Legendary Hollywood actress Kim Novak (Vertigo, Picnic, Bell, Book and Candle) will be awarded the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at the 82nd Venice International Film Festival of La Biennale di Venezia (Aug. 27–Sept. 6).
Venice also unveiled that the documentary Kim Novak’s Vertigo by Alexandre Philippe, “made in exclusive collaboration with the actress,” will be presented in its world premiere during the festival.
The decision about the honor was made by the board of directors of La Biennale, based on the recommendation of the artistic director of the festival, Alberto Barbera, organizers said Monday.
“I am deeply, deeply touched to receive the prestigious Golden Lion Award from such an enormously respected film festival,” said Novak. “To be recognized for my body of work at this time in my life is a dream come true. I will treasure every moment I spend in Venice. It will fill my heart with joy.”
Said Venice artistic director Barbera: “Inadvertently becoming a screen legend, Kim Novak was one of the most beloved icons of an entire era of Hollywood films, from her auspicious debut during the mid-1950s until her premature and voluntary exile from the gilded cage of Los Angeles a short while later. She never refrained from criticizing the studio system, choosing her roles, who she let into her private life and even her name. Forced to renounce her given name, Marilyn Pauline, because it was associated with Monroe, she fought to conserve her last name, agreeing, in exchange, to dye her hair that shade of platinum blonde which set her apart. Independent and nonconformist, she created her own production company and went on strike to renegotiate a salary that was much lower than that of her male co-stars.”
Barbera continued: “Thanks to her exuberant beauty, her ability to bring to life characters who were naïve and discreet, as well as sensuous and tormented, and her seductive and sometimes sorrowful gaze, she was appreciated by some of the major American directors of the period, from Billy Wilder (Kiss Me, Stupid), to Otto Preminger (The Man With the Golden Arm), Robert Aldrich (The Legend of Lylah Clare), George Sidney (The Eddy Duchin Story, Jeanne Eagels, Pal Joey), and Richard Quine, with whom she made unforgettable romantic comedies (Pushover, Bell, Book and Candle, Strangers When We Meet, The Notorious Landlady). But her image will remain forever linked to the dual characters she played in Hitchcock’s Vertigo, which became the role of her life. This Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement celebrates a star who was emancipated, a rebel at the heart of Hollywood who illuminated the dreams of movie lovers before retiring to her ranch in Oregon to dedicate herself to painting and to her horses.”
