| Cannes Film Festival 2011 Jury President: Robert De Niro Other Jurors: Olivier Assayas, Martina Gusman, Mahamat-Saleh Haroun, Jude Law, Nansun Shi, Uma Thurman, Johnnie To, Linn Ullmann |
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| Palme d'Or: | The Tree of Life, USA, dir. Terrence Malick |
| Grand Jury Prize (tie): | The Kid with a Bike, Belgium, dirs. Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne Once Upon a Time in Anatolia, Turkey, dir. Nuri Bilge Ceylan |
| Jury Prize: | Polisse, France, dir. Maïwenn |
| Best Director: | Drive, Nicolas Winding Refn |
| Best Actress: | Melancholia, Kirsten Dunst |
| Best Actor: | The Artist, Jean Dujardin |
| Best Screenplay: | Footnote, Joseph Cedar |
| Technical Grand Prize: | The Skin I Live In, José Luis Alcaine, cinematographer |
| FIPRESCI/International Critics Prize: | Le Havre, Finland, dir. Aki Kaurismäki |
| Prize of the Ecumenical Jury: | This Must Be the Place, Italy, dir. Paolo Sorrentino |
| Caméra d'Or (first feature): | Las acacias, Argentina, dir. Pablo Giorgelli |
Competition Films I Have Seen:Ranked in order of preference
My Palme d'Or
The Tree of Life (USA, dir. Terrence Malick) - A brother's grief kiln-blasted and glazed into a grand, restless, ecstatic lament for a living and dying world
Sleeping Beauty (Australia, dir. Julia Leigh) - Astounding control of image, color, pace. Tensions grip, enigmas fascinate. Brisseau + Buñuel + Barney ÷ Breillat.
Melancholia (Denmark/Sweden, dir. Lars von Trier) - Last Days at Marienbad. Is doom a simile for depression, or disconsolate wedding a metaphor for denying imminent doom?
House of Tolerance (France, dir. Bertrand Bonello) - Fin-de-siècle brothel as tactile ecosystem, crystalline fantasy, zombie purgatory, and site of vexed nostalgia
Drive (USA, dir. Nicolas Winding Refn) - Python coiled around a gator. Lithe muscle. Violence as potential energy. Magnificent, though awe packs chaser of distaste.
The Artist (France, dir. Michel Hazanavicius) - An enchantment, so witty and warm in first half. Settles for just warmth in second, but I'd see it twice. Wiss plezhur.
The Kid with a Bike (Belgium, dirs. Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne) - Taut, economical as ever. Strong kid's eye view. Thinner around adults, but Rongione great foil for de France.
Once Upon a Time in Anatolia (Turkey, dir. Nuri Bilge Ceylan) - Elegant, searching, with awe-inspiring night photography, but lacquered as ever, dreaming of Palmes
The Skin I Live In (Spain, dir. Pedro Almodóvar) - Shots and edits to savor, and Almodóvar's rotted-out men intrigue, but the sum feels both familiar and elusive
Michael (Austria, dir. Markus Schleinzer) - Opacity, random fate, and narrative frustration are the points in this study of the pedophile as agitated efficiency expert
Footnote (Israel, dir. Joseph Cedar) - Cedar's shallow, flamboyant direction tends to dull what's nervy and rich in his script. Strong actors. Strangling score.
We Need To Talk About Kevin (UK, dir. Lynne Ramsay) - Early formal rigors must buoy increasingly puerile conceptions. Ends up 30% Ramsay, 70% Sam Mendes.
This Must Be the Place (Italy/USA, dir. Paolo Sorrentino) - Euro Americana in Don't Come Knocking vein, but more winningly idiosyncratic. Uneven, but out on fun limb.
Le Havre (Finland/France, dir. Aki Kaurismäki) - Way too "Hipster Darling takes a walk on The Blind Side" for me. An overpraised, openly laurel-seeking divertissement.
Sidebar Selections I Have Seen:Ranked in order of preference
Elena (Un Certain Regard: Russia, dir. Andrei Zvyagintsev) - Warmth and cold. Suspense and certainty. Western arthouse style merged with Ozu-esque themes and framing elements. Exquisite.
