Michael Moore's Wall Street `Vampire Movie' Will Open at Venice Festival

Preview by Farah Nayeri

Sept. 2 (Bloomberg) -- Michael Moore, the American filmmaker and satirist, is making Venice the launchpad for his Wall Street diatribe, “Capitalism: A Love Story.”

Moore’s “Capitalism” will compete for the top prize at the 10-day Venice Film Festival, which opens today. The two-hour movie, which screens next weekend, is a comical documentary on the past year’s global financial meltdown, starting with the collapse of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. and the bailout of American International Group Inc.

“It’s a crime story, but it’s also a war story about class warfare,” writes Moore in a posting on his YouTube channel. “And a vampire movie, with the upper 1 percent feeding off the rest of us.”

Venice, the world’s oldest film festival, has two dozen movies vying for the Golden Lion award given out on Sept. 12. The lineup of U.S. films is lengthy this year -- both in and out of the official contest -- after a slim 2008 showing on the back of the Hollywood screenwriters’ strike.

Also competing is fashion designer Tom Ford’s directorial debut “A Single Man,” with Colin Firth and Julianne Moore, about an English professor who strives to get on with life after his partner dies. It will be up against, among others, John Hillcoat’s “The Road,” a Cormac McCarthy novel adaptation with Charlize Theron and Viggo Mortensen.

MORE...

BLOOMBERG: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601088&sid=aYhVhmk0ohu0