The 2008 Cannes Palme d'Or Goes To…

Nope, it's not Che or Eastwood's pic

By: Brad Brevet
Published: Sunday, May 25th 2008 at 2:02 PM

Laurent Cantet's The Class takes the 2008 Cannes Film Festival Palme d'Or

There was a little bit of buzz surrounding Steven Soderbergh's two-part, four hour, 28 minute biopic of Che Guevara, but the film didn't take the Cannes Film Festival top prize and neither did the much-talked-about Clint Eastwood picture The Exchange starring Angelina Jolie. Instead, the Palme d'Or went to French director Laurent Cantet's The Class a fictional feature shot in a documentary style.

The Class is based on an autobiographical novel by Francois Begaudeau with Begaudeau playing himself in the feature along with several other real teachers and pupils in a rough Parisian neighborhood high school.

The film screened on the final day of the festival and received top marks across the board.

Soderbergh's Che did manage to snap up Best Actor for Benicio Del Toro who plays the Latin American revolutionary. Del Toro said, "I'd like to dedicate this to the man himself, Che Guevara… I want to thank Cannes, I want to thank the Jury and I also want to thank and share this with director Steven Soderbergh who got up every day, forced me to do this. He was there pushing it and pushed all of us."

Cannes jury president, Sean Penn, and his cohorts did manage to bestow a special prize on Eastwood along with recognizing actress Catherine Deneuve.