U.S. director Michael Moore's controversial documentary, "Fahrenheit 9/11" won the Palme d'Or best film award at the Cannes film festival. Posted on 05/22/2004 12:47:22 PM PDT by Destro
'Fahrenheit 9/11' Wins Top Award at Cannes
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: May 22, 2004
U.S. director Michael Moore's controversial documentary, "Fahrenheit 9/11" won the Palme d'Or best film award at the Cannes film festival.
CANNES, France (AP) -- American filmmaker Michael Moore's "Fahrenheit 9/11," a scathing indictment of White House actions after the Sept. 11 attacks, won the top prize Saturday at the Cannes Film Festival.
"Fahrenheit 9/11" was the first documentary to win Cannes' prestigious Palme d'Or since Jacques Cousteau's "The Silent World" in 1956.
"What have you done? I'm completely overwhelmed by this. Merci," Moore said after getting a standing ovation from the Cannes crowd.
The grand prize, the festival's second-place honor, went to South Korean filmmaker Park Chan-wook's "Old Boy," a blood-soaked thriller about a man out for revenge after years of inexplicable imprisonment.
Moore was momentarily flabbergasted when he took the stage to accept the award, a big difference from his fiery speech against President Bush after winning the best-documentary Academy Award for 2002's "Bowling for Columbine."
"You have to understand, the last time I was on an awards stage, in Hollywood, all hell broke loose," Moore said.
The best-actress award went to Maggie Cheung for her role in "Clean" as a junkie trying to straighten out her life and regain custody of her young son after her rock-star boyfriend dies of a drug overdose.
Fourteen-year-old Yagira Yuuya was named best actor for the Japanese film "Nobody Knows," in which he plays the eldest of four sibling raised in isolation, who must take charge of the family when their mother leaves.
The directing and writing prizes went to French filmmakers. Tony Gatlif won the directing honor for "Exiles," his road-trip about a couple on a sensual journey from France to Algeria.
Agnes Jaoui and her romantic partner, Jean-Pierre Bacri, won the screenplay award for "Look at Me," their study in self-image centering on an overweight young woman who feels neglected by loved ones. Jaoui and Bacri also co-star.
"Fahrenheit 9/11" won the top award from sharply divided Cannes moviegoers, who found a solid crop of good movies among the 19 entries in the festival's main competition but no great ones that rose to front-runner status.
While "Fahrenheit 9/11" was well-received by Cannes audiences, many critics felt it was inferior to Moore's Academy Award-winning documentary "Bowling for Columbine," which earned him a special prize at Cannes in 2002.
Some critics speculated that if "Fahrenheit 9/11" won the top prize, it would be more for the film's politics than its cinematic value.
With Moore's customary blend of humor and horror, "Fahrenheit 9/11" accuses the Bush camp of stealing the 2000 election, overlooking terrorism warnings before Sept. 11 and fanning fears of more attacks to secure Americans' support for the Iraq war.
Moore appears on-screen far less in "Fahrenheit 9/11" than in "Bowling for Columbine" or his other documentaries. The film relies largely on interviews, footage of U.S. soldiers and war victims in Iraq, and archival footage of Bush.
Just back in Cannes after his daughter's college graduation in the United States, Moore dedicated the award to "my daughter and to all the children in America and Iraq and throughout the world who suffered through our actions."
"Fahrenheit 9/11" made waves in the weeks leading up to Cannes after the Walt Disney Co. refused to let subsidiary Miramax release the film in the United States because of its political content. Miramax bosses Harvey and Bob Weinstein are negotiating to buy back the film and find another distributor, with hopes of landing it in theaters by Fourth of July weekend.
Quentin Tarantino headed the nine-member jury that handed out prizes in Cannes' main competition. The other jurors included actresses Kathleen Turner, Tilda Swinton and Emmanuelle Beart.
Thai director Apichatpong Weerasethakul's "Tropical Malady" -- widely regarded by Cannes audiences as a snoozer for its elongated scenes of a man wandering a jungle alone, with no dialogue -- won the festival's third-place jury prize.
Another jury prize went to Irma P. Hall for her role as an elderly Southern woman who foils a casino robbery in the Coen brothers' crime comedy "The Ladykillers," starring Tom Hanks as the heist's ringleader.
Keren Yedaya's "Or," about a Tel Aviv prostitute in failing health and her teenage daughter, won the Golden Camera award for best film by a first-time director. The U.S.-born Yedaya, who grew up in Israel, gives lectures about the problems of prostitution for government officials and mental-health professionals.
Earlier Saturday, Senegalese filmmaker Ousmane Sembene's "Moolaade," an examination of the ritual of female circumcision that earned rave reviews, won the top prize in a secondary Cannes competition called "Un Certain Regard."
The 12-day festival's closing film -- "De-Lovely," Kevin Kline's musical biography of Cole Porter -- screened immediately after the awards. Kline and co-star Ashley Judd then hosted a beach concert featuring Sheryl Crow, Alanis Morissette, Natalie Cole and other singers from "De-Lovely" performing Porter tunes.
