Venice, Sept 05: "The Wrestler" starring Mickey Rourke joined an impressive crop of American entries on Friday to help save the day at the Venice film festival, initially hit by a slew of negative reviews.

Darren Aronofsky`s stunning offering casts the veteran Rourke, 51, as a has-been professional wrestler pitifully loath to throw in the towel.

The actor told a news conference that he drew from his real-life stints as a boxer in the early 1990s as well as regrets over an acting career that he says he "threw away" 15 years ago.

"People asked me, `How are you going to make (Rourke) empathetic?`," Aronofsky said, explaining: "Under that armour there was this fragile eggshell. He`s the most empathetic person I`ve ever met."

Formidable with long blond hair that he has to dye to keep the grey out, Rourke`s character, whose stage name is Ram, has been around so long that kids can buy action dolls and video games featuring his stunts.

After a heart attack reduces him to working at a supermarket deli counter serving "hot horny housewives begging for your meat" in the words of his boss, Ram throws caution to the wind and climbs into the rink for more abuse and adulation.

"He made it close to a documentary," Rourke said of Aronofsky. "These guys end up, when they`re only in their 40s and 50s, in a rocking chair or a wheelchair. We didn`t realise that until we did the research."

Reflecting on his patchy career -- though talk of a comeback began with his role as a hardened ex-con in the 2005 crime thriller "Sin City" -- Rourke said: "Feeling shameful is not a good feeling, and usually you`re to blame for it."

Meanwhile, a career Golden Lion was bestowed on Italian director Ermanno Olmi, 77, whose 1978 neo-realist epic "L`Albero degli Zoccoli" (The Tree of Wooden Clogs) won the Golden Palm at Cannes and many other awards.

His "The Legend of the Holy Drinker" won a Golden Lion here in 1988, and he is also celebrated for his "The Profession of Arms" (2000).

The entry by Aronofsky, director of the critically acclaimed sci-fi thriller "Pi" (1998), is among a crop of American films that have shined at this year`s Mostra.

The 65th edition of the world`s oldest film competition came under harsh criticism for much of the first week.

In a typical comment, London Times reviewer Wendy Ide wrote: "Four days into the Venice film festival, and the programme feels as though it has been temporarily hijacked by hubris and bombast."

She and other critics panned the much-anticipated thriller by Iranian-born French director Barbet Schroeder, "Inju, the Beast in the Shadow," set in Japan, and a gangster movie set in Brazil, "Plastic City" by Hong Kong`s Yu Lik-wai.

Another US film shown late in the 11-day festival and winning high marks was "Rachel Getting Married" by "Silence of the Lambs" director Jonathan Demme.

The emotion-packed family drama stars Anne Hathaway as a recovering drug addict who shakes up her sister`s wedding with an overdose of honesty about their dysfunctional family.

On Monday, another kind of American reality visited Venice -- "reality gambling" in Las Vegas, Nevada.

"Vegas: Based on a True Story," directed by Iranian-American Amir Naderi, depicts a working-class family duped into believing that a gangsters` stash worth a million dollars is buried under their garden.

While US films have dominated the closing days of the festival, other standouts include Argentine-Italian director Marco Bechis` "BirdWatchers," exposing the plight of Brazil`s Guarani Indians in the face of the biofuels boom, and "Teza" by Ethiopia`s Haile Gerima in which he revisits his homeland under the dictator Mengistu Haile Mariam.

Another potential winner is Russian director Aleksei German Jr.`s "Paper Soldier," a recreation of the Soviet effort to put the first man in space in 1961 -- Yuri Gagarin -- which centres on the cosmonaut squad`s chief doctor.

Two Japanese films are also in with a chance -- Takeshi Kitano`s whimsical "Achilles and the Tortoise" and Hayao Miyazaki`s latest animated children`s fantasy "Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea."

"Ponyo" remains the favourite among a jury of moviegoers weighing in for the festival newsletter Ciak.

Bureau Report