A Venice peach: Keira Knightley makes a grand entrance in a beautifully decorated dress at the Italian film festival

By Marcus Barnes

Last updated at 5:51 PM on 2nd September 2011

As a veteran of the red carpet Keira Knightley knows how to make an entrance.

So today was a walk in the park for the actress who arrived at a photocall at the Palazzo del Cinema in Venice for her new movie A Dangerous Method in an amazing patterned Mary Katrantzou dress.

Keira, 26, stepped off her boat and onto dry land, sashaying into the press area giving off a superlative air of cool in her black shades.

Dazzling: Keira Knightley looks great in her Mary Katrantzou dress as she makes her way into a photocall for new movie A Dangerous Method at the Venice Film Festival

Dazzling: Keira Knightley sparkles in her Mary Katrantzou dress at a photocall for new movie A Dangerous Method at the Venice Film Festival

Oozing cool: The 26-year-old actress sashayed off her boat giving off a superlative air of chic

She completed her dazzling outfit with a pair of nude-coloured patent heels.

Keira was joined by co-stars Viggo Mortensen, Michael Fassbender, Sarah Gadon and Vincent Cassel at the photocall.

Set between 1904 and 1913, A Dangerous Method tackles the struggle between Sigmund Freud (Mortensen) and Carl Jung (Fassbender) to establish their supremacy at the dawn of the era of psychoanalysis.

Star of the show: Keira was the main attraction at the photocall - here she gets a helping hand off her boat

Miss Knightley plays a troubled teenager named Sabina Spielrein who is at the centre of a clash between the two men.

She arrives at a Zurich hospital aged 18 to be treated by Jung.

In a distressing state, she's at human contact, twisting and contorting her body and face both in pain and terror.

Rave reviews: The actress really pushes herself in her new movie in which she plays a troubled young lady who is treated by psychoanalyst Carl Jung

Jung treats her though his 'talking method', getting her to relive her childhood, when her father used to beat her.

And, though he is married with children, Jung eventually admits to his repressed lust for Sabina and they embark on an affair.

Disturbingly, he indulges her in her fetish for being spanked.

Keira's performance in the film has already garnered rave reviews, her ability to convey the intensity of Sabina's condition in the movie's early scenes coming in for the most praise so far.

A Dangerous team: Keira poses with (l-r) David Cronenberg, Viggo Mortensen, Michael Fassbender, Sarah Gadon and Vincent Cassel at the Palazzo del Cinema in Venice

A Dangerous team: Keira with, from left, David Cronenberg, Viggo Mortensen, Michael Fassbender, Sarah Gadon and Vincent Cassel in Venice

Derek Malcom at the Evening Standard said of her performance: 'Though playing against two performers of considerable weight, she more than holds her own from the moment she arrives on the scene, a hysterical patient, to the time when her love for Jung is finally reciprocated.'

Meanwhile Keira's co-star in new movie Anna Karenina, Olivia Williams, has described her as a 'phenomenal actress'.

The are set to work together in the upcoming adaptation of Leo Tolstoy's classic novel which has British director Joe Wright at the helm and stars Aaron Johnson and Jude Law.

Olivia has no doubt that Keira would be confident in taking on the challenging title role.

She said: 'In some films you're on your own but in a Joe Wright film you're not on your own, it's a genuinely collaborative event and I think that she's a phenomenal actress with or without this incredible ensemble behind her.'