American filmmaker James Franco is an emerging tour de force. Boundless energy fuels this high achiever, driven it seems by a self conscious and highly personal pursuit of excellence. Franco is only 35 but he is truly worthy of the honor to be conferred upon him at the 71st Venice Film Festival: The Jaeger-LeCoultre Glory to the Filmmaker 2014 prize. One of the most venerable filmmaking awards in the world, it is

“dedicated to a personality who has made an original contribution to innovation in contemporary cinema.” La Biennale

Last year, anyone arriving at Piazza San Marco, the principal public Square in Venice, would have been greeted by the image of James Franco with his signature crooked smile, blown up to proportions of a Roman god or no less than a Venetian Prince — the local fascination with Franco is remarkable. Cashing in on his charm and uber Hollywood profile of recent years, Gucci has him endorsing their products amidst the frescoed architecture and venetian lagoons. At home, Franco was awarded the 2,492nd Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame 2013. His academic pedigree explains his ambition to make his mark as one of Hollywood’s notable adapters of great literature. He holds a BFA in English from UCLA, two MFA degrees – both in writing – from Columbia and Brooklyn College respectively, and a third MFA, in film, from New York University. He continues with his own studies and teaching at the graduate level.

Premiering at the 71st Venice Film Festival, The Sound and the Fury is directed by James Franco, who also stars as one of the main characters, Benjii Compson. Franco brings back Scott Haze, who starred in Franco’s ‘Child of God’ which premiered at Venice last year. The Sound and the Fury, also stars Tim Blake Nelson, Joey King, Ahna O’Reilly, Seth Rogen and Jon Hamm.

In recent years, James Franco has made an immense effort to become a self-styled Renaissance man. Building his resume as a painter, author, actor and now director. Attempting new heights with his last two directorial projects, both adaptations of classic American literature, Franco first tackled the 1930’s novel, ‘As I Lay Dying’ in 2013 and now another 1930’s classic, ‘The Sound and the Fury’. The script was co-written with Matt Rager, and both projects come from the genius of William Faulkner, arguably one of the greatest writers of all time. Using a writing technique that he and a few other contemporary authors pioneered, stream of consciousness, Faulkner wrote a multi-layered character driven storyline, which allows us to peer into the minds of a far ranging group of tragic and fractured individuals. For this very reason many consider a film adaptation of Faulkner’s work impossible, as it has so many diverse perspectives and stream of consciousness is sometimes intentionally non-sensical, giving Faulkner’s work an incredibly organic feel. The issue is whether that organic composition will transition well to film. Franco’s last Faulkner adaptation, (which he also starred in) ‘As I Lay Dying’, did not particularly succeed well according to audiences and critics. Admittedly it was an extremely ambitious project and artistic endeavours like ‘As I Lay Dying” rarely go entirely as planned.