'Bones And All' Receives 8.5 Minute Standing Ovation At Venice Film Festival

With 2017's Call Me By Your Name, Timothée Chalamet and director Luca Guadagnino proved to be an exceptional pair, to say the least. Namely, the Oscar-nominated actor produced arguably his finest performance to date, while the filmmaker cemented himself as one of our strongest working filmmakers. Thus, their follow-up, the romantic coming-of-age horror film, Bones And All, which also stars Taylor Russell, was certainly among the most anticipated of this year's fall film festival circuit.

And if the early response is a proper indication, we have another winner on our hands. Their YA adaptation received an eight-and-a-half-minute standing ovation at Venice Film Festival, where it premiered, resulting in the longest applause of this year's festivities — at least, thus far. Suffice it to say, this festival audience totally devoured this cannibal fable.

As Variety reported, this enthused and voluminous response topped the six-minute standing ovation that Tár, starring Cate Blanchett, received earlier in the week. In addition to this celebratory clapping, select audience members were also heard shouting "Luca! Luca!," which caused the I Am Love filmmaker to wipe away a few tears. The movie, which follows two adrift cannibals who find unlikely romance in their mutual hunger for the flesh, was surely set to be a controversial one, so this joyous response suggests that this movie might prove to be another bold and lasting achievement from the outstanding filmmaker.



It should be noted that Guadagnino has a long history with the film festival. His directorial debut, 1999's The Protagonists, screened at Venice, along with A Bigger Splash and Suspiria, his most recent film, and the aforementioned I Am Love. But this newest movie's warm, welcoming acclaim suggests that this movie might go down as one of the filmmaker's greatest achievements — even in a career full of them.

Also starring Michael Stuhlbarg, Mark Rylance, André Holland, and Chloë Sevigny, Bones and All is adapted from Camille DeAngelis' 2015 novel of the same name, which apparently found the beauty and terror in such a young couple who bound over such an unspeakable act. As the early Venice reviews have noted, the film is similarly adept at finding such grotesque grace in these complicated cannibal characters. Brian Formo, reviewing for Collider, was ultimately less receptive than some early responses, though his own positive review highlighted the strong chemistry shared between Chalamet and Russell along with the "tension and well-executed mood." As seen in his previous films, Gugadnino can find a balance between awe and horror that's bewildering and beguiling, and this shouldn't be an exception.

Bones and All will hit theaters on November 23rd, courtesy of MGM Studios.