Haneke Takes Top Honours At Cannes

Until Sunday night Michael Haneke had never won the Cannes Film Festival's top prize. Jury President Isabelle Huppert has starred in the Haneke films The Piano Teacher (2001) and Time Of The Wolf (2003) so it wasn't entirely unexpected that her jury would seek to remedy that situation this year by giving the Palme D'Or to Haneke's epic study of fear and malice The White Ribbon.

Cannes this year was all about celebrating the individual vision of the auteur in a global film cultural that seems more inclined towards the formulaic and industrial. Haneke is certainly a glorious example of the European auteur. The White Ribbon has echoes of Arthur Miller's The Crucible or Ibsen's An Enemy Of The People as it follows the way a community spirit is shattered by strange events, suspicions and misunderstandings on the eve of World War One. Like all of Haneke's films it makes nothing explicit, it is a brooding, enigmatic tale shot in glorious black and white in which the viewer is invited to speculate on whether this is about the loss of innocence at a moment of global catastrophe, a study of the human condition or a stark warning of what was to come in twentieth century history. I think It is a film that will continue to grow in the memory.

Haneke certainly seemed pleased with his triumph, declaring: "I can say this is a moment where I am truly happy." Jacques Audiard's brilliant crime drama A Prophet won the Grand Jury Prize with Red Road's Andrea Arnold winning her second Jury Prize for Fish Tank, a compelling but grim tale of a teenage girl whose life changes when her mother attracts a handsome, charming new boyfriend in the shape of sexy Michael Fassbender. It's the kind of film that won widespread admiration invariably followed by the comment that they can't imagine anyone paying money to see it.

The Best Actress prize for Charlotte Gainsbourg in Lars Von Trier's Anti-Christ was a big surprise although maybe it was more of a reward for enduring the hardships of that gruelling misfire than any acknowledgment of real accomplishment. Equally unexpected but rather inspired was the choice of Christoph Waltz as Best Actor for Quentin Tarantino's The Inglorious Basterds. He certainly stole the film with a mesmerising portrait of the blithe, chilling Nazi Colonel Hans Landa.

Big cheers too for the special prize given to 87 year-old Alain Resnais whose bizarre screwball comedy Wild Grass seemed to provide vast amusement for French colleagues in the audiences whilst leaving the Brits and other nationalities completely baffled. It is made with such verve and charm that you are almost persuaded to forgive Resnais his eccentricities and if it is his final film then it's not a bad way to end a career.

Blogger: GFF Co-director Allan Hunter in Cannes