Hollywood Icon Kim Novak Makes Rare Public Appearance in Venice
One of the few surviving stars of Hollywood’s golden age was seen in Venice on Thursday.
Vertigo star Kim Novak made a rare public appearance on August 28 at the 82nd Venice International Film Festival. The former actor will be awarded the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement on September 1. The same day, a documentary about her life and career, Kim Novak’s Vertigo, will premiere at the festival.
Novak, 92, was the picture of understated elegance as waved to onlookers when she arrived at the Hotel Excelsior. The star wore a stylish all-black pants-and-top ensemble paired with a sleeveless black jacket with red embroidered accents. Her blonde hair was styled into a chic bob. She accessorized with a pair of large sunglasses. She kept her footwear sensible, opting for a pair of casual sneakers.
Kim Novak was ‘free to express everything’ after she left Hollywood behind
Novak’s career in film began at age 21, when she signed a contract with Columbia Pictures. She quickly became a major star thanks to roles in movies such as Picnic and Pal Joey. But it’s her portrayal of the mysterious Madeleine/Judy in Alfred Hitchcock’s 1958 film Vertigo for which she’s best remembered.
Despite her success, Novak – who had planned on becoming a visual artist – soon grew disenchanted with the movie industry. Starting in the 1960s, she acted only sporadically before retiring completely in the early 1990s to focus on her art and animals.
“When I left Hollywood, it isn’t like I just wrapped up my life,” Novak, who now lives in Oregon, recently told The New York Times. “Suddenly I was free to express everything on canvas and not have to be the canvas.”
While she’s mostly avoided the spotlight, Novak agreed to work with director Alexandre O. Philippe on Kim Novak’s Vertigo. (She’ll also be the subject of the upcoming film Scandalous! It focuses on her romance with Sammy Davis Jr. and stars Sydney Sweeney as Novak.)
“With this documentary, I was able to let out a lot of feelings, and there were things that needed to get out and needed to be said,” Novak explained. “I felt it was an opportunity to document my life, and I was expressing a lot of ghosts in my past.”
Her current trip to Europe is unexpected, she said. But she’s relishing the chance to make the trip abroad.
“If it wasn’t for this honor, I wouldn’t be traveling to Italy at this stage of my life,” she said. “But it’s like a door is sort of opening by itself without me even touching it, and I just have to go and see what’s behind it.”
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