2009 Cannes Film Festival: Top 5 Palme D'Or Winners

The Palme d'Or, which translated means "Golden Palm" is the highest honor bestowed upon a film in contention at the Festival de Cannes or as it has come to be known, The Cannes Film Festival. The Cannes Film Festival is widely thought of as the most important Film Festival in the world. Though others like Sundance and South by Southwest are gaining prominence, Cannes is still considered 'Le Grande Spectacle'. The 2009 Cannes Film Festival will be the 62^nd anniversary of the festival.

The Palme d'Or has been the brass ring to which filmmakers have aspired for 41 of those years. First given in 1955, the award was commissioned at the end of 1954. It was originally designed by jeweler Lucienne Lazon. Before the Palme d'Or was introduced, the highest award was the Grand Prix du Festival International du Film. Due to copyright issues surrounding the Palm, the festival returned to giving the Grand Prix du Festival in 1964. The Palme was reinstated in 1975.

The design of the award has changed several times over the years. Its current design is a 24-carat gold Palm frond cushioned on a solid block of cut crystal. The presentation is made in a case of blue Moroccan leather.

A number of the films that win the coveted Palm d'Or go on to win Academy Awards.

Having been charged with the task of choosing the 5 best of the over 60 something films that have won the Palme d'Or is a very subjective task. By its very nature film is a medium that speaks with one voice about the vagaries of the human condition. The undertaking is made all the harder because tastes vary widely. The 5 films that have made this list illustrate the universal themes of hope, degradation, rejection, isolation, reconciliation and perseverance. They are further evidence of our overwhelming commonalities rather than our abiding differences.

Marty - Palme d'Or 1955 (US)

Marty starred Ernest Borgnine in the role of Marty Piletti. Marty is a socially awkward butcher whose overbearing family almost wrecks his chances at finding love. Marty went on to win the Academy Award for Best Picture and Ernest Borgnine won for Best Actor. Below is one of Marty's most favorite lines

"You don't like her. My mother don't like her. She's a dog. And I'm a fat, ugly man. Well, all I know is I had a

good time last night. I'm gonna have a good time tonight. If we have enough good times together, I'm gonna get down on my knees. I'm gonna beg that girl to marry me. If we make a party on New Year's, I got a date for that party. You don't like her? That's too bad.

La Dolce Vita - Palme d'Or 1960 (Italy)

La Dolce Vita which translates to the Sweet Life is widely regarded as Federico Fellini's transitional film. La Dolce Vita stars Marcello Mastroianni as Marcello, a morally bereft reporter. The film beautifully chronicles Marcello's path to the morass of debauchery and degradation. His constant quest for youth and beauty causes him to objectify all of the women he comes into contact with. His last tenuous hold on hope fails when his seemingly happy and successful friend Steiner shoots his children and then turns the gun on himself. Marcello is faced with the thought that if the love of a family and success can not save one, then what hope did he have.

The Piano - Palme d'Or 1993 (New Zealand)

The Piano was directed by Jane Campion, who is the only female director to ever be awarded a Palme d'Or. The Piano brilliantly renders the tale of Ada McGrath, a mute Scottish woman who enters into an arranged marriage with a landed Englishman, Alistair Stewart, portrayed by Sam Neill. Ada and her nine year old daughter, played brilliantly by Anna Pacquin, arrive on a, New Zealand, beach with all their belongings. The Englishman arrives a day later, accompanied by his neighbor, Baines, played by Harvey Keitel. Ada has brought her piano, but the Stewart decides it is too heavy and leaves it. Ada tries to make a life with her husband but she is drawn to the ilent and earthy Baines. Baines proves to be her rescuer. He retrieves her piano, which serves as Ada's voice in the world. As Stewart becomes aware of Ada's love for Baines he becomes increasingly frustrated. In one of the most harrowing and heartrending scenes of the film, Stewart chops off Ada's index finger to stop her playing and render her completely voiceless. Even Stewart's violent attempt to quell the passion between Ada and Baines fails. He relents and allows Ada to leave with Baines.

The film earned a Best Actress Academy Award for Holly Hunter and a Best Supporting Actress Academy Award for Anna Pacquin. Pacquin, became the second youngest person to ever win an Oscar. Holly Hunter played her own piano pieces and served as Anna Pacquin's sign language teacher on set.

Secrets & Lies - Palme d'Or 1996 (United Kingdom)

Secrets & Lies, the winner of the 1996 Palme d'Or introduced "Without a Trace" stalwart, Marianne Jean-Baptiste to American audiences. Jean-Baptiste plays, Hortense Cumberbatch, a successful black optometrist, who is adopted. When she sets out to find her birth mother, she finds a working class white woman, Cynthia Purley, portrayed by Brenda Blethyn. The film explores the ideas of class and status as well as nature versus nurture. Its prevalent themes are forgiveness and reconciliation.

It's interesting to note, that though Mike Leigh gets a writing credit for Secrets & Lies; the vast majority of the film was improvised. The actors were given a basic idea about their characters and they came up with their own dialogue.

The Pianist - Palme d'Or 2002 (Poland)

The Pianist for which Adrien Brody went on the become the youngest man to win a Academy Award for Best Actor in a Lead Role, told the story of Wladyslaw Szpilman. Szpilman was a radio personality and a pianist in Poland at the start of World War II. His life was forever changed as the Nazi SS moves Polish Jews into Warsaw Ghettos before moving them on to The Treblinka Concentration camp. Szpilman is saved from being transported to the camps by a family friend who is a part of the SS. Szpilman eventually leaves the ghetto and hides in a farmhouse. He is discovered foraging for food by a member of the regular German army who keeps his secret and brings him food and supplies. Soon the Soviet Red Army arrives and the German soldier, Wilm Hosenfeld, is captured. Szpilman tries to save him from the prisoner-of-war camp but he is too late. Hosenfeld died in captivity.

Wladyslaw Szpilman resumed his role on Polish radio and went on the serve as Director of Polish radio. He composed and performed will into the 1980's. Szpilman died on July 6, 2000, at the age of 88, in Warsaw, Poland.

Director Roman Polanski also won the Academy Award for Best Director for The Pianist. The project was extremely poignant for Polanski because he too had been confined to the Cracow ghetto. He was able to escape the ghetto and hid out until the war ended. Polanski lost his mother in the ghetto and thought his father was killed in the camps. Roman Polanski and his father were reunited after the war's end.

Each of the movies listed is available for sale at Amazon.com, Borders, Barnes & Noble, Alibris or for check out from your local library.

Cannes Today

As the Cannes Film Festival enters its 62^nd year, there is a renewed effort to keep it fresh and cutting edge. Thierry Fremaux, General Delegate of the Cannes Film Festival issued a lengthy statement outlining this new commitment. A portion of the statement follows. "The Festival will not simply coast along on the prestige of its name, however strong that may be. This prestige is above all due to the quality of the films, the creativity of the artists, the fighting spirit of the professionals and the enthusiasm of the press. Cannes is a collective good that each of us, wherever we are and in our own individual way, builds stone by stone, year after year It's through never ceasing to question, through constantly evolving, and through inviting criticism, that we do it the most good. Although solidly rooted in its own history, Cannes is always open to newness. That which is dissimilar to it enriches it: and this is why this festival is our festival."

Sources:

http://www.fys.uio.no/~magnushj/Piano/summary.html

http://www.festival-cannes.com/en/about.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palme_d'Or

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marty

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_dolce_vita

http://www.culturevulture.net/Movies/LaDolceVita.htm?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Piano

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secrets_%26_Lies

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Pianist_(2002_film)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_Polanski