CANNES FILM FESTIVAL 2006British Director Ken Loach wins the Palme d'Or at this 59th CANNES FILM FESTIVAL for The Wind That Shakes The Barley, presented outside the Palais last Sunday with all jury members and competition entrants present on the red carpet.
Emmanuelle Béart handed the the Palme d'Or to The Wind That Shakes The Barley, starring Cillian Murphy, by British Director Ken Loach. During the Award Ceremony, Ken Loach declared in French: "It's extraordinary, thank you very much! I've forgot all my French words now. It is a great honour for us to be here, because Cannes is the most wonderful cinema celebration in the world, it is the centre of cinema in the world, and the heart of cinema." Then, in English, he added: "We hope that our film represents a small step in the relationship which the British have with their imperialist past. If we dare to tell the truth about the past, perhaps we shall dare tell the truth about the present." Then, once more in French, he concluded: "Thank you to the Jury, thank you to Cannes, thank you to Thierry Frémaux and Gilles Jacob. It's a beautiful award. Thank you to my friends! We made this film together, this Prize isn't for me but for you all."
Added comments during the press conference following the ceremony:
"I feel stunned. We genuinely were not expecting this, but I'm really delighted for all the people who made the film... That this story has been recognized the way it has is extraordinary."
Awards for Best Screenplay and Best Actresses went to Spanish film Volver (Director Pedro Almodovar), starring Penelope Cruz, whilst our very own Andrea Arnold won the Jury prize for Red Road.
Award for Best Director went to Alejandro González Inarritu (21 Grams) for Babel, starring Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett and award for Best Actors went to Idigenes by Rachid Bouchareb.
The Palme d'Or du court métrage (2006) went to Bobbie Peers for his short film Sniffer.
Residing on the festival Jury this year were Actresses Helena Bonham Carter, Monica Bellucci and Zhang Ziyi, Actors Samuel L Jackson and Tim Roth, and Directors Elia Suleiman (Palestine), Patrice Leconte (France) and Lucrecia Martel (Argentina) alongside Jury President Wong Kar Wai.
Actors in Cannes for this 59th film festival included: Tom Hanks, Audrey Tautou, Sir Ian McKellen, Jean Reno, Halle Berry, Cate Blanchett, Juliette Binoche, Elijah Wood, Penélope Cruz, Hugh Jackman, Gaël Garcia Bernal, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Danny Glover, Ethan Hawke, Keanu Reeves, Robert Downey Jr, Hugh Jackman, Andy McDowell, Ashwarya Rai, Michael Madsen, Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson and Michelle Yeoh.
Also spotted on the Croisette: Sharon Stone, Billy Zane, Nick Rhodes, Eddie Izzard, Steve Coogan, Jade Goody, Paris Hilton, Justin Timberlake, Cinematographer Chris Doyle, Cillian Murphy, Gurinda Chadha, Vincent Cassell and Sideways director Alexander Payne.
For general event news, images and updates on the Cannes Film Festival outside of the films in competition, take a look at www.wysiwygfilms.com who were collecting video diaries from festival participants, WYSIWYG also won the 24 Hour Film Challenge with their 3 minute short Towel Talk, which was filmed within just 4 hours.
Saturday 27th May
As the 59th CANNES FILM FESTIVAL comes to an end, the Palme D'Or will be presented outside the Palais this Sunday evening with all jury members and competition entrants present on the red carpet. Films 'In Competition' this year include Ken Loach's The Wind That Shakes The Barley, Sofia Coppola's Maria Antoinette, Andrea Arnold's Red Road, Richard Kelly's Southland Tales, Richard Linklater's Fast Food Nation (he also has A Scanner Darkly featuring in the Un Certain Regard) and Pedro Almodover's Volver, which is tipped to win.
Thursday 25th May
After Fast Food Nation in the running for the Palme d'Or, American director Richard Linklater presents this time a second feature film, A Scanner Darkly, in the section Un Certain Regard. Adapted from Philip K. Dick's eponymous futuristic novel, the film uses a technique combining live takes and CGI imagery, thus conferring on it a unique visual aspect. Starring Keanu Reeves, Robert Downey Jr., Woody Harrelson and Winona Ryder, A Scanner Darkly takes place in the year 2013, in an America which combines the war against drugs with the war against terrorism. A policeman is forced to play the mole to spy on his friends, before receiving the order to spy on himself. He then begins an inexorable descent into the absurd and paranoia, where loyalties and identities become blurred.
