Ellen Burstyn, whose credits include “The Last Picture Show,” “The Exorcist” and “Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore,” will receive the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at the 83rd Venice Intl. Film Festival, the festival said Tuesday.
The festival’s artistic director Alberto Barbera described Burstyn as “an actress of rare intensity and truth,” adding that she had brought “depth and complexity to unforgettable female characters embodying the contradictions and transformations in the contemporary woman.”
Barbera continued, “Revealed in Peter Bogdanovich’s ‘The Last Picture Show,’ which portrayed the twilight of small-town America, and elevated to global stardom by the success of William Friedkin’s ‘The Exorcist,’ Burstyn won the Oscar for best actress for Martin Scorsese’s ‘Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore,’ the film manifesto about women reclaiming their identity and their freedom.”
He noted that “she worked with some of the most important film directors of the time,” listing Alain Resnais in “Providence,” Paul Schrader in “Hardcore,” Bob Rafelson in “The King of Marvin Gardens,” Paul Mazursky in “Alex in Wonderland” and “Harry and Tonto,” Darren Aronofsky in “Requiem for a Dream” and Christopher Nolan in “Interstellar.”
