The Venice Film Festival to Honor Nicholas Ray

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ROME – The Venice Film Festival will pay homage to acclaimed director Nicholas Ray on the centennial of his birth with the world premier of the completely restored and reconstructed copy of his 1976 masterpiece We Can’t Go Home Again.

The film will screen on Sept. 4 on the Lido, less than a month after the 100-year anniversary of Ray’s birth. Venice officials called We Can’t Go Home Again “an experimental, multi-narrative film bordering on cinema and visual arts.” The film will screen out of competition at the festival’s new Palazzo del Cinema, presented by his widow, Susan Ray, and actor James Franco.

Ray, best known as the director of Rebel Without a Cause, is also the subject of Don’t Expect Too Much, the documentary directed by his wife exploring the behind-the-scenes making of We Can’t Go Home Again, which will screen earlier on Sept. 4, in the Venice Lido’s Sal Perla.

A final honor to Ray will take place with a panel discussion on Ray hosted by Franco, Spanish director Victor Erice, who author of the book Nicholas Ray y su tiempo (Nicholas Ray and his times), and Henry Hopper, son of actor Dennis Hopper, who starred in Rebel Without a Cause.

The Oscar-nominated Franco is involved in the tributes to Ray because of his participation in this year’s Venice festival as the director of Sal, which is screening in the Horizons sidebar. The film is based on the life of Sal Mineo, the actor who became famous for his starring role aside James Dean in Rebel Without a Cause.