Miss Bala (Un Certain Regard: Mexico, dir. Gerardo Naranjo) - Polanski's Pianist remade as ballistic drug-war suspenser, as terrorized, evacuated lead withstands a hellish picaresque
Snowtown (Critics' Week: Australia, dir. Justin Kurzel) - A barely habitable biome of venality. Intimidating technique, unnervingly porous community of perps. But is it too much?
Corpo Celeste (Directors' Fortnight: Italy, dir. Alice Rohrwacher) - Coming-of-age tale hooked to coming-to-grips tale bathed in textures and tensions of coming into or out of community
This Is Not a Film (Out of Competition: Iran, dirs. Mohsen Makhmalbaf & Mojtaba Mirtahmasb) - It isn't, quite, but it scores its points, uses offscreen space and sound smartly, and ends on its best sequence
Take Shelter (Critics' Week: USA, dir. Jeff Nichols) - I See Heavy Weather. Savvy casting and acting down the line, strong hold on milieu, but story idles, then collapses.
Oslo, August 31st (Un Certain Regard: Norway, dir. Joachim Trier) - I don't get Trier. His sensitivity blurs into a deadpan mawkishness; people too vague. At least this one builds.
Martha Marcy May Marlene (Un Certain Regard: USA, dir. Sean Durkin) - Moody Meatless Menacing Morbid Maybe Maybenot Middling Murder Mindfuck Meh Mupstatefolksaresospooky Boo
Return (Directors' Fortnight: USA, dir. Liza Johnson) - Cardellini good in a Michelle Williams part; Shannon un-typecast. Addiction drama dulls post-Iraq story. Last third flails.
The Slut (Critics' Week: Israel, dir. Hagar Ben Asher) - Shot and mixed like a brittler Dumont film, and far from uninvolving, but script ought to have drawn out comic potentials
The Beaver (Out of Competition: USA, dir. Jodie Foster) - Spotty set-up and execution, bum ending. Lots wrong, yet still engrossing, as Gibson manages restraint and exorcism at once.
Midnight in Paris (Out of Competition: USA, dir. Woody Allen) - Punk'd again! Amiable enough but seemingly inspired by a Barnes & Noble desk calendar. Why such swoony reviews?
Competition Films I'm Curious to See:
Ranked in order of interest; more on this year's lineup here (opens in a new window)
Hanezu, Japan, dir. Naomi Kawase
Polisse, France, dir. Maïwenn
The Source, France/Morocco, dir. Radu Mihaileanu
| Also in Competition: |
Hara-Kiri: Death of a Samurai, Japan, dir. Takashi Miike Pater, France, dir. Alain Cavalier We Have a Pope, Italy, dir. Nanni Moretti |
Sidebar Films I'm Curious to See:
Listed alphabetically; more on this year's lineup here (opens in a new window)
| Un Certain Regard: |
Arirang, South Korea, dir. Kim Ki-duk The Day He Arrives, South Korea, dir. Hong Sang-soo Goodbye, Iran, dir. Mohammad Rasoulof The Minister, France/Belgium, dir. Pierre Schoeller Outside Satan, France, dir. Bruno Dumont Skoonheid, South Africa, dir. Oliver Hermanus Stopped on Track, Germany, dir. Andreas Dresen Where Do We Go Now?, Lebanon, dir. Nadine Labaki The Yellow Sea, South Korea, dir. Na Hong-jin |
| Directors' Fortnight: |
Breathing, Austria, dir. Karl Markovics The Giants, Belgium, dir. Bouli Lanners Mushrooms, India, dir. Vimukthi Jayasundara On the Edge, Morocco, dir. Leïla Kilani Play, Sweden, dir. Ruben Östlund Porfirio, Colombia, dir. Alejandro Landes The Silver Cliff, Brazil, dir. Karim Aïnouz Volcano, Iceland, dir. Rúnar Rúnarsson |
| Critics' Week: |
Las acacias, Argentina, dir. Pablo Giorgelli |
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