"...and honestly nobody in this building has the authority to make it stop," a source close to the applause told SnarkWire on Wednesday morning, still clapping. The source spoke in short bursts. Their palms, sources close to the palms confirm, are no longer a colour.
The official story is tidy. Variety reports that Cruz sobbed and kissed Bardem during a 15.5-minute ovation for Bunker on Tuesday night, the longest Venice has seen this year. That figure is correct. It is also, SnarkWire can exclusively reveal, the point at which the festival stopped counting rather than the point at which the audience stopped.
Insiders say the Sala Grande has been running in shifts since roughly 2am. Nine ushers now work the aisles with espresso. Row nine has organised a rota so members can sit for ninety seconds without the room noticing. Cruz and Bardem, who left for dinner some time before midnight, are understood to be unaware that they are still receiving it.
"We asked Javier to come back and take a second bow so people would have something to look at," one festival insider said. "He was very gracious. He said he had already bowed. We said yes, but that was Tuesday."
The festival has declined to say whether the ovation now counts as a separate entry in competition. It has confirmed the film itself runs about two hours, a stretch insiders now refer to as "the short part".
