Sunday, May 23, 2010

Cannes Awards

Robert here, to let you know that the Cannes awards are official, some surprises and some not.

Palme d'Or
<--Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives by Apichatpong Weerasethakul

Weerasethakul's film was one of the few widely praised ones at the festival.  Add to this a sense of topical unconventionality that many thought would appeal to Burton and his jury.

Grand Prix
Of Gods and Men directed by Xavier Beauvoi

 Best Director
Mathieu Amalric for directing Tournee

Definitely a bit of a surprise.  Amalric's film premiered early to lackluster response and many people expected it was forgotten by now.  Apparently not


 Jury Prize
A Screaming Man, directed by Mahamat-Saleh Haroun

Another of the few almost universally praised films at this year's festival.

Best Performance for an Actor
Javier Bardem in Biutiful &
Elio Germano in Our Life

This was largely expected.   Will Oscar take notice?  They've liked Bardem and director Inarritu in the past.  Or does the miserablist tone of the film hurt?


Best Performance for an Actress
Juliette Binoche in Certified Copy -->

This probably won't be on Oscar's radar (Abbas Kiarostami's films have never been).  This is however the first Cannes Best Actress award for 2010 poster girl Ms. Binoche.


Best Screenplay
Lee Chang-dong for writing Poetry

18 comments:

Agustin said...

it's Amalric, not Amalrac
and I never understood that Binoche poster..
haven't seen a single film but I think I would have preferred Lesley Manville win the prize

Peggy Sue said...

Binoche is sublime but I also was rooting for Lesley Manville. I'm a fan since I saw her brilliant role as a social worker in "Secrets & Lies"

Janice said...

@Agustin: Personally I love that poster. Cinema, at it's purest essence, is "painting with light", (as some of its earliest avant garde practioners understood it) and this captures that idea beautifully.

Andrew R. said...

I'm proud because I narrowed it down to Uncle Bounmee, Biutiful, Screaming Man, or Certified Copy. And they all won something!

I also thought Poetry looked interesting, and what do you know, it wins something!

PJ said...

I've read somewhere that an italian journalist said that the director of Ed Wood has just discovered the second worst director of all time. hehehe, that was funny!
(haven't seen Uncle but I did like tropical malady)

John T said...

Binoche is a treasure of the world-so talented, so beautiful-she's really just breathtaking. She's so beautiful she's making me ramble incoherently.

NATHANIEL R said...

john t -- she is a treasure though...

janice & agustin -- i do think it odd that she gets to star in the cannes poster and take home the best actress prize

peggy sue -- i love manville in his movies too so i can't wait to see her in another year

andrew r -- how on earth did you assume that 'another year' would win nothing. that was such a shock.

pj -- did they mean that Joe is not a great director? strange. i thought he was more widely acknowledged as a poet talent than that. Or maybe that meant the choice of amalric? anyway i liked weerasthekul's "tropical malady" too. not sure i understood it but it was definitely worth seeing.

Anonymous said...

Who's Joe?

vg21 said...

As far as I know, the jury is isolated from the media during the festival, so it doesn't matter what critics say, they will make their own decisions. I'm confused because I was not attending the festival and only got the updates from the reports and reviews and the awardeds are soooo far away from the overall impression I had about the screenings during these 1,5 weeks.

No Another Year? No Leslie Manville? And Amalric for Tournée??? Don't get me wrong, I know Juliette Binoche is a great actress but I read everywhere that even she had been made ridiculous in a totally meaningless film. I also adore Amalric as an actor, haven't seen any of his directions but everybody said the film was so week. And now it wins best direction, while the highly praised Another Year leaves empty-handed. I'm not sure I get these awards any more (have I ever??). Now I just really want to see the films so that I can decide for myself.

vg21 said...

Sorry, *awards

Guy Lodge said...

"...but I read everywhere that even she had been made ridiculous in a totally meaningless film."

Uh, where is this "everywhere" you speak of? Check out indieWIRE's review roundup -- the film has a lot of admirers:

http://www.indiewire.com/film/the_certified_copy/

NATHANIEL R said...

anon 2.29 "Joe" is Thai filmmaker Apichatpong Weerasethakul. He's often referred to as "Joe"

Y Kant Goran Rite said...

@Vg21 What critics are you reading? I hope you aren't basing any solid opinions on Jeffrey Wells' 'reportage'.

Binoche has amassed a fair few raves. I can't imagine her being anything less than incandescent in any movie these days, particularly in one by a major auteur.

Also, several critics felt Manville was in fact a tad unsubtle. Not that this would hurt her chances with Ampass.

Personally, as a Binoche/Kiarostami/MikeLeigh fan, I'm dying to see both Certified Copy and Another Year asap. Not to mention Uncle Boonmee.

PJ said...

well I'm pretty sure the comment was for Thai Joe. Actually it's true that Uncle is a widely praised film but such a comment doesn't come as a surprise, especially from italians who always try to dish their french festival rivals choices..
Anyway joe is a cannes pet (previously won Un Certain Regard award) following the cannes established tradition of sophisticated, elite auteurs like Theo and Kiarostami, a predictable choice i believe that can't work for everyone.

Andrew R. said...

Nate-I wasn't really following the reviews for that film.

Dimitra said...

I was pretty sure Another Year was going to win SOMETHING. I also had some hope for Kaboom (apart from the Queer Cup) because the clips released were very funny.

Guy Lodge said...

Dimitra: "Kaboom" was actually a special screening not included in any area of competition -- so the Queer Palme is all it could have won.

Such a fun film.

Sawyer said...

I have loved Juliette Binoche for as long as I can remember, but that white dress at Cannes is the iconic image that will last forever.