Everything That Happened During Lady Gaga’s Whirlwind Venice Weekend

While Crazy Rich Asians dominated the American box office for the third (!) weekend in a row, the eyes and ears of the film world were on Italy, where the Venice Film Festival was abuzz with praise for Bradley Cooper‘s remake of the Hollywood classic A Star Is Born.

Of course that means that Cooper’s co-star Lady Gaga had quite the weekend. While there were no meat dresses or other distracting scandals, she did manage to bring the drama. Here’s everything she managed to pack into the trip:

First, she arrived to the festival in a boat, wearing a Jonathan Simkhai bustier dress. This makes sense because it’s Venice and there are canals, but also, Gaga never needs an excuse to be on a boat.

Then she attended a photo call for the film, again arriving by boat. This time she wore a a white dress by Azzedine Alaïa that showed off her tattoos, with black pumps and a black box bag.

For the premiere of A Star Is Born, she crushed the red carpet in a feathered Valentino Couture dress that only a pop star like herself could pull off.

Oh, and did we mention that it started raining, and that it fazed her not at all?

The rain did, however, lead to lightning, which struck the festival area and caused a power outage. The premiere of Cooper’s directorial debut came to a stop for a full 10 minutes before the projector was up and running again, per Deadline.

Despite the technical difficulties, the film wowed critics and viewers alike. The audience gave it an eight-minute standing ovation, and there’s been serious critical praise.

At a press conference for the film, Gaga and Cooper had nothing but super-nice things to say about working together, giving fans plenty of hope that Gaga will continue to act, and Cooper to direct.

Gaga finally left on Sunday, likely headed to Vegas to begin rehearsing for her residency there. She departed Venice hand in hand with her boyfriend, Christian Carino, by water taxi, wearing all white.

But look a little closer and you’ll notice that the story of this weekend was merely a prologue, an introduction, an origin story. This weekend, an Oscar contender was born. Her name is Lady Gaga, and she is a movie star.

Related: Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper Have So Much In Common, Are So Nice To Each Other