Cannes 2010 Diary – Roundup

The Winners

The Palme d’Or went to the Thai film UNCLE BOONMEE WHO CAN RECALL HIS PAST LIVES by director Apichatpong Weerasethakul. Probably the only film in the list to push any real boundaries. A weird and wonderful tale on life, the afterlife, ghosts, and the odd catfish. The film has a beguiling spirituality about it, a surprising sense of humour and a strangeness that must have really appealed to the Jury President. It was certainly the most Burtonesque picture in competition.

The Grand Prix went to my personal favourite, OF GODS AND MEN. The true story of a group of French monks who were kidnapped from their monastery in a remote Algerian village by Islamic fundamentalists in the mid-90s, lovingly fictionalised by director Xavier Beauvois. Concentrating on the weeks leading up to the kidnapping, the director beautifully juxtaposes the calm serenity of the monastic way of life with the ever-threatening violence impacting on the community around them. The resolve of the monks to stay and continue their calling, only heightened as the dangers approach. The film culminates in a scene of intense emotion as the monks sit down to a ‘last supper’ played to Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake, a peaceful acceptance of what is to come etched across their faces.

Best Actress went to Juliette Binoche for Abbas Kiarostami’s CERTIFIED COPY because her image was on the Cannes poster this year. Sorry, a trite remark. A perfectly competent performance in a flawed ‘grown-up BEFORE SUNSET’ two-hander, not least because the other hand, opera singer William Shimell, is so awful. Best Actor was shared between Javier Bardem for his brilliant turn in Alejandro Gonzáles Iñárritu’s BUITIFUL, and Elio Germano as the widowed father of three in the heartbreacking and utterly brilliant LA NOSTRA VITA by Daniele Luchetti. Deserving winners both of them.

Best Director went to the actor Mathieu Amalric for his directorial debut ON TOUR. A surprise winner for what many felt was a slightly self-indulgent project about a group of American burlesque dancers touring France in the hope of ultimately making it to Paris.

Mahamat Saleh Haroun won the jury prize for the so-so A SCREAMING MAN and Lee Chang-dong won the best screenplay prize for POETRY about a grandmother’s desire to write a poem before the corrosion of Alzeheimer take a hold.

So that’s it for the 63rd Cannes Film Festival, they’ve dished out the palmes, rolled up the red carpets, Kate has had her glimpse of what a decent film looks like and has safely returned to the set of Underworld 4 and Messrs Loach and Leigh are back in Blighty empty handed.

Overall, not the best Cannes Film Festival. There was no A PROPHET, WHITE RIBBON or THE CLASS, no GOMORRAH, IL DIVO or PRECIOUS to set the festival alight. There was no ANTICHRIST, INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS or even SOUTHLAND TALES to whip up the press into Daily Mail-type fervor. No, Cannes 2010 was just OK. There were some very good films, don’t get me wrong, just nothing that really lit a fuse under the festival. All eyes on Venice and Toronto then.

Picturehouse Top 5
1. Two Gates Of Sleep
2. Another Year
3. Of Gods and Men
4. Poetry
5. Armadillo

N.B. After a few more of the Picturehouse team manage to see an extra screening of Danish documentary ARMADILLO about soldiers fighting the war in Afghanistan, it makes a return into the top 5.

Sam Clements from CannesInAVan met up with our First-Timer Charlotte to talk Cannes