25 May 2008

Cannes: Un Certain Regard

Fatih Akin (The Edge of Heaven) gave out the awards for the Un Certain Regard section of the Cannes Film Festival last night. The top prize was honored to Sergei Dvortsevoy's Tulpan; the film is set in Kazakhstan and co-produced by Germany, Poland, Russia and Switzerland. The jury also awarded four other prizes, though I have no idea what their importance is:

The Jury Prize (which I would imagine to be second prize): Tokyo Sonata - dir. Kiyoshi Kurosawa - Japan/Netherlands

Coup de Cœur Award: Cloud 9 [Wolke Neun] - dir. Andreas Dresen - Germany

KO Prize (I hope that isn't just a stupid pun): Tyson - dir. James Toback - USA

Hope Prize: Johnny Mad Dog - dir. Jean-François Sauvaire - France

The prizes of the official selection, including the Palme d'Or should be announced later today.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

dull dull dull...too much "good conscience" too p.c
And apparently not even disastrously bad films in general, ¿Is "international quality cinema" really this bland now?

Marvin

Anonymous said...

Shit, i was talking about the main competition awards not these
Marvin

reassurance said...

Ha! Marvin, I knew what you meant before even realizing where you posted this.

Cannes had a lot to live up to from last year, after 4 Months 3 Weeks and 2 Days, No Country for Old Men, Persepolis, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, Paranoid Park, and The Last Mistress, so it was inevitable that this year would suck in comparison, but the general feel I got from reading was exactly what you stated: "dull dull dull." Not a single film I can think of moved any critic to ungodly praise or hatred, which is really unfortunate.

What else bothers me about Cannes is the boatload of fucking awards they dish out. I have no idea what over half of them mean, but it just adds to the frustration that, like the Academy, they like to "spread out" the awards. So, basically, your film makes it to Cannes, you've got about a fifty per cent shot of winning something, even if you have no idea what it is or who it's coming from.

And, while I'm ranting, who is James Gray blowing in the administration to get all three of his mediocre-at-best films into the main competition?

Anonymous said...

I think is always very easy to blame the jury, but in this particular edition it didn´t help to have the ,yes, very dull and overearnest Sean Penn as president
But there´s always next year, and the chance of another Brown Bunny to shake things up a little ha, ha
Marvin

reassurance said...

I wasn't pleased with really most of the jury, particularly Sean Penn as president. I don't know who decided that he was any authority on quality. Despite the inclusion of one of my favorites, Apichatpong Weerasethakul, I'm also as confused by the inclusion of Natalie Portman and Alexandra Maria Lara. I can safely say the jury didn't help.