THE VENETIAN DILEMMA
½ (one a half stars)
Death (by boredom) in Venice.
Running time: 73 minutes. Not rated (nothing objectionable). At Film Forum, Houston Street, west of Sixth Avenue.
THERE’S a fascinating film to be made about Venice, a 1,500-year- old Italian gem that’s becoming more of a museum than a living town.
Unfortunately, the humdrum documentary “The Venetian Dilemma” isn’t it.
It’s a shame, because Venice is unique. Since 1950, the number of actual Venetians has fallen from 175,000 to fewer than 65,000, while the tourist crowd has jumped from 500,000 a year to a staggering 14 million.
Little wonder the locals can barely find everyday shops and services. “You have to walk two kilometers to find a bakery,” says one elderly holdout. “And you pass 50 mask shops along the way.”
But filmmakers Carole and Richard Rifkind, a New York couple who live part-time in Venice, manage to make this odd dilemma seem as routine as the issues that plague hundreds of other towns.
Parts of the film look like a PowerPoint presentation, while other bits feel like cable-access coverage of school board meetings.
After endless ho-hum footage of gray-haired politicians debating a 5-mile-per-hour speed limit on the canals, you’ll forget that they’re talking about one of the most romantic cities in the world – if you’re not already asleep.