Ang Lee film takes top Venice prize

VENICE, Italy – Taiwan-born Ang Lee’s erotic spy thriller “Lust, Caution” won the Venice Film Festival’s top award Saturday, two years after he captured the same prize here with “Brokeback Mountain.”

Lee said he was dedicating his prize to Ingmar Bergman, the Swedish director who died in July at age 89. Winning the Golden Lion for a second time “is a wild one, which frightens me, like the film,” Lee said at the ceremony.

Brian De Palma won the 11-day-long festival’s award for best direction for his film “Redacted” about the Iraq war.

Cate Blanchett won the festival’s award for best actress for her role in “I’m Not There,” a movie about singer-songwriter Bob Dylan. Blanchett played the role of Dylan during his folk-rock incarnation.

Brad Pitt won best actor for playing the legendary outlaw in “The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford.”

Italian director Bernardo Bertolucci was honored with a special award for his career’s work, which includes “Last Tango in Paris,” “The Conformist” and “The Last Emperor.”