Tag: Cannes

'Blue is the Warmest Colour' wins Palme D'Or – Cannes 2013 Recap

“Blue is the Warmest Color” wins the Palme D’Or at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival. Full list of winners and recap.

 

The Steven Spielberg led jury at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival selected Abdellatif Kechiche’s “Blue is the Warmest Colour” for the Palme D’Or Sunday, the festival’s top prize.

The Palme D’Or was awarded to not only the Tunisian director but also actresses Adele Exarchopoulos and Lea Seydoux, an unprecedented move for the festival, as the festival has a rule that the Palme D’Or winner cannot also have a winning actor or actress. This enabled the jury to recognize the performers as equal authors in the work.

The film upset other favorites including Ashgar Farhadi’s “The Past,” which won the Best Actress award for “The Artist’s” Berenice Bejo, Alexander Payne’s road-trip comedy “Nebraska,” which won the Best Actor award for Bruce Dern, Kore-Eda Hirokazu’s “Like Father, Like Son,” which won the Jury Prize, and the Coen Brothers’ “Inside Llewyn Davis,” which won the runner up Grand Prix prize.

Although Cannes is often criticized for featuring too many films from “auteurs” and only a few rare chances for discovery, a fact likely pointed out in James Toback’s Cannes centered documentary “Seduced and Abandoned,” this year was touted as important thanks to the stature of its jury, the quality of the films and the legacy of the filmmakers.

Whereas 2012’s Palme D’Or winner “Amour” may have been seen as a fluke for picking up as many Oscar nominations as it did, a seal of approval from this jury could very likely spell Oscar gold down the line.

Here’s a round-up of just some of the more notable titles coming out of this year’s festival.

Continue reading “'Blue is the Warmest Colour' wins Palme D'Or – Cannes 2013 Recap”

‘Tree of Life’ wins Palme D’Or: Cannes 2011 Recap

I’ve been following the events at this year’s Cannes film festival diligently for the last 12-ish days, and the news of how many great films, controversy and surprise has come out of France this year has been staggering.

But the biggest news of all was announced today when Terrence Malick’s highly anticipated family drama/sci-fi “The Tree of Life” was awarded the festival’s top prize, the Palme D’Or, by a jury led by Robert De Niro.

Malick, who previously won the Best Director award for “Days of Heaven,” is a notorious recluse and did not attend the festival, allowing his producers and star Brad Pitt to speak in his place. This marks the first time an American film has won the Palme since 2004 with Michael Moore’s “Fahrenheit 9/11” and the first time an English language film has won since 2006 with Ken Loach’s “The Wind that Shakes the Barley.”

As for other American winners, Kirsten Dunst won Best Actress for her film “Melancholia.” In the film, she plays a woman about to get married as another planet is set on a collision course with the Earth. This is a real surprise following the outrage over the comments of the film’s director, Danish filmmaker Lars Von Trier. Von Trier made some distasteful jokes in which he declared himself a Nazi and claimed he sympathized with Hitler. He also made derogatory comments about Jewish and fellow Danish filmmaker Susanne Bier (“In A Better World”) and said, “Israel is a pain in the ass.” Following everything he said (and Dunst’s real performance was not losing it during the press conference as she sat next to him), Cannes declared Von Trier a “persona non grata” and banned him from the festival.  Continue reading “‘Tree of Life’ wins Palme D’Or: Cannes 2011 Recap”

Cannes 2011 Preview

“Drive,” “Melancholia” and “The Tree of Life” are amongst the most anticipated films at Cannes 2011.

No, I’m not going to Cannes this year. The competition starts on Wednesday and runs through the 22nd. But if I was, I’d have my work cut out for me with what looks to be such a strong list of 20 films competing for the Palme D’Or. I wish the best of luck to Jury President Robert De Niro in selecting from such a field.

He’ll be assisted by the likes of Jude Law, Uma Thurman, Olivier Assayas (“Summer Hours,” “Carlos”) and several more film experts to choose the winner in the main competition. This year’s opening film is Woody Allen’s latest, “Midnight in Paris.” It is being shown out of competition, along with Jodie Foster’s “The Beaver” and the Rob Marshall directed “Pirates” sequel (thank god), and Allen is just one of many notable directors premiering films. Interestingly enough, 22 women are showing films at the festival this year, a record for Cannes and possibly film festivals everywhere.

So there’s a lot to be excited for. And I’ll do my best to recreate the experience of being there with this preview rundown of the competition’s front runners and a few more worth mentioning. Continue reading “Cannes 2011 Preview”