"Being faithful to this book forced me to narrowly combine comedy and tragedy, a task appreciably more difficult in cinema than in literature," explains director Richard Linklater. "I wanted A Scanner Darkly to capture the humour and exuberance of the original book without sacrificing its sadness and tragic sound. It was certainly a challenge, but that's where the heart of the story lay."
Wednesday 24th May
With Marie Antoinette, director Sofia Coppola presents her first feature film in competition. This marks the third time that the American has seen one of her works screened at the Festival: in 1989, she was the screenwriter of one of the segments of New York Stories by her father Francis Ford, presented in Competition; and in 1999, she came with The Virgin Suicides to the Directors' Fortnight. For Marie Antoinette, she teams up once more with Kirsten Dunst, her star from The Virgin Suicides, to whom she confided the title role as the renowned wife of Louis XIV in a highly personal biography steeped in her own contemporary cultural tastes.
Sofia Coppola, who continues to portray isolated and misunderstood young women, on the tormented character of Marie Antoinette: "For me, Marie Antoinette has remained, first and foremost, the symbol of a totally decadent style. I didn't realise to what point these people, who were called upon to govern a country, were in point of fact no more than teenagers. Daily life in the Château de Versailles is also, for these adolescents, a form of apprenticeship set in a tense, difficult environment. It is this position and the complexity of the character of Marie Antoinette which interested me."
Tuesday 23rd May
For the first time in his career, Alejandro Gonzáles Iñárritu comes to present his feature film Babel, in competition, at the Festival de Cannes. Following the example of his previous two films, Love's a Bitch (2000) and 21 Grams (2004), the Mexican director adopts the narration of crossed destinies to deliver a snapshot of our troubled times.According to the Bible, Babel was a renowned tower built by mankind united together to attain Paradise. This enterprise provoked the wrath of God, who, to separate them, had each of the men involved speak a different language, thus putting an end to the project and spreading over the Earth a disorientated people incapable of communicating. In Morocco, a mere gunshot triggers off a series of events, which has disastrous or life-saving consequences, according to the protagonists involved.
"With Babel," explains Alejandro Gonzáles Iñárritu, "I wanted to explore the contradiction between the impression that the world has become quite small due to all the communication tools which we have, and the feeling that human beings are still incapable of expressing themselves and communicating amongst themselves on a fundamental level."
Following Charlie Says, Flanders is the second French film to compete for the Palme d'Or. Directed by Bruno Dumont, marking his third time at Cannes. This drama portrays a group of young men in northern France setting out as soldiers to fight a war in a distant country. Among them, there is Demester (Samuel Boidin), who has shared, until now, his life between his farm and strolls with Barbe (Adelaïde Leroux), his childhood sweetheart. But once on the front, he is going to discover camaraderie, barbarism and fear. As for Barbe, she is going to wilt away while awaiting the return of the soldiers.
As Bruno Dumont explains, whose film title refers back to his Scandinavian origins: "What counts for me is describing a story with images and sounds. The work of the director is close to that of the painter. Matisse wrote that what is important in a canvas isn't the subject but the arrangement of things around the subject, the proportion of things."
Monday 22nd May
X Men: The Last Stand had it's European premiere tonight in Cannes, presented out of competition, with it's official UK release this Thursday. Director Brett Ratner and cast Halle Berry, Sir Ian McKellen, Hugh Jackman and Patrick Stewart were all present.
"Bryan Singer," [director of the previous two episodes], in the words of Brett Ratner, "represented a kind of basic contract for me. I wanted to absolutely respect the tone and pursue the developments which he and the actors had created. Audiences had become attached to the characters and we had to remain faithful to them. My goal was to pursue what had been brilliantly commenced, and go even farther into our knowledge of the heroes and their emotions."
Sunday 21st May
The much-debated activist American filmmaker Oliver Stone had reserved for the festival a sneak peek at the first 20 minutes of his forthcoming film, World Trade Center, headed by an all-star cast: Nicolas Cage, Michael Pena, Maria Bello and Maggie Gyllenhaal. This evening festival-goers had the privilege of discovering the preview retracing a true story, that of two policemen trapped in the rubble of the renowned Twin Towers on that disastrous day of September 11th, 2001.
