From Canberra to Cannes – The Winners Announced

Michael Haneke has long been one my favourite filmmakers – his intelligent and provocative films (including Hidden, The Year of The Wolf, The Piano Teacher and Funny Games) have always stood out from the usual cinema–going experience, and now he’s taken out the top prize – the Palme d’Or – at this year’s Cannes Film Festival for The White Ribbon.

I have to admit I was surprised – this is a measured and wordy black and white tale about a series of unexplained incidents in a German village prior to World War I. There’s a subtle suggestion that the real story is about the brutality of austere Protestantism, of what might become the fascism that ranged across Europe in the following thirty years, but there are no likeable characters to guide you through Haneke’s bleak journey.

The hot tip to win – and it certainly would have had my vote – was Jacques Audiard’s A Prophet, which picked up the Grand Prix – the French way of saying second prize. It’s a stunning film about the rise to power of a young and illiterate French–Arab man sentenced to six years in a tough prison where he has to survive rival crime factions who run the place. It reminded me of Scorsese at his best, but with more focus and more depth – a spiritual undercurrent hinted at in the title.

There was joy too for Australia as the prizes were announced after 12 days of competition. It was Warwick Thornton who collected the Camera d’Or – the award for best first feature film – for his grueling but beautifully shot Samson & Delilah. The film beat some tough opposition and should provide Thornton a reputation that he can now build a long career upon. Past winners have included Jim Jarmusch and Mira Nair.

Other prize winners at Cannes 2009 included British director Andrea Arnold and Korean director Park Chan–Wook who shared the Jury prize for their films Fish Tank (about a young girl living in a grubby council estate in South Engalnd) and Thirst (a mad vampire love story).

Quentin Tarantino’s witty and outrageous Inglorious Basterds – a WWII tale in which Brad Pitt and friends take on the Fuhrer, secured a Best Actor award for Christoph Waltz in a truly wonderful performance as an elegant and evil SS officer who stands between the Basterds and dastardly plan to overthrow the Third Reich. Best Actress went to Charlotte Gainsbourg in a Lars Von Trier’s Antichrist – a film that shocked many with its graphic depiction of sex and its frequent violence.

They was no sex and no violence in Jane Campion’s Bright Star – a very subdued love story between romantic poet John Keats and girl next door Fanny Brawne – and hardly suprisingly no prizes as a result. Many had thought she might become the first woman to win the coveted Palme d’Or twice (she became the first woman to ever win the prize in the seventy year history of the Festival in 1993 with The Piano), but this is a restrained Campion, missing the passion and tension of previous work.

Best director went to Filipino Brillante Mendoza, who’s film Kinatay (which means “butchered”) presents a gruesome portrait of life in the former American colony.

As the sun went down behind the huge Palais Theatre at the end of the famous Cannes beachfront, crowds surrounded to get a glimpse of the prize winners as they exited down the red carpeted steps for the last time, heading for the dance floor at Majestic Beach. It was a long hot day here at Cannes, and no doubt only the start of a long hot night for those celebrating success.

Tagged as: Camera d’Or, cannes, cannes film festival, Palme d’Or, Samson & Delilah, The White Ribbon, Warwick Thornton