Faust wins best film at Venice, Fassbender best actor

Sep 10, 2011, 17:54 GMT

Venice, Italy - Russian director Aleksander Sokurov's Faust, an offbeat cinematic retelling of German author Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's 19th century play, won Saturday the Golden Lion for best film at the Venice Film Festival.

The German-language film, shot in a faded, almost monochrome tint, is over two-hours long. Faust received a mixed reception during a press screening earlier this week in Venice, drawing some applause but also a few boos.

Picking up the festival's Coppa Volpi for best actress was veteran Chinese singer and actress Deanie Ip for her role as the elderly but feisty domestic worker, Ah Tao, in compatriot Ann Hui's Tao jie (A Simple Life).

Tao jie deals with the affectionate relationship between Ah Tao and Roger, the scion of a Hong Kong family which she has loyally served for almost 60 years, and explores issues of old-age and sickness in a subtle and sometimes humorous way.

German-born Irish actor Michael Fassbender won the festival's Coppa Volpi award for best male actor for his role in British artist and filmmaker Steve McQueen's Shame which deals with a dysfunctional relationship between a Manhattan office worker and his sister.

Fassbender appears in several scenes of full-frontal nudity as he plays Brandon, the 30-something brother whose routine existence of one-night stands and an obsession for internet pornography is disrupted when his sister, comes to stay with him.

This year the Venice Film Festival, the world's oldest cinema competition, marked its 68th edition with a total of 23 films in competition for the Golden Lion.

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