Richard Kelly's (Donnie Darko) Southland Tales, was presented in competition, making his Cannes debut. This futuristic film evokes the city of Los Angeles, fallen victim to a nuclear attack in 2008, a catastrophe of unimaginable proportions which precipitates America into war. In order to be able to respond to the fuel scarcity, the company USIDent designs a generator of inexhaustible energy which operates thanks to ocean currents. In this city on the brink of chaos, we follow the criss-crossed destinies of Boxer Santaros, action film (The Rock) actor stricken with amnesia; Krysta Now (Sarah Michelle Gellar), ex porno star in the midst of reconverting; and twin brothers Roland and Ronald Taverner (Sean William Scott), whose destinies becomes confused with that of all mankind.
"It's a comedy about the end of the world," explains Richard Kelly. "Southland Tales explores where our country is heading and our current dilemmas as concerns alternative energy and terrorism, as well as our civil liberties which are taken away from us one by one, or even the potential effects of the degradation of the environment on human behaviour, its neurological impact and consequences on global warming."
Also premiering tonight out of competition, following there previous Cannes films Shrek 1 and Shrek 2, was Dreamworks' latest animation Over The Hedge starring the voices of Bruce Willis, Nick Nolte, William Shatner and Thomas Haden Smith.
Actor Bruce Willis lends his voice to the racoon RJ, whom he defines as the animal equivalent of David Addison, the character he played several years ago in the TV series Moonlighting, "Young people will find tons of gags and funny details in this film, although its humour is mainly aimed at adults. There is a very solid speech on galloping consumerism and a look into human behaviour and society which will amuse, I think, everybody."
Saturday 20th May
The only film in competition to compete both for the Golden Palm and Golden Camera, Red Road marks the first visit to Cannes by British filmmaker Andrea Arnold. After three critically hailed shorts, including Wasp, which won the Oscar for Best Short in 2005, the director has made her first feature film. Actress Kate Dickie, making her screen debut, plays Jackie, owner of a video surveillance firm in charge of observing a minute portion of the world and protecting people who live out their lives under their very eyes. But one day, a man she knows and whom she never thought she'd see again, appears on her monitor. Now, she'll have to face him.
As explains Andrea Arnold, "normally, I'm used to writing stories about people I know and places I go. My challenge in taking part in Advance Party, was to use the characters and limit myself to the built-in restrictions of the project. I had to take them into account as a starting point, but I also wanted to draw up things which resonated deep within me, and I wanted to write a story which resembled me. Red Road is the result."
Friday 19th May
The third day of the festival was marked by a return in the Official Selection - seven years after All About My Mother, Prize for Best Director, and two years after Bad Education - of Pedro Almodóvar, who came to present in competition Volver. In this film, starring Penelop Cruz, the Spanish director looks back to his roots and draws the portrait of three generations of women confronted by madness, lies, superstition and even death.
Pedro Almodóvar on the theme of his new film: "I have the impression, and I hope that it isn't just a temporary one, that I managed to fit in a missing piece (whose absence, throughout my life, has brought me great suffering and anxiety, I would even say that over recent years it has poisoned my existence, by outrageously over-dramatising it). This element of which I speak is "death", not only mine and that of the beings that I love, but the inevitable disappearance of all which is alive. I was never able to accept or understand it. And it provokes a state of anxiety before the ever faster flight of time."
With Fast Food Nation, presented in the Official Selection in competition, young American director Richard Linklater makes his first appearance at the festival - he will return on Thursday, May 25th to present A Scanner Darkly in the section Un Certain Regard. Adapted from Eric Schlosser's eponymous best-seller, Fast Food Nation, starring Ethan Hawke, Patricia Arquette and Bruce Willis, casts a critical eye on fast food in the United States through the destinies of three characters: a marketing executive of a fast food chain, an employee of the same chain, and a clandestine immigrant working at the slaughterhouse.
