Cannes Palm d'Or Goes To…
The acting categories offer some surprises...
Photo: Sony Pictures Classics
Cannes Film Festival jury, topped by Isabelle Huppert, has announced its top prizes out of the fest including the Palm d'Or, the highest prize awarded to competing films and there were certainly a few surprises.
Before I get to the winning film, Charlotte Gainsbourg won Best Actress for the controversial Antichrist directed by Lars von Trier, which was then quickly followed by a win by Christoph Waltz winning Best Actor for his part in Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds.
Best Director went to Brillante Mendoza for his Philippine production Kintay, a film Roger Ebert vocally disliked saying, "Here is a film that forces me to apologize to Vincent Gallo for calling The Brown Bunny the worst film in the history of the Cannes Film Festival." Ebert continued adding, "If Mendoza wants to please any viewer except for the most tortured theorist (one of those careerists who thinks movies are about arcane academic debates and not people) he's going to have to remake his entire second half."
The Grand Prix award, the runner-up to the Palm d'Or went to the critical favorite A Prophet and the top prize went to Michael Haneke's The White Ribbon a film that received plenty of good buzz and was considered one of the top four potentials along with Alain Resnais' Wild Grass, which took the Special Jury Prize.
The White Ribbon follows a northern German community enmeshed in a series of nasty events right before the beginning of World War I. Sony Pictures Classics has already picked up the film for US Distribution so expect it to hit theaters later this year and certainly this makes it an instant contender for Best Foreign Language Oscar.
Haneke won Best Director at Cannes in 2005 for Cache.
You can check out an excerpt for the film from the Festival directly below and seven images from the film can be found in our gallery here
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I had to go way down the Inglourious Basterds IMD page to find Christoph Waltz. At Oscar time is a leading actor or supporting?
I must applaud the Cannes Film Festival for being a voice for the international film community and for using their awards to recognize the unique, the creative and the well done films being made all over the world. However, it almost looks like at least one of their choices was an attempt at counterbalancing the superficiality of the marketplace by going to the other extreme. Charlotte Gainsborg as best actress in "AntiChrist"? I don't know, I haven't seen this film, but was her performance so outstanding as to overcome the sheer misogynistic plot and visuals? What's the message there? We reward the offensive because no one else will?
@Steve: my thought also. Was he so good that he jumped categories from supporting to lead?
Patricia I agree 100% with you, I haven't seen either AntiChrist or The White Ribbon but both Lars von Trier and Michael Haneke I believe are the two most overrated filmmakers on the planet. I have never seen a film from either of them that wasn't either offensive or too stuck up to take seriously. Its guys like them that make it so difficult to get my buddies to see art house films worth seeing and why Transformers always win, at least Michael Bay doesn't go out of his way to make you feel stupid. Hopefully these two films are different but really from what I understand Cannes is just rewarding these attitudes towards filmmaking.
P.S Still looking forward to Broken Embraces, Taking Woodstock, Inglourious Basterds (Though I'm also confused by the win by Waltz), Enter The Void and Looking For Eric. For I don't have a problem with art house cinema just art house cinema without a soul.
"Charlotte Gainsborg as best actress in “AntiChrist”? I don’t know, I haven’t seen this film, but was her performance so outstanding as to overcome the sheer misogynistic plot and visuals?"
I guess I can compare it to Nicole Kidman in "The Hours". Many critics loved he performance but hated, or at least did not like, the movie
I am dying to see "Antichrist." Apparently it really divided audiences in Cannes, with many people actively hating it. But some really loved it. It was Roger Ebert's words about it, though, that convinced me I had to see it. Though he never once said he liked or disliked the film, he made it abundantly clear that Lars von Trier had made a powerful film–one that he wanted to make and one he didn't compromise on–and that it did just what it meant to do. And it sounded like many of its goals were extremely disturbing. So of course I want to see it.
As much as I like Haneke and look forward to seeing The White Ribbon, I can't quite ignore the fact that the president of the jury, Isabelle Huppert, has appeared in Haneke's film 'The Time of the Wolf'. Still, after so long making difficult and interesting films, films that at the very least spark a debate and engage with the viewer emotionally, I am happy to see Haneke getting an award this prestigious. Contrary to some here, I believe he and Von Trier are some of the more interesting filmmakers at work today- whatever criticism can be laid at them, they make films that never compromise or betray the director's integrity.
@JM: If you're going to reference Roger Ebert than take note of what he wrote at the end of the festival:
"Before the festival, it was much commented upon that Isabelle Huppert was only the fourth Madame President in Cannes history, and that her jury was the first ever to have a 5-4 female majority. What would this mean?–we all asked. Would the women send a message? Make a statement? Reveal the differences in female values? After the awards, such questions inspire only a hollow laugh. If a male-dominated jury had read out this winners list, there would have been hell to pay."
Also an interesting read are some of the comments in response to his blog.
Read his full comments on http://blogs.suntimes.com/ebert/