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Cannes- Apart from a few awards, there were no surprises at this year’s Cannes.
The most coveted Palm d’Or went to the latest work by Belgian directors Jean-Pierre Dardenne and Luc Dardenne, The Child, a film about a young couple who initially agreed to sell their newborn son to gangsters but eventually reversed their decision. The gangsters, however, demanded the couple to pay for their change of mind.
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Jean-Pierre Dardenne & Luc Dardenne |
The Child |
The Dardenne brothers had won Palm d’Or for Rosetta in 1999, the year when David Cronenberg chaired the jury panel. The Child was a kind of realistic films without striking cinematic effects or over-the-top performances. For me, the film seemed ordinary.
The Grand Prize of the Jury went to Jim Jarmusch’s Broken Flowers, a surprisingly easy-to-understand film about a man’s investigation of an anonymous letter sender. While the film gradually delved inside the main character to the source of his loneliness, its conclusion completely shocked the viewers.
Despite its buzz, Hidden only won one award—best director—for Michael Haneke. The film told a story of a husband and wife who one day received hidden video recordings of their daily activities and frightening drawings, all of which led to a dark revelation of a terrible secret. Hidden was rich in scripting, acting, and editing complexities, and the best director award was a testimony of Haneke’s mastery in handling all aspects of a film.
The Jury Prize, which Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s Tropical Malady won last year, went to Wang Xiaoshuai’s Shanghai Dreams this year. This film was something of an underdog because it was only screened twice—one for the press and another for the general public. Unlike other films from China , Shanghai Dreams explored conflicts between modern-day progressive thinking and the Communist Party’s manifesto. The film moved at such a slow pace that its second half seemed to drag on.
Acting awards were this year’s surprises. Tommy Lee Jones won Best Actor award from portraying a vengeful man in the American wild west in The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada. For me, Jones turned in a great performance but not as memorable as Daniel Auteuil in Hidden or Viggo Mortensen in A History of Violence.
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Tommy Lee Jones |
Shanghai Dreams |
Likewise, Best Actress award should have gone to Jessica Lange as ex-lover of a fading cowboy star in Don’t Come Knocking or Bryce Dallas Howard as the black people’s liberator in Manderlay. Instead, the award went to Hanna Lazslo, who portrayed an Israeli woman attempting to cross the border to Palestine to repay her husband’s debt in Free Zone. For me, this role was too ordinary for such a prestigious award, and anyone could play it.
Overall, this year’s Cannes awards lacked excitement. The films lacked power and the festival in general was mundane, and so was I.
Awards
Palm d’Or : The Child (Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne – Belgium )
Grand Prize of the Jury : Broken Dreams (Jim Jarmusch – USA )
Jury Prize : Shanghai Dreams (Wang Xiaoshuai – China )
Best Director : Hidden (Michael Haneke – Austria )
Best Actor : Tommy Lee Jones in The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada
Best Actress : Hanna Lazslo in Free Zone
Best Screenplay : Guillermo Arriaga in The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada
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