The recent news about Angelina Jolie has been troubling—at best—as it involves her never-ending split from Brad Pitt and their winery-estate, Miraval, and her share of the wine business that she sold, legitimately and above board, to a liquor company. Well! Enough of that! How about some good Angelina news, for a change?
She is directing a new film, Without Blood, which she also wrote, adapting from Alessandro Baricco’s novel. Of the project, Angelina said in a statement, “I’m honored to be here in Italy to bring this very special material to film, and to have been entrusted by Alessandro Baricco with the adaptation of his book — with its unique poetry and emotion and way of looking at war, and the questions it poses about what we search for after trauma or loss or injustice.”
The film stars Angelina’s fellow Eternal, Salma Hayek Pinault, and Demián Bichir, whom I am always glad to see, and Angelina recently started rolling cameras in Italy. It’s an Ange summer movie shoot!
Of course, Angelina Jolie does not make lighthearted films, not as a director. Without Blood sounds right up her thematic alley, being about the “universal truths about war, trauma, memory, and healing”. All of Angelina’s films, as a director, follow these themes, even By the Sea, which is about interpersonal conflicts in a failing marriage, its own kind of war (and weirdly prescient, given…everything).
Without Blood will be Angelina’s first film since 2017’s First They Killed My Father, and it’s nice to see her getting back to work in this regard. Her films are, to date, not easy sits, but she is an excellent filmmaker who has a knack for putting audiences in the middle of moral quandaries. Without Blood isn’t due until next year, so we have plenty of time to brace ourselves. In the meantime, we can celebrate a bit of good news for Angelina Jolie, amidst all that other crap going on that is not her fault.
