Gibney's four-hour Musk portrait premieres in Venice

The Venice film festival has hosted the world premiere of Musk, Alex Gibney's four-hour documentary portrait of the world's richest man, with the director interviewing former colleagues, wives, the trillionaire's father and a CG avatar in what the Guardian calls an "epic study of the world's richest and most banal man."

Much of what the documentary presents is not new, the New York Times notes, but in piecing it all together Gibney wants the viewer to take Musk seriously as a threat to democracy. The film arrives at a moment when the festival, now in its second week, has been dominated by muscular, politically engaged film-making.

The premiere was marked by the presence of Ashley St Clair, a former conservative Maga influencer and one of Musk's former girlfriends, who told the audience that Musk had said he needed "a legion of children before the civil war." She warned of his dangerous influence.

Gibney, the Oscar-winning documentarian behind Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room and Going Clear, has built his reputation on forensic studies of powerful institutions and individuals. His treatment of Musk follows that template, assembling testimony from those who have worked with and lived alongside the Tesla and SpaceX founder.

The Guardian's review describes the film as absorbing, noting the range of voices Gibney has assembled — from former colleagues and wives to Musk's father and a computer-generated avatar of the man himself. The inclusion of the avatar, the review suggests, speaks to the strange, mediated quality of Musk's public persona.

The New York Times, reviewing the film after its premiere, emphasises that Gibney's documentary is less concerned with breaking new ground than with synthesis — drawing together the known episodes of Musk's career and personal life into a coherent argument about his political significance. The film's length, the Times suggests, is itself a statement: this is a subject that demands sustained attention.

St Clair's appearance at the premiere gave the event an unexpected news hook. Speaking at the screening, she recounted Musk's remarks about wanting a large family before what he anticipated as a coming civil conflict, remarks the Guardian reported in a separate story from the festival. Her account adds a personal dimension to the documentary's broader political argument.

For the festival, the premiere is a coup: Venice has increasingly positioned itself as the European launchpad for documentaries with global political resonance, and Gibney's Musk is among the most anticipated titles of this year's programme. The film's four-hour runtime has itself become a talking point among critics and industry figures in the lagoon city.