Filmmaker Roman Polanski’s black comedy The Palace was overshadowed by David Fincher’s action thriller The Killer at the Venice Film Festival as the latter received a resounding seven-minute-long standing ovation from the audience.

Fincher was alone in soaking in the shower of bravos inside the Sala Grande cinema on Sunday as his actors — Michael Fassbender, Tilda Swinton, Arliss Howard, Charles Parnell, Kerry O'Malley, Sala Baker and Sophie Charlotte — were absent from the event due to the ongoing SAG-AFTRA strike in Hollywood.

Written by Andrew Kevin Walker and based on a French graphic novel of the same name, The Killer follows a cold-blooded assassin (Fassbender) who begins to have a psychological crisis after a fateful near miss in a world with no moral compass.

“Solitary, cold, methodical and unencumbered by scruples or regrets, a killer waits in the shadows, watching for his next target. Yet, the longer he waits, the more he thinks he’s losing his mind, if not his cool,” reads the official synopsis of the film.

The Killer is scheduled for a limited theatrical release on October 27 before streaming on Netflix on November 10.

On the other hand, Polanski’s The Palace was given a tepid three minutes of applause at its world premiere in the Palazzo del Cinema’s Sala Grande on Saturday night. Though producer Luca Barbareschi along with actors Fanny Ardant, Oliver Masucci, Joaquim de Almeida and Fortunato Cerlino stood up and took a bow, the audience’s response seemed to be more polite than excited, reports US entertainment magazine Variety.

The film is set against the backdrop of Switzerland’s luxury Gstaad Palace hotel and revolves around the interactions between its ultra-rich guests and those who serve them in the lead-up to a lavish New Year Party on the eve of 2000.

The Palace will be released in theatres on September 28.