The 2025 Venice Film festival starts a week from today! As we prepare to watch people look glamorous in speedboats, let's speed -- SEE WHAT I DID -- back into time to check out its 2005 opening ceremony, its closing one, and the premiere of Brokeback Mountain, which took the top prize that year. Trivia: The opening film was Seven Swords; and George Clooney was there in aid of -- talk about things coming around again! -- Good Night, And Good Luck. It was MUCH less of a celebrity cluster than it currently is -- but who can blame people for wanting a free trip to Italy?