The world's oldest film festival opened Wednesday with sex stage center.
And one of the highlights is the European premiere of Stanley Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut, a steamy feature finished just before his death in March and receiving mixed reviews since its premiere in the United States.
But its Venice showing cues a collection of films many of which take erotic turns, according to Reuters. Those include Frederic Fonteyne's Une Liaison Pornographique (a Franco-Belgian effort) and Lies, a South Korean film about a sculptor's sadomasochistic affair with a student.
The festival ends 11 September, by which time about 120 films will have been shown. Other highlights are expected to include Crazy in Alabama, the directing debut of Antonio Banderas and starring his wife, Melanie Griffith, in a film set amidst the racial and social tensions in the 1960s, Reuters says; and, Holy Smoke, the newest film from Oscar-winning, New Zealand-born director Jane Campion.
The festival will also show previously unseen film segments directed by Alfred Hitchcock, marking the centenary of his birth.
