Diamonds in the rough at Venice

September 07, 2008 Venice wasn't the only film festival to have trouble scrounging up a competition-worthy lineup this year -- it was just the most prominent. The journalists, sales agents and general public who empty their piggy banks to spend time on the terrifyingly overpriced Lido come here expecting to be enthralled by a "showcase of cinematic art" -- the festival's real title, and its mission. Despite a few great titles, like Miyazaki's magical work of animation "Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea," there was an overall feeling of confusion in the competition, as quiet arty films and experimental work more suitable to festivals like Rotterdam unspooled beside the noisy Americans, and half the better films inexplicably popped up in Horizons and out of comp.

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