As many (if not all) of you know, the winners of the 2010 Cannes Film Festival were announced yesterday as the event came to its conclusion. Apparently this year has been a little underwhelming with nothing like last year’s ‘White Ribbon’ or ‘Un Prophet’ to shout about (of course, it opened with the terrible 'Robin Hood'), but here is a list of the winners, as picked by a Tim Burton led jury:
Palm d’Or Thai film 'Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives' (directed by Apichatpong Weerasethakul) was a surprise winner of the top prize.
Grand Prix The runner up prize was awarded to the French film 'Of Gods and Men' by Xavier Beauvois, which recounts a 1996 terrorist incident in Algeria in which monks were captured and beheaded by an Islamic group... or were they, as the film deals with the idea that perhaps the French army comitted the murders.
Prix du Jury The festival's third most prestigious prize went to another French film, 'A Screaming Man', by Mahamat-Saleh Haroun - a Chadian director.
Prix de la mise en scène The 'best director' award was given to Mathieu Amalric for 'On Tour'. Amalric was seen acting in last year's 'Mesrine: Public Enemy No.1' alongside Vincent Cassel (and also played the baddie in the Bond film 'Quantum of Solace' in 2008).
Prix d'interprétation féminine The 'best actress' prize went to the native Juliette Binoche for her role in 'Certified Copy'.
Whilst the Prix d'interprétation masculine was split between Spannish Academy Award winner Javier Bardem for 'Biutiful' and the Italian Elio Germano for 'Our Life'.
Prix Un Certain Regard was this year awarded to the South Korean film 'Ha Ha Ha' by Hong Sang-soo. This award is always pretty interesting, as it tends to be given to promising, lower-profile filmmakers (last year's winner 'Dogtooth' was outstanding).
East Asian cinema was well rewarded, not only with the above winner and the Palm d'Or sucess of 'Uncle Boonmee', but also with an award for the South Korean film 'Poetry' in the writers category (Lee Chang-dong won the Prix du scénario).
Of the films which competed, but did not win prizes, the following are noteworthy:
Mike Leigh's 'Another Year' was, for many, a favourite for the top prize:
Takeshi Kitano's new film 'Outrage' also played to lukewarm response (although I'm always excited to see a new 'Beat' Kitano movie):
Ken Loach returned to Cannes a year after 'Looking for Eric' with a drama about the Iraq war, 'Route Irish', which was generally well recieved. The veteran director also voiced his concern at Iraq war movies which focus on American soliders, such as the 'Hurt Locker', saying that they ignore the suffering of the population:
Doug Liman showed his thriller 'Fair Game', starring Sean Penn and Naomi Watts:
J-horror legend Hideo Nakata ('The Ring', 'Dark Water') showed his new film, 'Chatroom', which is a UK-Japan co-production, which stars Aaron Johnson ('Kick-Ass' and 'Nowhere Boy'):
Jean-Luc Godard showed off his new film, 'Socialism', in the Un Certain Regard category. Depending on who you believe it was either the worst (Mark Kermode) or best (Mark Cousins) film of the festival:
Finally, Oliver Stone's 'Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps' and Woody Allen's 'You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger' both screened out of competition and got good reviews:
I'll be reviewing most of these films over the next year as they find UK releases.
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What do you think these selections say about the jury, are they typical of the kinds of films that win here?
ReplyDeleteIs the major winner a film Burton would admire for it's visual flair, or are they simple excellent films in a conventional sense (meaning not stylised and dealing with issues both social poltical and to do with the human condition)? You know the films that automatically shout deep whereas often imaginative moviemaking is sometimes sidelined as childish.
What do you think if loach as a filmmaker, who since kes has gradually made films that feel more like party political broadcasts or docudramas but to great critical acclaim?
Mike Leigh is similar in some ways to loach with his improvised workshoped scripts and slice of life naturalism. But Leigh has a softer view that admits that humour is a large part of the human condition. His films seem more varied and visually interesting than loach. However would a burton led jury be less well disposed towards the perhaps rather dour and dare I say it mundane films of these critcally acclaimed British directors?
Of course all the above is meaningless in the context of these particular films ass I've not seen them - which is why there just questions. I just wanted your view behind the selections and of the jury.
Will you be doing a podcast about the awards as I would be keen to hear yours and jon's views on these awards vs others. The jury systems vs voting etc.
I don't know about a podcast, as neither of us have seen any of these films.
ReplyDeleteI don't know how much influence the head of the jury has at Cannes. Of course, Burton was one of a number of judges and so these aren't necessarily readable as Burton's picks. Although 'Uncle Boonmee' is visually quite striking.
I haven't seen enough Loach to comment, although last year's 'Looking for Eric' was funny and "heartwarming" in the traditional sense, so he isn't just saying "life is grim." Leigh I have a lot of time for: 'Happy-Go-Lucky' is a masterpiece.
The thing about imaginative films seeming childish or at least "not serious" enough to win at Cannes may be a red herring this year, as, if you look at the films in contention for the Palm d'Or, none of them were all that Gilliam/Burton/Del Torro. In fact, 'Uncle Boonmee' was probably the maddest, as it apparently involves a man speaking to an ape who is his reincarnated son.
I've seen and greatly admired many Mike Leigh films most noteably: abigails party; nuts in may; life is sweet and topsy turvey. Life is sweet would be my favourite. With loach I've seen less and enjoyed those I have less too. But I did enjoy riff raff. Do you think these types of films are Cannes friendly or is that a silly way to view the festival, are they typically more open minded and generally pick works on their merit and not on their origin!
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