‘A Star is Born’ Received An Eight-Minute Standing Ovation At The Venice Film Festival

A film starring Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper stole hearts at the Venice Film Festival over the Labor Day Weekend. The movie received an eight-minute standing ovation. This is her first major role in a motion picture and the reviews have been raving. Bradley Cooper co-directed, co-wrote, and co-produced this remake of the original 1937 film starring Janet Gaynor and Fredric March. The film went on to be remade three more times (including Cooper’s version). The most notable remake before the premiere could be the 1976 version featuring the one and only Barbra Streisand. Remaking an iconic Streisand film is no easy task but the reviews say both Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga rose to the challenge.

BBC reviewed the film and said this about Lady Gaga’s performance,

“Certainly, she is so appealing, open and down-to-earth in her first major role that she deserves her pick of whichever gangster movies and romantic comedies come along. If nothing else, a film star is born.”

It is also mentioned in the article that Gaga’s performance may be noteworthy enough to earn her a nomination at the Oscar’s for best female actress. There was enormous pressure surrounding the film as each of the previous three versions have all received nominations for Academy Awards. The film took Bradley Cooper three years to make from start to finish and he had this in to say in Entertainment Weekly regarding the blood, sweat, and tears he put in,

“I would’ve been terrified if it wasn’t the movie I wanted to make or I felt like I had left something on the field. We haven’t left anything on the field. I mean, it’s all there… talk to me if it’s a bomb and see how I feel. But I can really say that I’ll take the heat or whatever it is, because it’s the movie I wanted to make”

The Vienna premiere didn’t go totally smoothly, though. Rainstorms almost crashed the party when lightning struck the theater moments before the movie was set to play. The projection was damaged, according to a tweet from Derek Blasberg, but clearly, a solution was found momentarily as the movie ended up being played.

LADY GAGA IS ELECTRIFYING. Literally. I’m in Venice for the film festival and sitting in the audience at the premiere of “A Star is Born,” and the theater was just struck by lightning—no joke—and damaged the projection. And now we’re all waiting for it to start. ????

— Derek Blasberg (@DerekBlasberg) August 31, 2018

A Star is Born is set to be released to general audiences on October 5.