{"id":111440,"date":"2025-09-01T08:19:19","date_gmt":"2025-09-01T08:19:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/111440\/"},"modified":"2025-09-01T08:19:19","modified_gmt":"2025-09-01T08:19:19","slug":"jude-law-debuts-portrayal-of-vladimir-putin-in-the-wizard-of-the-kremlin-at-venice-film-festival","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/111440\/","title":{"rendered":"Jude Law debuts portrayal of Vladimir Putin in ‘The Wizard of the Kremlin’ at Venice Film Festival"},"content":{"rendered":"

VENICE, Italy \u2014 Jude Law transforms into Vladimir Putin<\/a> for Olivier Assayas\u2019 \u201cThe Wizard of the Kremlin,\u201d which had its world premiere Sunday at the Venice Film Festival.<\/a><\/p>\n

Law said earlier he didn\u2019t enter the project naively, and that he also does not fear repercussions for his portrayal.<\/p>\n

\u201cI felt safe in the hands of Olivier,\u201d Law said. \u201cThis is a story that was going to be told intelligently with nuance and consideration. We weren\u2019t looking for controversy for controversy\u2019s sake.\u201d<\/p>\n

Law, who wore prosthetics for his transformation, said his Putin is \u201ca character in a much larger story.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe weren\u2019t trying to define anything about anyone,\u201d Law added.<\/p>\n

The film is an adaptation of Giuliano da Empoli\u2019s bestselling book of the same name, an account of the Russian president\u2019s rise to power alongside a fictional adviser called Vadim Baranov, who is played by Paul Dano. It\u2019s partially set in the early 1990s amid post-Soviet chaos and continues through 2014.<\/p>\n

Dano\u2019s character was inspired by the real political strategist Vladislav Surkov<\/a>, who was considered the architect of the tightly controlled political system created under Putin. In 2013, he resigned his post<\/a> of deputy prime minister.<\/p>\n

Much of the story is centered on Dano\u2019s character, recounting his own rise in political maneuvering and the world he helped create.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe wizard is the person who is in the background, so there\u2019s a casting of a spell that is happening,\u201d Dano said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Wizard of the Kremlin\u201d is sure to provoke conversations as Russia\u2019s three-year war in Ukraine<\/a> continues. Efforts to stop the fighting with a ceasefire and end Europe\u2019s biggest conflict since World War II through a comprehensive peace settlement have made no progress<\/a> despite intense diplomatic maneuvering.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe film is very much about how modern politics, 21st-century politics were invented,\u201d Assayas said. \u201cWhat\u2019s going on right now is not only terrifying but it\u2019s even more terrifying by the fact that we have not found the answer.\u201d<\/p>\n

The book was written before Russia\u2019s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, but da Empoli said that even if it\u2019s about an earlier period, it was \u201cright.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s still relevant today, three years later, under different circumstances,\u201d da Empoli said.<\/p>\n

The film marks the English language debut for the French filmmaker best known for films like \u201cClouds of Sils Maria\u201d and \u201cPersonal Shopper,\u201d as well as the miniseries \u201cCarlos.\u201d Alicia Vikander, who he directed in \u201cIrma Vep,\u201d also co-stars in \u201cThe Wizard of the Kremlin\u201d as Vadim Baranov\u2019s on-again-off-again girlfriend. Her character, the filmmaker said, was supposed to embody \u201cfreedom.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a story about a lot of men talking in rooms,\u201d Vikander said. \u201cBut Olivier told me that we need a world that shows the women who inhabit it also. A female counterpart but a very moral one as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Production took place in Latvia as they couldn\u2019t film in Russia.<\/p>\n

Assayas wrote in his director\u2019s statement that it \u201cis not a film about the rise of one man \u2014 nor is it about the force with which power is imposed, or the reinvention of a nation that is both modern and archaic, once again under the yoke of totalitarianism. Rooted in real, contemporary events, it is instead a reflection on modern politics \u2014 or rather, the smoke screens behind which it now hides: cynical, deceptive, and toxic.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added: \u201c\u2019The Wizard of the Kremlin\u2019 is not so much a political film as it is a film about politics \u2014 and the perversity of its methods, which now hold us all hostage.\u201d<\/p>\n

The film is playing in the main competition, with titles like \u201cFrankenstein,\u201d<\/a> \u201cBugonia,\u201d<\/a> \u201cThe Voice of Hind Rajab,\u201d \u201cLa Grazia<\/a>\u201d and \u201cNo Other Choice\u201d also vying for the top prizes, including acting and directing awards. Winners will be announced on Saturday.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Wizard of the Kremlin\u201d does not yet have a release date in North America. Actor Jeffrey Wright, who plays the journalist Vadim Baranov is telling his story to, made a plea for why the film needs to be seen, especially in America.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven within the time frame of the original sins of America\u2026we had an idea that we could be better. This idea that we could aspire toward some sort of utopian perfectibility,\u201d Wright said. \u201cIf that is lost, as it is now, than we become what we see in this film.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"VENICE, Italy \u2014 Jude Law transforms into Vladimir Putin for Olivier Assayas\u2019 \u201cThe Wizard of the Kremlin,\u201d which…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":111441,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[49,48,361,75],"class_list":{"0":"post-111440","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-celebrities","11":"tag-entertainment"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111440","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=111440"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111440\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/111441"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=111440"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=111440"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=111440"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}