Thursday 18th May
A frequent name on the Croisette with a mere dozen films having been presented, in competition, Ken Loach is back with The Wind that Shakes the Barley, a drama featuring the internationally-acclaimed Cillian Murphy. The British film director takes a historical path once again and this time looks into the Irish War of Independence, which he already evoked in the police story Hidden Agenda. Ken Loach is a noted observer of real situations and this film takes us back to the heart of the Irish Revolution which started in 1916 and became a civil war by 1920. With the war as its context, the film focuses on two brothers, Damian (Cillian Murphy), who gives up a career as a doctor for the love of his country, and Teddy (Pádraic Delaney), who plunges wholeheartedly into the fight for liberty against the British occupiers. Their combat will take a heavy toll on their own relationship.
"I wouldn't call this an anti-British film," said Ken Loach. "I'd encourage people to see their loyalties horizontally across national boundaries, so that this isn't a film about the Brits bashing the Irish. People have much more in common with people in the same social position in other countries than they do with, say, those at the top of their own society. You can argue that we have a responsibility to attack the mistakes and brutalities of our leaders, past and present. Far from being unpatriotic it is a duty we cannot ignore."
The section Un Certain Regard opened today with the collective work Paris, je t'aime. Made up of 18 shorts inspired by 18 Parisian districts, the film speaks of romantic encounters taking place in various spots of the capital. Each short, running five minutes, bears the hallmark of great international filmmakers including Gus Van Sant, Walter Salles, the Coen brothers, Gurinda Chadha, Wes Craven and Gérard Depardieu. In the credits of this atypical collective film, celebrating both love and the art of cinema, appear the names of actors Natalie Portman, Elijah Wood, Willem Dafoe, Steve Buscemi and Catherine Deneuve.
Wednesday 17th May
The Cannes Film Festival officially opened Wednesday 17th May with Ron Howard and the crew of the film The Da Vinci Code making the first walk up the Red Carpet of this 59th edition. For the presentation of his fourth feature film out of competition, the American director was accompanied by producer Brian Grazer, novelist Dan Brown as well as stars Tom Hanks, Audrey Tautou, Jean Reno, Paul Bettany, Alfred Molina, Ian McKellen and Jean-Pierre Marielle.The entire Jury, led by its President Wong Kar Wai, proceeded up the Red Carpet, with, by his side, actors Samuel L. Jackson, Zhang Ziyi, Monica Bellucci, Helena Bonham Carter and Tim Roth, as well as directors Patrice Leconte, Lucrecia Martel and Elia Suleiman.
Tuesday 16th May
LONDON WATERLOO - Eurostar Chairman Guillaume Pepy, director Ron Howard and stars Audrey Tautou and Tom Hanks unveil the naming of a Eurostar train after Columbia Pictures The Da Vinci Code, which makes its world premiere when it opens the 59th Annual Cannes Film Festival on May 17.
Tom Hanks, Audrey Tautou, Sir Ian McKellen, Jean Reno, Paul Bettany, Director Ron Howard and Dan Brown were all at Waterloo Eurostar this morning to set off on a record breaking 7 and a half hour journey, along with members of the press, on Eurostar for the world premiere of the long awaited THE DA VINCI CODE, which is taking place tommorrow night at the CANNES FILM FESTIVAL, followed by a state-of-the-art party event. The Eurostar event marked the launch of a train which is to be named after the film - THE DA VINCI CODE. In this special ceremony, the cast of The Da Vinci Code will name a Eurostar train The Da Vinci Code the Eurostar will then attempt a new world record for the longest international non-stop journey.It will be the first time that a Eurostar train - which normally operates between London, Paris and Brussels - takes travellers from London to Cannes.
THE DA VINCI CODE will open this years CANNES FILM FESTIVAL on Wednesday 17th May 2006. Shot extensively across London last year and at Pinewood studios the long awaited film adaptation of Dan Brown's best-seller will then open in London on 19th May. Paul Greengrass' UNITED 93 is also screening at Cannes as part of the official selevtion. Brit Writer/Director Andrea Arnold has also been selected with her first feature RED ROAD, following her Oscar winning short. Wasp, just her third production ever, was funded by the National Lottery through the UK Film Council.
Residing on the festival Jury this year are Actresses
Helena Bonham Carter,
Monica Bellucci and
Zhang Ziyi, Actors
Samuel L Jackson and
Tim Roth, and Directors
Elia Suleiman (Palestine),
Patrice Leconte (France) and
Lucrecia Martel (Argentina).
