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

The Basterds Are Coming

Wednesday was a perfect Cannes day. Blues skies. Shimmering seas. Piercing sunlight as soon as dawn broke yet by 8am some 2,300 journalists had filled the Lumiere cinema eagerly anticipating the world’s first press screening of Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds. The demand to see the film was so intense that an extra screening was added at 9am to accommodate 400 more journalists. The film itself is…pretty entertaining and borderline offensive depending on your feelings about how seriously cinema should address the legacy of World War Two. In Tarantino’s case WW2 is the inspiration for a big cartoon of a movie fantasy in which an elite unit of vicious Jewish-American soldiers use the power of cinema (quite literally) to stop the Third Reich. It bears no resemblance to history as we know it and has more of a feel of a spaghetti war movie (lots of borrowed Morricone music on the soundtrack) or as Screen International colleague Mike Goodridge dubbed it Kill Adolf, Parts 1 & 2. It feels as if Tarantino has written some great individual scenes (or chapters as they are called in the film) but doesn’t necessarily stitch them together in an entirely satisfying manner. Great roles for Diane Kruger and Melanie Laurent. A ridiculous appearance from Mike Myers as a tally ho British officer who is much too Austin Powers to take seriously. A few brief moments from Aussie veteran Rod Taylor ( The Time Machine, The Birds etc) as Winston Churchill. Michael Fassbender as a terribly stiff upper lip British hero. Brad Pitt disappointingly dull as Lt Aldo Raine-although lighting up the evening premiere with Angelina. Not as much action as the trailer might make you think but lots and lots of Tarantino dialogue and good Saturday night fun but somehow you can’t see it winning any prizes.

Many of us thought that Michael Haneke’s latest The White Ribbon might be a strong Palme D’Or contender but after seeing it I’m not so sure. It is set in a small German village in 1913 and looks absolutely beautiful-gorgeous black and white images, snowy scenes straight from Ansell Adams. As with all Haneke films there is an unsettling atmosphere as the soul of the village appears to be contaminated. The children turn rebellious there are incidents and accidents, jealousy and malice. Everything is soured and yet nothing is explained. It could just be a reflection of human nature as the world lost it’s innocence in the last months before World War 1 or an indication of what was to come in the Germany of the 1930s. Everything is open to interpretation but after 150 minutes you really want more than ambiguity.

A few brief words on some other highlights from the competition titles-Ken Loach’s Looking For Eric is extremely funny and endearing as a despairing postie receives life lessons from the great Eric Cantona (“ I am not a man, I am Cantona” ). Well worth catching at the GFT next month as is the appearance from screenwriter Paul Laverty in early June. Pedro Almodovar and Penelope Cruz are reunited on the luscious melodrama Broken Embraces - a complex, assured slice of gornw-up filmmaking. I’ve tended to give Lars Von Trier the benefit of the doubt in the past but Anti-Christ convinces you it’s time for the padded cell and the pureed food. An intellectual’s idea of torture porn, it is extremely unpalatable complete with full frontal genital mutilation. Artificial Eye have bought it for the UK and we can only wish them the best of luck.

Blogger: GFF Co-director Allan Hunter in Cannes

Cannes Do Spirit

It is shaping up to be a pretty vintage Cannes with an abundance of good movies in most sections of the Festival. It is sixteen years since Jane Campion won the Palme d’Or here for The Piano and her films since then have often been very disappointing but she is right back on form with Bright Star, a beautifully crafted and ultimately very moving account of the tragic love between the poet Keats and his neighbour Fanny. It looks fantastic and has the kind of performance from Abbie Cornish that is already attracting Oscar buzz as they say. Also in the main competition is the brilliant A Prophet from Jacques Audiard, the man who gave us The Beat That My Heart Skipped. Imagine Prison Break crossed with an Alexandre Dumas novel like The Count Of Monte Cristo and you have the pulse of this gripping crime drama in which a petty criminal is sentenced to six years in prison and becomes embroiled in the turf disputes of warring inmates that he learns to survive and master. It is an incredible piece of storytelling on a par with Gomorrah and Optimum have bought it for the UK which makes it one to watch out for. Many other highlights include Mother from The Host director Bong Joon-Ho an epic tale of crime and a mother’s love that plays like a mixture of Miss Marple crime-solving and Almodovar melodrama. Completely compelling for a 140 minute running time. Also fantastic is Precious, the story of a very large, very sullen 16 year-old black girl who has suffered terrible abuse at the hands of her father and mother but rather than seeing herself as a victim she knows that she is a beautiful, wonderful person and sets out to take on the world. A glib sentence doesn’t do justice to the emotional power, daring and toughness of a film that deserves a huge audience. Disappointments include Ang Lee’s mild-mannered Taking Woodstock with Imelda Staunton channeling the spirit of the late Shelley Winters in an overwrought performance as an embittered Jewish momma and Johnnie To’s hilariously bad Vengeance, a kind of Death Wish Does Hong Kong in which French idol Johnny Hallyday (looking all of 112) sets out to avenge the Triad killing of his grandchildren and son-in-law even though he has a bullet in his brain and is fast loosing his memory. Probably a blessing if he ever had to sit through this codswallop. With a bit of luck we can avoid that stinker for the Glasgow Film Festival and continue to seek out the cream of the crop.

GFF Co-director Allan Hunter, in Cannes.

image: Jacques Audiard's A Prophet

The Only Way Is Up At Cannes

Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images

A grumpy old man has become the first big star of this year’s Cannes Film Festival. Carl Fredricksen may be 78 years old and computer generated but he had critics applauding wildly after a screening of the Festival’s opening night film Up. The tenth feature from Pixar , the studio behind Toy Story and Monsters Inc, is the first animated feature to ever open the world’s most important film festival. Ed (Lou Grant) Asner provides the voice of the retired balloon salesman who finds a new lease of life when he ties thousands of balloons to his house and flies away to the wilds of South America. He is joined by eight-year old stowaway Kevin, a perky Wilderness Explorer whose wild enthusiasm is a complete contrast to Carl’s crotchety demeanour. “ I’m a sucker for sentimentality, “ claims Asner. “ The film has something to say about celebrating life, and the union of two souls is always much sweeter than the isolation of one.” Up will open in Britain in the autumn and was set to delight a celebrity audience at a red carpet opening night gala where Bryan Ferry paid musical tribute to 84 year-old French chansonnier Charles Aznavour who provides the voice of Carl in the French language version of Up. British hopes in the Festival rest on romantic drama The Fish Tank and the latest Ken Loach film Looking For Eric in which a British postman and dedicated football fan receive lessons in life from Eric Cantona.

Blogger: GFF Co-director Allan Hunter