Kim Novak looked almost unrecognisable as she received the Golden Lion for lifetime achievement after releasing a documentary detailing her poverty-stricken upbringing.
The actress, 92, channelled old Hollywood glamour as she stepped out in an emerald and black gown to accept the award.
Gone were her brunette locks, as she styled her blonde hair into a blonde bob and accessorised her look with a diamond brooch.
Her tell-all documentary about her extraordinary life tells of her upbringing in Depression-era Chicago, followed by ten years of Hollywood superstardom, and then a retreat from the movie business.
She says of the revelations: ‘I have been feeling the need to free the memories that have been hiding in the closet of my mind.’
Among them are her mother Blanche, who, twice tried to kill her.
Kim Novak looked almost unrecognisable as she received the Golden Lion for lifetime achievement after releasing a documentary detailing her poverty-stricken upbringing
The actress, 92, channelled old Hollywood glamour as she stepped out in an emerald and black gown to accept the award
Kim pictured in 1956 during the height of her Hollywood career
Gone were her brunette locks, as she styled her blonde hair into a blonde bob and accessorised her look with a diamond brooch
First she tried to abort her with knitting needles and then, having failed, attempted to smother her as an infant with a pillow.
She also said that her father Joseph, who she said had mental health issues, kept the body of her dead infant brother in the basement of the family home, in a jar.
In the film she says: ‘The Depression caused so much hardship. My mother got pregnant and she could not afford a child.
‘She tried to abort me with knitting needles and it failed. So she tried to suffocate me with a pillow.
‘I remember fighting to stay alive. I won, I stayed alive, and made it through.’
She added that it was her sister who found her brother’s foetus in the basement, amid her father’s collection of animals and insects.
‘The foetus, his only son, in the basement. He kept him,’ she said.
Catholic Joseph Novak had been a teacher in Czechoslovakia but worked as a railroad dispatcher in America.
Her tell-all documentary about her life tells of her upbringing in Depression-era Chicago , followed by ten years of Hollywood superstardom, and then a retreat from the movie business
In the flick she revealed that her mother Blanche tried to abort her pregnancy with knitting needles as she detailed her poverty-stricken upbringing in an extraordinary new documentary
The film premiered last night in advance of the actress getting a lifetime achievement Golden Lion on Monday (pictured)
Kim celebrated her achievement with an animated display
‘He never approved of her stardom, never told her he was proud of her, and didn’t come to see most of her films.
Film maker Alexandre Phillippe said that he was astonished to have the voice mail from Novak outlining these stories. ‘I gasped, and said, is it too dark?’ he said.
He added: ‘It is a privilege to share all these very powerful secrets and memories.’
Novak journeyed from her 13 acre horse ranch in Oregon to accept the honour from the festival.