The festival was to wrap up Sunday with encore screenings of award winners and other key movies that played the festival, including a combined, four-hour version of Tarantino's two "Kill Bill" installments.
A paperweight isn't going to bring home the bacon.
Hi everyone : I'm Fench and I am very surprised by your statement about Jerry Lewis, personally I don't even know who that is???
Secondly every american tourist I see in Paris always tell me that he's sorry about the Irak mistake and that Bush just cannot be re-elected, so how come that you are surprised ?
Any American tourist you still see in Paris now --- is too stupid to recognize that France decided they wanted to be our enemy...
Therefore - I wouldn't be surprised by anything they might tell you..if in fact you really spoke to any.
Most Americans are aware that the Cannes Film Festival has become as leftist political and discredited as the Nobel Prize...
Any event, that combines France and Hollywood, is NOT to be taken seriously...or trusted...
Do YOU take advice from Film makers and ACTORS?
Semper Fi
In the 60's, Jerry Lewis was considered in France to be a very funny comedian. In 1984, he was awarded the French Legion of Honor
http://www.jerrylewiscomedy.com/awards_legion.htm
Secondly every american tourist I see in Paris always tell me that he's sorry about the Irak mistake and that Bush just cannot be re-elected, so how come that you are surprised ?
That's because the only Americans who still travel as tourists to France these days are treasonous Americans who hate their country.
Patriotic Americans will not go to France and spend their money there if they can help it. We've had enough of the backstabbing of the United States by the country of France. The next time Germany invade you, Germany can have you. Don't come crying to us a third time to come liberate you.
Why does France have trees lining their streets?
So that the Germans can march in the shade.
France is the only country whose soldiers have sunburned armpits.
It appears only Americans who still agree with you French bother to show up in Paris. The rest have decided to vacation elsewhere, as we did.
I'm not writing from Paris, but let me be among the first Americans to break the news to you,... Irak(sic) is not a mistake, it is an integral part of the War On Terror and the defense of our Nation, and, yes, President Bush can be reelected and should be reelected. Kerry is a charlatan and a two-faced liar.
By the way, you could easily have met the likes of Kerry in your government at one time or another if you had the misfortune of living in Vichy France. But then, you live in modern day France, so there are probably lots of other examples for your handy comparison.
Well I am sorry to disappoint you but I work at flower shop near the Champs-Elysées, and I see american tourists every day indeed !
I also happen to talk to them, even the one who voted G.W. Bush (they are not ashamed to tell us unlike the French who consider politic as a private business), and they don't really show any sign of agressivity or anger against us. And I don't think our client at the shop are "leftists" as you seem to say, most of them are high executive in big companies (staying notably at George V Hotel). Actually they even are the ones who always leave the better "pourboire" (I don't know the english for it, is it "tip" ?) !!!
But honestly most of them don't talk about Bush as the possible next president of the US. But isn't there another Republican candidate possible ?
Hey that was 45 years ago !!!!
Real Americans aren't going to Paris these days. We don't want one penny going to that sewer. Remember, 'You are with us, or with the terrorists?". France chose the wrong side. The Oil for Food scandal will further exemplify France's decision to side with evil.
BTW, instead of you giving us your frenchy wisdom on politics how about you doing something concrete in Paris.
Like having the waiters on the Champs Elysee give back the correct change and maybe try to instill a spine in the French people.
I know, I know, there will be snowball fights in hell before that happens.
Wow you guys sound aggressive don't you ?!
Though there's one thing I agree with you : in France very few information have been released about the private business that Chirac and some french companies had with S. Hussain, and that's a shame for us becouse we would have discovered that the real reasons why Chirac refused the war was because of economical reasons and not humanitarian. But at the same time it looks like the french diplomacy had better understanding of the "monde arabe" than the american one (I don't say 'you' or 'me' because I guess that you guys don't work in that area as much as I do). And maybe investigating a bit more and using that European pressure (along with others) would have avoided all those dead people ? Take the example of Aristide who eventually left Haiti after we both sent our diplomacy over there.
Oh like Baghdad Jacuqes Chirac for one, IMO.
Sorry I don't quite understand your slang… ????
". . . . I work at flower shop near the Champs-Elysées, and I see american tourists every day indeed !"Oh really? Your brand new Yahoo profile shows that you are in the U.K.: http://uk.profiles.yahoo.com/dingobell0
Yeah just like how you guys(french) had the great understanding with herr hitler.
Are the French gift-wrapping anal suppositories these days?
Oh I forgot, you are a nouveu moderne secularist.
Well to explain it to you, hell is wretched place where there are no smowballs.
Oh I forgot, you are a nouveu moderne secularist.
Well to explain it to you, hell is a wretched place where there are no smowballs.
dingleberry, aka dingobell0, vousavezpaslireouquoi, marcotoujours, blobibob2, tranch2cake, bienparle, crottedebique2004, seeyoujimthefreak, ettaseour, peopleofamerica2, Goulib2, marcop_2, marco.panam, parismacro, emmental2004, LucidWhiteMan, MarcoParis, et al.
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