The Cannes Film Festival is not without its goofs and bits of nonsense; no festival or major film award ever is. Still,
considered collectively, the films that have won the Palme d'Or or Grand Prix at Cannes easily blow the catalogue of Best Picture Oscar
winners out of the water; for my money, it's also a better list than the Berlin or Venice champions, though that's a much
closer call. Unfortunately, not all of Cannes' best are available to rent in the U.S.—just
you try tracking down The Given Word/O Pagador de Promessas! (Duarte '62) or The Working Classes Go to Heaven (Petri '72)—but I'll
keep making an effort to dig up as many as I can. Please e-mail me if you have
responses to these reviews, or some insider knowledge about how to locate the more elusive titles.|
My Preferential Rankings of The Palme d'Or Winners La Crème de la Crème 1993 The Piano dir. Jane Campion 1983 The Ballad of Narayama dir. Shohei Imamura 1976 Taxi Driver dir. Martin Scorsese 1997 Taste of Cherry dir. Abbas Kiarostami 1979 Apocalypse Now dir. Francis Ford Coppola 1974 The Conversation dir. Francis Ford Coppola 1961 Viridiana dir. Luis Buñuel 2000 Dancer in the Dark dir. Lars von Trier 1960 La Dolce Vita dir. Federico Fellini 1953 The Wages of Fear dir. Henri-Georges Clouzot 1967 Blow-up dir. Michelangelo Antonioni 1987 Under the Sun of Satan dir. Maurice Pialat 1949 The Third Man dir. Carol Reed 1975 Chronicle of the Smoldering Years dir. Mohammed Lakhdar-Hamina Ooh, La La 1994 Pulp Fiction dir. Quentin Tarantino 2002 The Pianist dir. Roman Polanski 1964 The Umbrellas of Cherbourg dir. Jacques Demy 1996 Secrets & Lies dir. Mike Leigh 1993 Farewell, My Concubine dir. Chen Kaige 1979 The Tin Drum dir. Volker Schlöndorff 1997 The Eel dir. Shohei Imamura 1984 Paris, Texas dir. Wim Wenders 2005 L'Enfant dirs. Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne 1991 Barton Fink dir. Joel Coen 1958 The Cranes Are Flying dir. Mikhail Kalatozov 1999 Rosetta dirs. Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne 1982 Missing dir. Costa-Gavras 1989 sex, lies, and videotape dir. Steven Soderbergh 1954 Gate of Hell dir. Teinosuke Kinugasa 1959 Black Orpheus dir. Marcel Camus Comme Ci, Comme Ça 2004 Fahrenheit 9/11 dir. Michael Moore 1951 Miss Julie dir. Alf Sjøberg 2006 The Wind That Shakes the Barley dir. Ken Loach 2001 The Son's Room dir. Nanni Moretti 2003 Elephant dir. Gus Van Sant 1988 Pelle the Conqueror dir. Bille August 1990 Wild at Heart dir. David Lynch 1955 Marty dir. Delbert Mann 1971 The Go-Between dir. Joseph Losey 1980 All That Jazz dir. Bob Fosse Tu Parles! 1966 A Man and a Woman dir. Claude Lelouch 1965 The Knack...and How to Get It dir. Richard Lester 1986 The Mission dir. Roland Joffé Palme Winners Left to See (In Chronological Order) Commercially Available Titles 1951 Miracle in Milan dir. Roberto Rossellini 1952 Othello dir. Orson Welles 1957 Friendly Persuasion dir. William Wyler 1963 The Leopard dir. Luchino Visconti 1969 If... dir. Lindsay Anderson 1970 M*A*S*H dir. Robert Altman 1973 Scarecrow dir. Jerry Schatzberg 1977 Padre padrone dirs. Paolo & Vittorio Taviani 1978 The Tree of Wooden Clogs dir. Ermanno Olmi 1980 Kagemusha dir. Akira Kurosawa 1981 Man of Iron dir. Andrzej Wajda 1982 Yol dirs. Serif Gören & Yilmaz Güney 1985 When Father Was Away on Business dir. Emir Kusturica 1992 The Best Intentions dir. Bille August 1995 Underground dir. Emir Kusturica 1998 Eternity and a Day dir. Theo Angelopoulos 1998 4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days dir. Cristian Mungiu Hard-to-Find Titles 1952 Two Cents' Worth of Hope dir. Renato Castellani 1956 The Silent World dirs. Jacques-Yves Cousteau and Louis Malle 1961 The Long Absence dir. Henri Colpi 1962 O Pagador de Promessas! dir. Anselmo Duarte 1966 The Birds, the Bees, and the Italians dir. Pietro Germi 1972 The Mattei Affair dir. Francesco Rosi 1972 The Working Classes Go to Heaven dir. Elio Petri 1973 The Hireling dir. Alan Bridges |
Links to Reviews of Films In Competition at Cannes The 1960s 1966 A Man and a Woman The 1970s 1977 3 Women 1979 Days of Heaven The 1980s 1980 All That Jazz 1981 Chariots of Fire 1982 Misssing 1983 Tender Mercies 1984 Another Country 1985 Kiss of the Spider Woman 1986 The Mission 1987 The Belly of an Architect The 1990s 1990 Wild at Heart 1992 Basic Instinct 1992 Howards End 1996 Crash 1997 The Well 1998 Henry Fool 1998 Life Is Beautiful 1998 Velvet Goldmine 1999 Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai The 2000s 2000 Dancer in the Dark 2000 The Golden Bowl 2000 The Yards 2001 Moulin Rouge! 2001 No Man's Land 2001 Shrek 2002 Bowling for Columbine 2002 Russian Ark 2003 Dogville 2003 Swimming Pool 2004 Clean 2004 Fahrenheit 9/11 2004 The Ladykillers 2004 The Motorcycle Diaries 2004 Shrek 2 2005 Broken Flowers 2007 Zodiac |