George Clooney has arrived at the Venice Film Festival in high spirits, happy to be back in one of his favorite places in the world. A year ago, on the red carpet, he started taking pictures of the photographers; today, they jokingly hand him their press passes.
He doesn’t look at all like someone who’s come to take stock of his life. At 65, he’s putting all of his energy toward the things that matter most to him: his children , his wife, Amal , cinema, America, and the future.
And even when he admits that “everything is melancholy,” he immediately finds a way to put things into perspective.
We’re in Venice, at the Venice Film Festival , where Clooney has returned, along with many other celebrities . This time he’s not here to promote a film, but to receive one of the most important honors of his career.
Nearly 30 years after his first time at the festival with Out of Sight, Venice is honoring the actor, director, and producer with the Golden Lion for lifetime achievement. It’s about time—over the years, Clooney has brought Good Night, and Good Luck, Michael Clayton, Gravity, and, just a year ago, Jay Kelly to this city.
It’s also a place to which he has a strong personal connection: He married Amal Alamuddin here in 2014, the fairy-tale ending for the couple’s love story. “I would say that my greatest moment here was obviously my wedding,” the actor says at a press conference.
George Clooney upon arrival at the Lido