Posted on 05/22/2004 11:02:05 PM PDT by My Favorite Headache
CANNES, France - American filmmaker Michael Moore (news)'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 (news - web sites).
AP Photo
>img src=http://us.news2.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/ap/20040522/capt.can12305222051.france_cannes_film_can123.jpg>
AFP Slideshow: Cannes Film Festival
'Fahrenheit 9/11' Wins Cannes' Top Prize (AP Video)
"Fahrenheit 9/11" was the first documentary to win Cannes' prestigious Palme d'Or since Jacques Cousteau's and Louis Malle (news)'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 (news - web sites) 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 (news) 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 at a festival that 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 (news - web sites) 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.
Moore said after the ceremony that he expected right-wing media outlets in the United States to characterize his prize as an award from the French, whose government opposed the U.S.-led war on Iraq. He noted that the nine-person Cannes jury that awarded prizes had only one French member and four Americans, including jury president Quentin Tarantino (news) and actress Kathleen Turner (news).
Many Americans now realize the French are "good friends of America who tried to do the right thing and tell us this was the wrong road," Moore said. "We owe the people of this country an apology for the way they were debased and treated in our media."
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 (news) 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 (news)'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 (news)'s musical biography of Cole Porter — screened immediately after the awards. Kline and co-star Ashley Judd (news) then hosted a beach concert featuring Sheryl Crow (news), Alanis Morissette (news), Natalie Cole (news) 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.
The Jimmy Carter Nobel Prize part 2.
Good idea. Mike. I'm looking forward to this open-mindedness to pervade your thinking about other people with who have gotten shoddy treatment from the media. Someday soon, I'm sure I'll read the following paragraph in a news article:
Many liberals now realize that Conservatives are "good friends of America who tried to do the right thing and tell us this was the wrong road," Moore said. "We owe the people of this country an apology for the way they were debased and treated in our media."
That is possibly the most disgusting thing I've seen all day... congratulations, you even outdid the pic with the article!
Well, I'm shocked. Yup. I am. Really.
We don't owe France a bucket of piss.
Geeez, Michael Moore bared in rough. What-a-joool!
"Many Americans now realize the French gay, they tried to do the cowardly thing and tell us this was the wrong road," Moore said. "I owe the people of this country an apology for the way they have been misled by myself and the media."
Many Americans now realize the French are "good friends of America"
Yup. Keep thinking that.
Very good comment!
I've thought for a long time that these awards ceremonies that the entertainment industry has is really nothing more than said industry trying to entertain itself.
Double standards? Try putting these shoes on...
AMERICA’S NEW POLITICAL AGENDA AND FOREIGN POLICY
1. Being a drug addict is a moral failing and a crime, unless you're a conservative radio host. Then it's an illness and you need our prayers for your recovery.
2. The United States should get out of the United Nations, and our highest national priority is enforcing U.N. resolutions against Iraq.
3. Government should relax regulation of Big Business and Big Money but crack down on individuals who use marijuana to relieve the pain of illness.
4. "Standing Tall for America" means firing your workers and moving their jobs to India.
5. A woman can't be trusted with decisions about her own body, but multi-national corporations can make decisions affecting all mankind without regulation.
6. Jesus loves you, and shares your hatred of homosexuals and Hillary Clinton.
7. The best way to improve military morale is to praise the troops in speeches while slashing veterans' benefits and combat pay.
8. Group sex and drug use are degenerate sins unless you someday run for governor of California as a Republican.
9. If condoms are kept out of schools, adolescents won't have sex.
10. A good way to fight terrorism is to belittle our long-time allies, then demand their cooperation and money.
11. HMOs and insurance companies have the interest of the public at heart.
12. Providing health care to all Iraqis is sound policy. Providing health care to all Americans is socialism.
13. Global warming and tobacco's link to cancer are junk science, but Creationism should be taught in schools.
14. Saddam was a good guy when Reagan armed him, a bad guy when Daddy Bush made war on him, a good guy when Cheney did business with him and a bad guy when Baby Shrub needed a "we can't find Bin Laden" diversion.
15. A president lying about an extramarital affair is an impeachable offense. A president lying to enlist support for a war in which thousands die is solid defence policy.
16. Government should limit itself to the powers named in the Constitution, which include banning gay marriages and censoring the internet.
17. The public has a right to know about Hillary's cattle trades, but George W. Bush's driving record is none of our business.
18. You support states' rights, which means Attorney General John Ashcroft can tell states what local voter initiatives they have a right to adopt.
19. What Bill Clinton did in the 1960s is of vital national interest, but what Bush did in the '80s is irrelevant.
20. Trade with Cuba is wrong because the country is Communist, but trade with China and Vietnam is vital to a spirit of international harmony.
Double standards? Whaddya think, Tex?
Thats how I see these award shows these days. Three or four hours of overpaid no-talent assclowns patting each other on the back.
Happend to see the video footage of it all on FOX News, and he acted all surprised when they called his name. I predicted this award going to Moore in my sleep, it was painfully obvious in a number of ways.
A: They wanted to march in the shade.
Well the elite entertainment establishment once again proves that it hasn't a clue what a real documentary is. I could draft a script blaming Bush for starving people on the streets of the U.S. and get out my video camera and go to work. I'd be a shoe-in for next year's awards at Cannes. Would I have to include any actual documents or physical exhibits to prove his guilt? Not really, but then it worked for Moore.
It's hard to take Cannes serious. It's like a running joke that the particpants are incapable of grasping. As they laugh, others are shaking their heads and wondering what the average IQ of the Cannes participant is. Wondering might be a bit of a stretch. It's quite clear what that average is not.
While we wait to hear the good news of Iraq, the Cannes decision process is reported moment by moment. I've been breathless with anticipation. NOT.
More laments the poor children that have suffered at the decions process of the U.S. I guess the half of the population of Iraq (namely girls) that can now go to school are surely suffering for it. I guess the children of Iraq are really suffering with clean drinking water. I guess the ability to turn on the lights now is really taking it's toll. I'm sure the fact that they can now get three squares a day is a blight to them.
Moore, Cannes, in your case dilusion is a sad thing to watch. It's borders on criminal negligence.
I thought we couldn't post from "The Onion"
If Moore is not now a traitor, what more can he do to become a traitor?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.