Rodarte sisters’ movie ‘Woodshock’ to be unveiled at Venice Film Festival

Reporting from Milan —  The Rodarte sisters are headed to Venice. Kate and Laura Mulleavy will unveil their debut movie “Woodshock” at the city’s annual International Film Festival, running Aug. 30 to Sept. 9. Written and directed by the designers, the film has been included in the “Movie in the Garden” section by the festival’s committee.

According to the event’s official schedule, “Woodshock” will be presented on Sept. 3 to the press and the following day to the public.

Shot in Northern California near Eureka in 2015, the movie is “a hypnotic exploration of isolation, paranoia and grief that exists in a dream world all its own,” as summarized by distributor A24.

The Mulleavy sisters assigned to their longtime friend Kirsten Dunst the starring role. In the movie Dunst plays Theresa, “a haunted young woman spiraling in the wake of profound loss, torn between her fractured emotional state and the reality-altering effects of a potent cannabinoid drug,” as stated by A24.

Actors Pilou Asbæk; Lorelei Linklater, director Richard Linklater’s daughter, and Joe Cole also feature in the flick.

Released in May, the movie trailer offers a preview of the moody psychological thriller. Natural elements, shaded images and overlapping backgrounds echo some of the aesthetics that instill the designers’ fashion efforts.

The movie is slated to hit American cinema screens on Sept. 22.

The Mulleavy sisters are not the first designers to present their directorial efforts at the Venice Film Festival. Last year, Tom Ford unveiled his second movie “Nocturnal Animals” at the event, scooping the “Leone d’Argento — Gran Premio della Giuria” prize.

Previously, the designer presented his debut film “A Single Man” at the festival in 2009. Back then, actor Colin Firth won the Coppa Volpi award for best male performance.

This year, Firth will return to Venice to bestow the first Franca Sozzani Award to his “A Single Man” costar Julianne Moore. The award has been instituted in memory of the late editor in chief of Vogue Italia, who died in December.

For the occasion, an event will be held at Venice’s Lido, where the documentary “Franca: Chaos and Creation” directed by Sozzani’s son Francesco Carrozzini, premiered last year.

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