premiere--once the large blockbusters have cleared the Summer pipeline, here come the indie and foreign heavy-hitters; but sales will go in a frenzy at Toronto, since the Mostra does not have a market.

The beautiful Marisa Tomei will be starring opposite George Clooney and Ryan Gosling in "Ides of March," which will premiere at the next Venice Mostra.

Venice is gearing up for its 68th Mostra, scheduled to run from August 31 to September 10 and opening with George Clooney’s “The Ides of March,” in competition. The film, based on the play “Farragut North” by Beau Willimon, is the timely story of a U.S. governor, the democrat Mike Morris, running for president.

In a noted moment of chutzpah the Italian press, led by Paolo Mereghetti (pictured), has been up in arms about the American raid on the most consequential awards at the Venice Biennale with Sofia Coppola winning for “Somewhere” and Monte Hellman for “Road to nowhere.”

I admit, I knew that neither film was a shoo-in for the top nods, especially with the wealth of prime cinema on the Lido this year. Coppola, who was previously in a relationship with jury president Quentin Tarantino, makes watchable movies but is often afraid of scratching beyond the surface; characters sometimes appear smaller under her microscope. Monte Hellman was an early mentor of Tarantino's (video store geekdom oblige) whose place in cinema history next to Roger Corman is secure--as a cult-movies director.