The jury of the 57th Festival de Cannes awarded its top prize, the Palm D'or, to
Michael Moore for
Fahrenheit 9/11, a scathing indictment of White House actions after the September 11 terror attacks. The film is the first documentary to receive the award since Jacques Cousteau's
The Silent World in 1956. A visibly overwhelmed Moore thanked the festival and jury for putting a spotlight on the film, adding, "I have a sneaking suspicion that what you have done here and the response from everyone at the festival, you will assure that the American people will see this film. I can't thank you enough for that... Many people want the truth, and many [others] want to put it in the closet, and just walk away. There was a great Republican president, [Abraham Lincoln], who once said, if you just give the people the truth, the republic will be saved... I dedicate this Palme d'Or to my daughter, to the children of Americans and to Iraq and to all those in the world who suffer from our actions."
For the first time in the history of the Festival de Cannes, Gilles Jacob gave the jury an opportunity to explain their Palme d'Or award choices:
"Judging a film by its politics is a bad thing," Quentin Tarantino explained. "If it wasn't some of the best filmmaking, then I would not have chosen it.... You can't strangle this movie with the title documentary. Michael Moore is fucking with the format to bring us a movie/documentary/critical essay."
"One of the reasons it is radical in its politics is because of its relation to the media," said Tilda Swinton. "It starts and ends with a question. It is sophisticated cinema. It wouldn't have served its political end if it wasn't a good piece of filmmaking. He has matured as a filmmaker since
Bowling for Columbine... It is not a film about Bush, nor Iraq but rather the system. In the words of Godard, 'We spend so much time looking for the key to the problem; we need to begin looking for the lock.'"
Swinton also revealed that the jury had thought about "giving a special award for best comedic performance to George W. Bush. Seriously, we did."
"We had long and passionate debates, " said Benoit Poelvoorde. "We put the politics aside so as to talk film. We are not here to give a morality lesson. Personally, I think that the festival is very politically correct; on the other hand, it is hard to not be... At the same time,
Fahrenheit 9/11 is a political tract. His unique viewpoint is not a problem for me since we have the possibility to inform ourselves elsewhere and also listen to other opinions."
"What struck me most was that I was laughing one minute, sobbing the next," said Edwidge Danticat. "I was taken to emotional heights. It let the voices speak for themselves, voices that are otherwise silent."
The festival's second-place honor, The Grand Prize, went to South Korean filmmaker
Park Chan-wook for
Old Boy, a blood-soaked thriller about a man out for revenge after years of inexplicable imprisonment.
The Jury Prize was awarded to the Thai film
Tropical Malady by
Apichatpong Weerasethakul, an enigmatic film exploring the passionate relationship between two men. The jury also acknowledged the actress
Irma P. Hall, who stars in the Coen brothers'
The Ladykillers.
Best Director was presented by Egyptian director Youssef Chahine to
Tony Galtif, a French-Algerian of gypsy descent, whose film
Exiles features actors Romain Duris and Lubna Azabalin as descendents of Algerian exiles who journey from Paris back to Algiers in search of their roots. "This film is about a new generation who are part of a mix, a fusion in motion," Gatlif explained. "This young generation of people with North African, sub-Saharan or South American origins is in the process of bringing an extraordinary richness from all points of view; these young people from the 16th arrodissement in Paris who listen to Arab music without speaking the language. I find this fusion of cultures wonderful."
Maggie Cheung was singled out by the jury as Best Actress for her performance in
Olivier Assayas's Clean, (co-produced by
Filmmaker editor Scott Macaulay and his partner at Forensic Films, Robin O'Hara); and 14-year-old
Yagira Yuuya was awarded Best Actor for his performance in Kore-Eda Hirokazu's
Nobody Knows.
The jury prize for Best Screenplay went to
Agnes Jaoui and Jean-Pierre Bacri for
Comme une image (
Look at Me), in which Jaoui and Barci co-star, and which Jaoui also directed.
The festival's Camera d'Or, for Best First Feature, was awarded to
Keren Yedaya for the French-Israeli co-production
Or, about the daughter of an aging prostitute whose mental health is deteriorating. Yedaya dedicated her award in a moving speech to "all who are not free," including not only those who live today as prostitutes, but also, "as an Israeli, [in solidarity] for the Palestinians," who continue to suffer due to the persecution of the Israeli government.
The Camera d'Or jury awarded special mentions to the Chinese film
Passages, directed by
Yang Chao, which screened in Un Certain Regard, and to the Iranian film
Bitter Dream, directed by Mohsen Amiryoussefi, which screened in Directors Fortnight.
Jonas Geirnaert, whose animated film
Flatlife shared the Palm D'Or for Best Short with the Romanian film
Trafic, by Catalin Mitulescu, set the tone for the awards ceremony, televised live on IFC, when he implored the festival to focus less on business in the future and more on the art of filmmaking, and, in the event that Michael Moore's film was not recognized by the jury, Geirnaert added, "Do not vote for Bush."
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posted by Steve Gallagher @ 5/22/2004 02:28:00 PM
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