Thoughts on the Cannes 2009 winners
I have never really enamoured myself to Michael Haneke. Don’t get me wrong, I adore Hidden (Cache), and while Funny Games is interesting enough I feel the condescending tone emitted towards its audience is a major issue. I haven’t seen much else of his work and have no great desire to, so it is with this that i reluctantly discuss his winning of the Palme D’or tonight. Granted I have yet to see The White Ribbon (and believe me I shall), but I found it a difficult film and therefore decision to get excited about. My rather vocal adoration towards the earlier work of Lars Von Trier (on this website) may make the following statement seem even more predictable, but I believe that he would have been a far more interesting choice for the accolade. This year has been Von Trier’s, from declarations towards his own being the greatest filmmaker in the world to arguments with cunt-faced-daily-mail journos, and a win would have been a fine capping point. It was great to see Charlotte Gainsbourg take best actress for her role in Von Trier’s Antichrist tho, and something of a surprise to see Christophe Waltz win best actor for Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds.
Jacques Audiard’s A Prophet, a film I have very high hopes for may have missed out on the big prize, but lets face it, the Grand Jury Prize is something of a rather special consolation prize. The most interesting sounding film of the festival for this writer was Johnny To’s Johnny Hallyday starring Vengeance left empty handed, but I still have very high hopes for the film.
To cap it all off Alain Resnais’ Wild Grass took home the Special Cannes Festival Prize, marking the twilight (if hopefully not latter) years of a remarkable career for the great man.
Cannes 2010 will be my first year at the festival, I really do wish I could have made it this year, as it seems to have been a great festival, alas it will hopefully be the last one that I dont make it to!
You’re going to Cannes next year!? Take me!
definitely feel you on Haneke. Not a bad director by any means, but its hard to imagine that he outshined every other auteurs in competition this year.
Also whether or not Vengeance is actually any good, the trailers are at least a good indication that it will be classic HK blood opera fare.
Adam i have to disagree with you, though he may not have the clout of your Von Triers or Resnais he is fully deserving (obviously i canot vouch for white ribbon cause i havent seen it), but on his body of work alone he is deserving. He should have won in 2005 for cache for me one of the best films of this decade.
How are you going to Cannes by the way? as a punter?
Tom.
Adam C – Yeah i have made the decision that its imperative towards my career that i go to cannes from now on. i actually decided that i should be going this year, alas it was too late. next year im going to write it into my Masters thesis, so i HAVE to go! if you know what i mean…?
Crapmonster – have you seen Johnny To’s mad detective? im not usually a fan of that sort of flick, modern asian fare is just too much for me usually, but i really enjoyed mad detective, meaning that To is officially on my radar. and resurrecting Hallyday in the lead just reaks of kudos. the concept reminds of the liam neeson uber-hit Taken, a film which i havent seen, but in the hands of a filmmaker like To i imagine it will be a tad more interesting.
tom – yeah as a punter i guess, unless i can get someone to give me some work out there for the duration. The Apostrophe Siouxante Huit project that im working on with Tobias at The Auteurs revolves around Cannes too so i may make some contacts through that that will give me an excuse to visit. I f all else fails im going to use my school work to justify it! i really wish i could have made it this year though, as it seemed to be a real successful one. its a shame really, but as i said before, by the time i realised i ought to be going to cannes it was way too late to sort this year.
I have not, To makes so many films per year its a bit hard to keep up with the guy.
Hes somewhat hit or miss too. From the few Ive seen of his, I either love or hate his works. Election & PTU being examples of him on a good day and Throw Down on the otherside.