{"id":199222,"date":"2025-09-04T09:45:14","date_gmt":"2025-09-04T09:45:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/199222\/"},"modified":"2025-09-04T09:45:14","modified_gmt":"2025-09-04T09:45:14","slug":"julian-schnabels-in-the-hand-of-dante-gets-embraced-in-venice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/199222\/","title":{"rendered":"Julian Schnabel’s ‘In the Hand of Dante’ Gets Embraced in Venice"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tJulian Schnabel<\/a>\u2018s long-gestating offbeat period drama In the Hand of Dante has finally met an audience. The Oscar Isaac-starring film received an enthusiastic welcome at its world premiere in Venice Wednesday night, drawing an eight-minute standing ovation. Having traded his signature smocks and fedora for a black tuxedo and shiny Oxfords, Schnabel bowed gallantly to the crowd and embraced Isaac and his cast throughout the ovation.\u00a0Supporting star Jason Momoa walked the red carpet in a striking pink suit prior to the screening but snuck out with his entourage before the film played. Momoa and Isaac last walked the Venice carpet together for the world premiere of Dune: Part I in 2021.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn the Hand of Dante is adapted from Nick Tosches\u2019 2002 novel of the same name, with Schnabel and his wife Louise Kugelberg collaborating on the screenplay. Isaac stars as both the middle ages poet Dante Alighieri and modern-day author Nick Tosches, the latter of which is drawn into a dangerous quest when a handwritten manuscript of The Divine Comedy resurfaces via the Vatican and lands in the hands of a New York mob boss. As Nick attempts to authenticate the manuscript, he becomes entangled in a treacherous underworld \u2014 aided or contested by Jason Momoa, Gerard Butler, Gal Gadot and others. Martin Scorsese appears in a substantial role as Dante\u2019s mentor, a \u201cbrilliant\u201d character in Schnabel\u2019s words, while Al Pacino and John Malkovich round out the star-studded supporting cast.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tJason Momoa and Oscar Isaac embrace on the Venice red carpet at the \u2018In the Hand of Dante\u2019 premiere. <\/p>\n

\n\tThe film took a long journey to the screen. Johnny Depp\u2019s production company\u00a0Infinitum Nihil\u00a0acquired rights to Tosches\u2019 book as far back as 2008, with Depp originally intending to star. Schnabel, known for his art history biopics Basquiat and At Eternity\u2019s Gate, boarded the project in 2011, but it wasn\u2019t until 2023 that Isaac joined the film, replacing Depp, and the movie moved into production.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tIsaac told<\/a> a Venice press conference earlier on Wednesday that he was drawn to the role by \u201cthe impossibility\u201d of such a film. \u201cTo read it and have no idea how one would realize it, that\u2019s what\u2019s so exciting about it,\u201d stated the actor, who has already had a high-profile Venice festival after the world premiere of Guillermo del Toro\u2019s\u00a0Frankenstein<\/a>, in which he co-stars.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201c[Julian\u2019s] a visionary and he\u2019s unlike any other artist that\u2019s working today or has ever worked,\u201d he added.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tJulian Schnabel and Oscar Isaac at the \u2018In The Hand Of Dante\u2019 photocall earlier in the day at the 82nd Venice International<\/a> Film Festival (Photo by Aldara Zarraoa\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

\n\tIn a mixed review, The Hollywood Reporter\u2018s critic<\/a> summed up the film as an \u201cambitious, captivating and sometimes misfiring extravaganza\u201d and a \u201ccrazy ride that doesn\u2019t quite get there.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tProduced by DreamCrew Entertainment, MeMo Films, TWIN Productions and Artofficial Productions,\u00a0In the Hand of Dante\u00a0is being sold internationally by WME Independent.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tThough he\u2019s a New York-born and Texas-bred artist, Schnabel is very much a local hero in Venice. He\u2019s exhibited at the Venice Biennale Art Exhibition five times (1980, 1982, 1993, 1997 and 2003) and premiered his directorial debut\u00a0Basquiat\u00a0here in 1996. His follow-up,\u00a0Before Night Falls,\u00a0starring Javier Bardem as Cuban poet and novelist Reinaldo Arenas, won Venice\u2019s grand jury prize, while his most recent film, At Eternity\u2019s Gate<\/a>, saw Willem Dafoe go home with the festival\u2019s best actor prize.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tSchnabel\u2019s busy day in Venice was capped by his acceptance of a\u00a0Cartier Glory to the Filmmaker Award\u00a0inside the water city\u2019s Sala Grande cinema just before the screening. The annual prize recognizes a film world personality who has made \u201can especially original contribution to contemporary cinema.\u201d Past recipients of the honor have included Ridley Scott, Wes Anderson and Claude Lelouch. <\/p>\n

\n\tThe 2025 Venice film festival runs Aug. 27-Sept. 6.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Julian Schnabel\u2018s long-gestating offbeat period drama In the Hand of Dante has finally met an audience. The Oscar…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":199223,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[171,1801,53,67,132,68,31074],"class_list":{"0":"post-199222","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-international","10":"tag-movies","11":"tag-united-states","12":"tag-unitedstates","13":"tag-us","14":"tag-venice-film-festival-2025"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115145390636881293","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199222","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=199222"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199222\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/199223"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=199222"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=199222"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=199222"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}