Venice Diary: Fassbender's sex advice; Take a Wilde guess; Plum role for Mathieu

Fassbender's sex advice

Just days after he was seen spanking Keira Knightley as the psychoanalyst Jung in David Cronenberg's A Dangerous Method, the Irish actor Michael Fassbender is at it again. The 34-year-old plays a sex addict in Steve McQueen's Shame, which was screened at the festival yesterday. The actor said of his sex scenes: "You just have to jump into it. The most important thing is just make sure that everybody involved is comfortable, and just sort of go for it, so you don't have to do too many takes."

Take a Wilde guess

Not even Al Pacino is sure what to call Wilde Salome, his film which premiered yesterday at the festival. The 71-year-old said it is neither film nor documentary. "I'm confused, too, I consider it a collage," said Pacino. The film is his examination of Oscar Wilde's once-banned play Salome.

Plum role for Mathieu

Good news for fans of the Iranian-born French graphic novelist Marjane Satrapi. She received a standing ovation from critics on Saturday at a screening of her latest work Poulet aux Prunes (Chicken With Plums). The part live-action, part animated film, a follow up to her critically acclaimed 2007 animated feature Persepolis, tells the story of a world-famous Tehranian violinist, played by Mathieu Amalric, who decides to die after his former love ignores him.