oh, put a Cannes on it...

This year's Cannes Film Festival ended recently and the winners were announced. I don't know a lot about this year's films, but they do seem interesting. David Cronenberg and his film A History of Violence is nowhere to be seen, or Gus Van Sant's Last Days... hehe. Lars Von Trier was snubbed again, as his second film in his Land of Opportunities trilogy, Manderlay came up with nothing too.

Interesting Jury selection, too... people like John Woo to Salma Hayek to famed Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami (Ten, Five Dedicated to Ozu, etc.)


FEATURE FILMS

Palme d'Or - "L' Enfant" (Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, Belgium)

Interesting choice - I don't know much about the Dardenne brothers' films except Rosetta, a story about a girl who tries to make a living despite many hardships, which won the Golden Palm in 1999. L'Enfant (The Child) is a tale about this man who sells his newborn infant son for money, but soon, overwhelmed with guilt, decides to take him back.

Grand Prix - "Broken Flowers" (Jim Jarmusch, France-U.S.)

Wow - this totally blows my mind. I can't believe the guy who directed Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai won the Grand Prix at Cannes, hehe. Broken Flowers is kind of like a road movie. Don Johnston (portrayed by Bill Murray) is sort of a guy who has a lot of girlfriends. One day he receives a letter from some guy who claims to be his son, so he goes on a little road trip to find out with whom of his old flames did he have a son with. I'm looking forward to seeing this one.

Best Actress Award - Hanna Laszlo ("Free Zone," Israel-Belgium)

Another road movie, this time starring Laszlo and Natalie Portman. It's basically about two Israeli women bound by circumstance who go around the country doing stuff. I don't know what that stuff exactly is, but it sure involves a kissing scene between Miss Portman and one of her male co-actors at the Wailing Wall, something that was a point of controversy a while back.

Best Actor Award - Tommy Lee Jones ("The Three Burials Of Melquiades Estrada," U.S.)

Nice Surprise. This is Jones' first theatrical directorial debut, much less a film directorial debut in Cannes. This movie is about how Jones' character is carrying out the wishes of his good friend, to be buried in his home country of Mexico, and undertakes a journey there. Of course, this tackles the state of tensions on the Mexico- US border.

Best Director Award - Michael Haneke ("Hidden," France-Austria-Germany-Italy)

I believe this was the critics' choice for winning the grand prize. Shows you how much they know, huh? hehe. Georges, a TV host guy, finds a couple of tapes that shows their house being filmed from a distance, plus a few weird drawings. Over time the stuff that is being sent kinda sends signals that the sender has known Georges for quite some time. It's one of those "functional family discovers something dark about one or more family member/s and the whole family structure/functionality collapses" kind of thing. The most concrete example of this would probably be one of the greatest Korean movies of all time, the 1960 film The Housemaid. However, from what I've seen Haneke develops the basic thriller premise of the movie and dives into the psychological aspects of the thing. I'll have to see it to find out for sure.

Best Screenplay Award - Guillermo Arriaga ("The Three Burials Of Melquiades Estrada," U.S.)

See above for comments. Note that Arriaga wrote the screenplay to Amores Perros, another amazing movie.

Jury Prize - Qing Hong ("Shanghai Dreams," Wang Xiaoshuai, China)

By far the only Asian entry in the list. It's a period piece about people leaving the major cities to go to the poorer sections of China and live there. Not much about it has been seen, but it looks terribly interesting.

SHORT FILMS

Palme d'Or -"Wayfarers" (Igor Strembitsky, Ukraine)
Special Mention -"Clara" (Van Sowerwine, Australia)

Dunno much about the short films, so I can't comment on 'em. Clara is animated, however.

UN CERTAIN REGARD

The other Cannes competition. I thought Hong Sang-soo's new movie A Tale of the Cinema was in here somewhere. I know Kim Ki-duk's The Bow was in Director's Fortnight, but I can't be sure.

Prix Un Certain Regard - "Moartea Domnului Lazarescu" ("The Death of Mr. Lazarescu," Cristi Puiu, Romania)
Prix de L'Intimité -"Filmman" (Alain Cavalier, France)
Prix De L'Espoir - "Delwende" (S. Pierre Yameogo, Burkina Faso)

OTHER JURIES' AWARDS

Caméra d'Or Winner
"The Forsaken Land" (Vimukthi Jayasundara, Sri Lanka)
"Me And You And Everyone We Know" (Miranda July, U.S.)

Haven't heard of the first one, but the second one was made by a US indie filmmaker. I think she has another film released this year.

Prix Vulcain de l'Artiste-Technicien (technical award)
Leslie Shatz ("Last Days," U.S.)
Robert Rodriguez ("Sin City," U.S.)

It's cool that Rodriguez managed to get a technical award for Sin City. That film looked tight.

mad props to twitchfilm for the info.