Mundruczó Reunites With Burstyn on Pigeon Road Movie at Venice — SkimNews
Get the Culture newsletter
Daily culture — film, music, books, the trends and ideas worth your attention. Free.
- Kornél Mundruczó reunites with Ellen Burstyn on "Place to Be," premiering at Venice on Wednesday — his first festival appearance there since 2020's "Pieces of a Woman," where their collaboration began after she was on set for just two or three days
- Ellen Burstyn receives a Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at Venice while starring as widowed Brooke, whose children try to force her into a retirement home before a pigeon flies through her window and sparks a cross-country road trip
- Taika Waititi plays divorcee Nelson, with Mundruczó explaining he needed "a real quality person" with "a sad clown" quality — comparing Waititi's cheerful-facade depth to Robin Williams — and reporting Burstyn and Waititi's on-set chemistry was immediate
- Murray Bartlett and Pamela Anderson play Burstyn's on-screen children in the film, with Mundruczó noting the three actors bear such a striking genetic resemblance that audiences "completely believe that they are family"
- Seventeen real pigeons played "Intruder," the lead bird, with approximately 1,000 birds used total across production shoots in Sydney and New York; Mundruczó proudly notes "we didn't lose a single pigeon" and that Burstyn fell in love with "at least five" of her co-stars
- Mundruczó conceived the film after attending a pigeon race, viewing the sport — with its "messenger bird from the Bible" roots — as a metaphor for aging stars who "still the same quality" even after their cultural importance fades
Why it matters: The reunion gives Mundruczó his first real Venice moment — he dismissed the COVID-era "Pieces of a Woman" premiere — and gives Burstyn, 70+ years into her career, both a lifetime-achievement honor and a deliberately lighter role that her "rather dark" body of work has rarely allowed. The 1,000-bird, zero-loss production record is a concrete logistical boast in a genre (animal-led indie) where that stat usually goes the other way.
Ask SkimNews
