Venice festival opens with Knightley in "Atonment"

VENICE - The Venice film festival opened on Wednesday with "Atonement," an adaptation of Ian McEwan's acclaimed novel about a girl whose fertile imagination leads her to make a false accusation that has tragic consequences.

The movie, starring British actress Keira Knightley, is the first of 22 entries in the festival's main competition, and was screened to the press ahead of the evening red carpet premiere.

For 11 days the Lido waterfront will be home to hundreds of journalists there for the films and to follow the stars as they promote their pictures and party into the early hours.

Knightley wore an empire-style full-length ivory dress and a pink belt for the gala screening, which officially launched the 64th edition of the world's oldest movie contest.

In "Atonement," she reunites with up-and-coming British director Joe Wright after they collaborated on "Pride and Prejudice," in which the actress played Elizabeth Bennet and won an Oscar nomination.

This time the 22 year-old plays Cecilia Tallis, whose life is turned upside down when sister Briony blames her lover Robbie Turner (James McAvoy) for a crime he did not commit.

Briony goes on to becomes a writer and seeks redemption in the real world and through a novel she knows will be her last.

"She (Briony) did have some success," Wright told reporters. "This was one of the difficult questions when we were adapting the book -- would her literary success look like she hadn't paid for her crime?

"And hopefully we conveyed that literary success or career success isn't necessarily the road to her redemption. Her art is her road to redemption, if she ever gets there."