I’ve been so consumed with Mumblestuffs and the upcoming double-onslaught of Telluride and Toronto that I totally forgot about the Venice Film Festival, which begins today. Here’s a look at some of the better preview pieces floating around today:

• It’s the festival’s 75th birthday, and Reuters has an historic timeline.
• “Following recent wins for Vera Drake and The Queen, four out of the 22 films competing for the festival’s main award, the Golden Lion, have British directors,” writes Helen Pidd for The Guardian.
• One of those directors is Peter Greenaway, whose Rembrandt biopic Nightwatching marks a return to something resembling narrative filmmaking after almost ten years spent on experimental video work. Pidd’s colleague Peter Bradshaw hasn’t seen it, but thinks it should win the Golden Lion anyway. “[F]or sheer shake-up value, giving Greenaway the Golden Lion would probably be the most gratifying.”
• Bradshaw also reviews Atonement, another homegrown production and Venice’s opening night film. “It is clever, sophisticated: though perhaps multiplex audiences might find it a little too tricksy. Time will tell. Atonement will certainly provide food for thought and a colossal sugar-rush of romance for Venice festivalgoers tonight.”
• Filing a report on Glenn Kenny’s blog (the Premiere critic says he’s skipping the Lido because he’s “a Toronto guy, and only the most peripatetic of critics can do both fests”), Mark Salisbury has great praise for Atonement’s lead performances. Keira Knightley gives “yet another fine performance that should silence her detractors…But even she is outshone by [James] McAvoy. So good in The Last King Of Scotland (and so overlooked, too, because without his counterpoint, Forest Whitaker’s Amin wouldn’t have been half as effective) McAvoy asserts his position as Britain’s brightest male star with a performance of such range, dignity and humanity that it should, if there’s any justice, find recognition come awards season.”
• For Reuters, Mike Collett-White notes that Venice programmers have amped up the Hollywood star factor this year, perhaps in an attempt to stave off competition from other festivals. Most of the must-sees at Venice (Lust, Caution, I’m Not There, The Darjeeling Limited) are world-premiering there before hitting festivals like Toronto and New York in the coming month.