George Clooney’s Long Love Affair with Venice Enters a New Chapter

George Clooney’s connection to Venice has lasted nearly three decades, and this year the relationship becomes official in a new way: he will receive the Venice Film Festival’s Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement on opening day.

Clooney first attended the festival in 1998 with “Out of Sight,” shortly before leaving “ER.” Since then, Venice has accompanied several defining moments in his career. He married at the Aman Venice and premiered “Good Night, and Good Luck,” the black-and-white drama that brought him his first Oscar nomination for directing.

His Italian ties extend beyond the festival. Clooney owns a 15-bedroom villa near Lake Como, which appeared in “Ocean’s Twelve” and became a regular destination for paparazzi. A 2003 profile in Vanity Fair described how a Kentucky-born actor who did not speak Italian had become one of Italy’s most popular public figures, despite living there only during the summer.

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That an affable, self-effacing Kentucky-born Hollywood actor is fast becoming the most popular public figure in Italy says a little about Italy and a lot about Clooney, who isn’t Italian, doesn’t speak Italian, and lives here only in summertime.

Venice also marked important stops for his films. “Intolerable Cruelty” premiered out of competition in 2003. “Michael Clayton” competed in 2007 and earned Clooney an Oscar nomination for his performance as a law-firm fixer. “Burn After Reading,” his third collaboration with the Coen brothers after “Intolerable Cruelty” and “O Brother, Where Art Thou?,” opened the festival out of competition in 2008.

Last year, Clooney attended with “Jay Kelly,” playing a movie star who travels to Italy to receive a lifetime achievement award. This year, the festival will give him the real honor.

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Looking at the parts we are playing, I’m very concerned.