Portugal Colonial - 'No plans to retire', says 'acting god' Malkovich

Malkovich, 72, plays a cynical CIA officer troubled by his conscience ahead of the American-backed coup to overthrow the South American country's left-wing president Salvador Allende in 1973.

"I'm pretty much doing and have been doing what I loved my whole life, and I plan to carry on doing that," he told reporters at the Venice Film Festival.

"I don't plan to retire because I think they will retire me when it's time. That seems to be the natural course of things."

The star of "Being John Malkovich" and "Dangerous Liaisons" was described as an "acting god" by British-Irish director Martin McDonagh whose previous films include "The Banshees of Inisherin" and "In Bruges".

Malkovich forms an on-screen duo with fellow American Sam Rockwell as a pair of American intelligence officers visiting Easter Island off the coast of Chile ahead of the military coup in the country which was backed by the CIA.

"He's an acting god, really," McDonagh told AFP in an interview in Venice when asked about Malkovich.

"He's the best of the best, and I can't imagine any other actor with his sort of gravitas and his dexterity with theatrical language, and dexterity with comedy."

Independently produced "Wild Horse Nine" is one of the heavy-hitters in the main Venice festival competition this year which has been largely overlooked by Hollywood studios and American streamers who turned up in numbers at last year's event.

McDonagh, who first visited Easter island about 15 years ago, said he'd "always been interested in Chile and the coup and the CIA and the American government's involvement in that from when I was in my early teens."

The film is set in 1973, but its depiction of American interventionism in Latin America has contemporary echoes at a time when US President Donald Trump has set out an aggressive agenda to dominate the Americas region.

In January, US forces ousted and arrested Nicolas Maduro, the leftist authoritarian leader of Venezuela, with the Trump administration since striking deals to control large amounts of the country's oil reserves.

"One of the frightening things is that they don't seem to be making it covert anymore, which is very strange," McDonagh told reporters.

"In the 70s, these horrible people had the intelligence to keep their acts secret."

Eccentric and whimsical drama "Bucking Fastard", the latest film from veteran German director Werner Herzog, also premieres on Thursday in Venice with sisters Kate Mara and Rooney Mara playing on-screen sisters who talk in unison.

The festival opened on Wednesday with a ceremony that saw Hollywood icon George Clooney honoured with a lifetime achievement award.

P.Sousa--PC