Jeanne Moreau presided one last time as the 50th Cannes International Film Festival came to a close. Apparently, deliberations were quite heated and divided until 6 pm when the jury finally surfaced. Isabelle Adjani pronounced each winner's name rather curtly, except for Egyptian Youssef Chahine's The Destiny which won the 50th Anniversary Prize. She added that the prize was for the entirety of his work, for his humanity, tolerance and courage much to the audience's agreement.
The Palme D'or went to two films : Unagi (The Eel) by Shohei Imamura (Japan) and The Taste of Cherry by Abbas Kiarostami. Having already returned to Japan, Imamura had asked one of his actors to accept the award who informed us that the eel from the film had now become Imamura's companion. Kiarostami, who had had so much trouble passing Iranian authorities, had not hurried back home and was discreetly all smiles.
John Travolta announced the Grand Prix. "The Grand Prix honors a film that demonstrates originality, inventiveness, style and creativity. In a nutshell, the right stuff." It went to The Sweet Hereafter by a very moved Atom Egoyan who returned the honors to his country, Canada.
Sean Penn won the Best Actor award for his performance in She's So Lovely by Nick Cassavetes. His father, John Cassavetes, had originally proposed the role to Penn. After Cassavete's death, Penn sought to direct the film himself but was unable to finance it. Penn has already made two films: The Indian Runner and Crossing Guard.
The three Chaplin granddaughters presented the Technical Grand Prize to Thierry Arbogast, both for She's So Lovely and The Fifth Element. Nick Cassavetes accepted the prize for him.
As was the case last year, a rather unknown British actress received Best Actress. Kathy Burke won for her role as a battered wife in Gary Oldman's Nil by Mouth, claiming that she felt silly taking the award as it was such an ensemble piece.
The results seem to be surprising, the jury in diagreement choosing two Palm d'or winners and disappointment reigns for many. In the award line-up, Asiatic films took the lead with two from Japan and one from Hong Kong dealing with homsexuality. The French contribution was Western by Michel Poirier, while two American films won prizes and best actor. Politics seemed to have entered into the selection as well with two films from the Islamic world being awarded.
See you next year.
