Saoirse Ronan arrived at Venice International Film Festival today for a red-carpet appearance that almost upstaged her new film.
The Irish star, who made a splash with the sequinned Gucci gown she wore at the Met Gala in 2019 and her fringed powder-blue Louis Vuitton dress at the Governors Awards in 2024, did not disappoint assembled fashion journalists. For the Venice red carpet she opted for a black floor-length Louis Vuitton dress.
Ronan is in the city for the first screening of Paper Plane, her hotly anticipated directorial debut, as part of a short-film programme that also features Maggie Gyllenhaal’s Oscar-tipped Flesh Impact, starring Dakota Johnson as Marilyn Monroe; and Mona Fastvold’s latest collaboration with Amanda Seyfried.
The last time Ronan was at Venice was in 2007, for the premiere of Atonement, Joe Wright’s adaptation of the Ian McEwan novel, in which the Irish actor appeared alongside Keira Knightley, James McAvoy and Vanessa Redgrave. It was a star-making turn that earned Ronan – then just 13 – the first of her four Oscar nominations.
Paper Plane is competing for the Orizzonti Award for best short film, selected from more than 2,500 entries. It means she joins a formidable list of Irish actors who have moved into directing: Mark O’Halloran, Hugh O’Conor, Antonia Campbell-Hughes, Tristan Heanue, John Connors and Kelly Campbell.
Ronan, who wrote and directed the emotionally charged 11-minute drama between early motherhood and playing Linda McCartney opposite Paul Mescal in Sam Mendes’ upcoming Beatles quadrilogy, delves back into the considered adolescence that defined her early breakthrough roles in Hanna and The Lovely Bones.
The 32-year-old actor, a sometime muse for the actor turned director Greta Gerwig, has credited her Lady Bird and Little Women collaborator with inspiring her to “delve into the prep work”.
Paper Plane proves delicate in dramatic movement, with some shades of Gerwig’s carefully observed, slyly amusing milieus. Its protagonist, played with great promise by Martha Malone, might easily have been portrayed by the film-maker during her early career.
The plot sees a young girl deliver an ultimatum to her mum (Clare Dunne) using a note delivered by the paper plane of the title: get rid of “him” – meaning her father – from the house. Ronan’s script is more concerned with mood and technique than narrative details. Here is a young film-maker anxious to try new things.
Dunne’s character tries to lure her rebellious daughter back from the treehouse across the road by inviting her to dance to I Say A Little Prayer. It works, but only until Aretha Franklin stops singing.
Ronan, who began her screen-acting career in 2003, with an appearance in the RTÉ drama The Clinic, coaxes solid performances from her capable cast. Kate McCullough, the cinematographer behind An Cailín Ciúin and Normal People, has shot Paper Plane on lush 35mm film. Her visuals are augmented with textured, lower-resolution fantasias, the work of a crack camera team that includes the analogue ace JP Quill.
Gyllenhaal, who is also president of this year’s Venice jury, has correctly called out the lack of female directors – there are two – in the feature competition.