The 60th Venice Film Festival ended on Saturday (6th September) by awarding its top prize, the Golden Lion, to the acclaimed Russian film "The Return". What should have been a moment of celebration was tinged with sadness, as news filtered through that the film's star, 15-year-old star Vladimir Garin, had tragically drowned in an eerie echo of the film.

There were also mixed blessings for Woody Allen, who made his first ever visit to the festival, despite it being a regular launchpad for his films. His latest effort, "Anything Else", is his best comedy for some time. But when you consider the level to which he sank with "The Curse of the Jade Scorpion", that is perhaps not saying much.

Although stars Jason Biggs and Christina Ricci give the film a veneer of freshness, they cannot entirely dispel the mustiness of their sub-"Annie Hall" relationship. Ironically, it is Allen's character, a professor who manifests post-September 11 tensions as Holocaust paranoia, who seems most in touch with the zeitgeist.

Far funnier was the Coen brothers' most mainstream comedy to date, "Intolerable Cruelty", in which George Clooney plays a divorce lawyer as if impersonating Cary Grant on speed. Although there are enough moments of high hilarity to make the film worth watching, "Intolerable Cruelty" ultimately runs out of laughing gas.

Still, it was better than the wretched "Imagining Argentina". Although clearly meant as a sincere statement about the brutalities in 70s' Argentina, it was horribly miscalculated. Blending graphic scenes of torture with passages of magic realism, it actually provoked boos and laughter at the press screening. Hardly the reaction the film's star, Emma Thompson, and writer/director Christopher Hampton were after.

The response to Robert Benton's adaptation of Philip Roth's controversial novel "The Human Stain", in which Nicole Kidman and Anthony Hopkins play lovers, was more muted but almost as hostile. Both actors were widely considered miscast, while Miramax's obvious bid for Oscar glory left a bad taste in many people's mouths.

One-man movie factory Michael Winterbottom seemed to be channelling Wim Wenders, Lynne Ramsay and Jean-Luc Godard in his visually gorgeous but unsatisfying romantic sci-fi noir "Code 46", while James Ivory's culture-clash comedy of manners "Le Divorce" was just plain silly and smug.

Bernardo Bertolucci took a step in the right direction, though, with "The Dreamers", an exhilarating ode to Le Cinema, which reworks Cocteau's "Les Enfants Terribles" into a sexy and claustrophobic tale of teenage carnality, idealism, late 60s pop culture, and radicalism. Great soundtrack, great bodies, beautiful cinematography, and, in French newcomer Eva Green, a star in the making - what more could you ask for?

Meanwhile, Takeshi Kitano beat Tarantino to the punch - or should that be slash? - with "Zatôichi". It's a Samurai movie that joyously bathes everything and everyone in it with blood, before literally making a song and dance about it. The film was many people's favourite to walk off with the Golden Lion, but instead Kitano picked up the best director prize.

There was so much expectation surrounding "21 Grams", Alejandro González Iñárritu's follow-up to "Amores Perros", that the subsequent feeling of deflation was practically inevitable. A dark, complex tale of grief, redemption and hope, it features fantastic performances from Naomi Watts, Benicio Del Toro and Sean Penn - who was awarded best actor at the festival. However, there was a feeling among critics that there was less to the film than meets the eye. Even so, "21 Grams" is refreshingly adult filmmaking by a director who, with only his second feature, is becoming a master of his craft.

My personal favourite was Sofia Coppola's dreamy "Lost in Translation", in which Bill Murray and Scarlet Johansson find themselves alone and lonely in a Japanese hotel. Their developing relationship is tenderly rendered, while the film evolves into a sort of 21st Century "Brief Encounter". I defy anyone to sit through the entire film with a dry eye.

Finally, documentary-making continued to make itself felt in the shape of "Persona non Grata", Oliver Stone's interesting, but not terribly enlightening, look at the conflict in the Middle East; "The Five Obstructions", Lars Von Trier's hilarious and humane battle of wits with veteran Danish filmmaker Jorgen Leth; and "The Agronomist", Jonathan Demme's moving and inspiring portrait of the murdered Haitian journalist and political radical, Jean Dominique.

After the dismal show put on by Cannes this year, the Venice Film Festival - unlike the city's canals - was a breath of fresh air.