Uncle Boonmee, Cannes film festival shock
https://teakdoor.com/images/imported/2007/10/261.jpg
Thai film pulls off Cannes shock
The Cannes Film Festival has given its top prize, the Palme d'Or, to Thai film Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives.
It beat British director Mike Leigh's Another Year, which was seen as the favourite by many at the French event.
Directed by Apichatpong Weerasethakul, the winning film is about a dying man who is visited by his late wife and his missing son, who has become an ape.
US director Tim Burton led the jury that picked the victor from 19 entries.
French actress Juliette Binoche won best actress for her role as a gallery owner in Tuscany in the romantic drama Copie Conforme (Certified Copy), directed by Iran's Abbas Kiarostami.
Kiarostami earned the Palme d'Or in 1997 with Taste of Cherry.
Spain's Javier Bardem was joint winner of the best actor accolade for playing a corrupt policeman who is diagnosed with terminal cancer.
He appears in Biutiful by Mexican director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, best known for Babel and 21 Grams.
Bardem shared the prize with Italian actor Elio Germano for La Nostra Vita.
The prize for best director went to actor-turned-filmmaker Mathieu Amalric for his story of the struggling manager of a burlesque dance troupe, Tournee (On Tour).
South Korean director Lee Chang-Dong's Poetry took the best screenplay prize.
This year's line-up has left many critics underwhelmed, but Mike Leigh's Another Year, starring Jim Broadbent and Lesley Manville, stood out for many.
The portrait of a happily married couple nearing retirement was described as "beautiful, mordant and curiously riveting" by The Guardian, while The Times said it was "a treasure" that showed "Leigh at his confident best".
PALME D'OR - RECENT WINNERS
<li class="bull"> 2009 - The White Ribbon by Michael Haneke <li class="bull"> 2008 - The Class by Laurent Cantet <li class="bull"> 2007 - 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days by Cristian Mungiu <li class="bull"> 2006 - The Wind That Shakes The Barley by Ken Loach <li class="bull"> 2005 - L'Enfant by Jean-Pierre Dardenne <li class="bull"> 2004 - Fahrenheit 9/11 by Michael Moore
But Leigh, who also made Vera Drake, Happy-Go-Lucky and won the Palme d'Or for Secrets and Lies in 1996, went home empty-handed this time.
Ken Loach, another British arthouse heavyweight, was also back in competition four years after winning the festival's top accolade for The Wind that Shakes the Barley.
His new movie, Route Irish, is a revenge drama based around the deployment of private security contractors in Iraq.
Joining Tim Burton on the nine-member jury were actors Kate Beckinsale and Benicio Del Toro and director Shekhar Kapur.
Story from BBC NEWS:
BBC News - Thai film pulls off Cannes shock
Published: 2010/05/23 18:25:09 GMT
© BBC MMX
Print Sponsor
Advertisement