Palme d'Or

 Asian cinema tonight emerged as the surprise winner of this year’s Cannes film festival when a lyrically beautiful and often surreal Thai movie took the Palme d’Or. Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives. It is the first Asian Palme d’Or winner since Kiarostami shared it with Japanese film maker Shohei Imamura in 1997.

While young Quebec filmmaker Xavier Dolan (Les amours Imaginaires) didn’t leave Cannes empty handed, he accepted the “Regards jeunes” prize on Saturday awarded by a European jury of seven young cinephiles. Also the actor to beat was Javier Bardem and as the saying goes if you can’t beat him join him - Elio Germano did just that in sharing the title of best actor.

Here are the winners from the films Offically Selected “In Competition”

Palme d’Or (Golden Palm): “Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives” by Apichatpong Weerasethakul (Thailand)

Grand Prize:“Of Gods and Men” by Xavier Beauvois (France)

Jury Prize:“A Screaming Man” by Mahamat-Saleh Haroun (Chad)

Best Actor:Javier Bardem, “Biutiful” (Mexico) and Elio Germano, “La Nostra Vita” (Italy)

Best Director:Mathieu Amalric for “On Tour” (France)

Best Actress:Juliette Binoche, “Certified Copy” (Iran)

Best Screenplay: Lee Chang-Dong, “Poetry” (Korea)

Camera d’Or (first-time director): “Ano Bisiesto” by Michael Rowe (Mexico)

Congratulations to all and I’m already looking forward to next year!

The water is a bit cold at first but once you jump in ..its all good.

I took a train to Paris on Saturday night. As I sat in the train I couldn’t stop thinking of that now memorable scene from last year’s in competition film “Inglorious Bastard”. Its the opening scene where the Nazi general enjoys a fresh glass of milk at a little farm house in the french country side. The view from my train window is beautiful and  suddenly I felt the urge to stop have a glass of milk as well. Perhaps next time.

Its day 11 of the festival and decided to take it easy. I woke up late missing the daily hotel buffet breakfast. Called my sister’s room and I invited her to the beach. She had  just finishing packing for Paris. It’s was our last day in Cannes. The sun was shinning and there was no film in particular to see.

In has been a lack luster festival when it came to films. Among my meetings and reception/parties there wasn’t much to choose from. I wasn’t always lucky with scheduling there was always a conflict with my selections or the festival schedule was incorrect an unmistakable first that I can recall. However bearing that in mind I had to select films from the market or the festival day after screening schedule which sometimes turned into a mad frenzy – example Biutiful. The awards ceremony will take place on Sunday night. I’ve had little luck in seeing the film that wins Palme d’Or and this year might be the same.

So a day at the beach was a great idea. There wasn’t a chance I would be disappointed in what I’ will see. After all the French are never shy about their body. And they were plenty of topless French beauties to the left and to the right.

After the beach, we had lunch and made a dash to the train station only to be confronted with a huge group of Parisians with the same idea – “time to vacate Cannes”

So with my sister sitting next to me we bullet across the French countryside to a welcoming and exciting city which has been said for decades is full of romance and culture. With Moulin Rouge in mind I wonder which one of us will find romance among the culture. Stay tune….

There are times when a person should let themselves go and enjoy the moment instead of controlling the situation. I had two such moments in Cannes. The first came when I was watching Xavier Dolan’s film “Les Amours Imaginaires (May 15^th) – loosely translated… as Heartbeats”. I decided to let myself go about 10 minutes into the film. In those first 10 minutes I was cautious which led me to think that I was going to see a typical Canadian film. But what is a typical Canadian film…really? I’m sure I can’t explain it and neither can anyone for that matter but upon hearing that a film was produced in Canada we begin to wonder about it merit. I believe Canadian films can be quite director driven so I would say it’s more or less a plea from within not to disappoint in the story rather the director style or message has to convey. This however is not the case with 21 year old Quebec resident Xavier Dolan who wrote, acted and directed the film. It’s far from a typical Canadian film…its Quebecois!

 I had mentioned this film before in a previous blog entry but I never gave the premise for the story or why I liked this film. This unusual story is set in Montreal – it’s about two friends, one female, one male, who both fall in love with the same guy, both attempting to woo him. It’s a beautiful film with a very contemporary story. Highly stylized and it is complimented with a wicked soundtrack. At 21 years old Dolan has a great future ahead of him. This is his second film to be played along the famous Croisette. His first was “I Killed My Mother” in 2009.

My second moment took place as I was sitting on the floor of the Salle Bunuel watching “Biutiful” by Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu (21 Grams, Babel) (May 18^th). Yes – that’s correct I was on the floor because once word got out after the first day of screening of Biutiful everyone wanted to see it. Aside from any major fire violations been broken most people were pleased to sit on the floor for the second and only Cannes screening. Having made it pass the cut off point myself I was overjoyed despite my fatigue.

It was a 300 seat theatre with 600 people wanting entry. So here I was on a night that I felt I needed a second wind to make it through the festival standing in line tired, hot and felt very uncomfortable. However at that moment it didn’t occur to me that the interest in this film could be compared to that of Twilight or some other popular cultured films yet this was not a public event it was all professionals… my peers – waiting for more than 2 hours in line just to see a film from their favorite director.

The love of film is what drives us!   

The film itself, although very sad and quite the conventional festival film. Biutiful is a film your either going to love or hate. The story of Uxbal (Javier Bardem) who sort of deals outside-of-the-law in Barcelona. He helps a group of Chinese immigrants work illegal jobs that pay under the table which provides knock-off products so that Senegalese immigrants then can sell them illegally on the streets. Uxbal doesn’t deal in drugs anymore, but that was once part of his past life. His wife is a prostitute with bipolar disorder and he has two children whom he loves very much. Mateo, his son is very cute and delivers a memorable performance at the dinner table. But Uxbal soon discovers that he may not be alive much longer and we’re taken on an emotional journey after he learns that news.

Director: Alejandro Gonzales Inarritu & Javier Bardem

One thing I can say for sure sitting in the aisle on the floor of a prestigious festival was a first for me but it was also a reminder of how films can unite us. It relieves us from the individual experience and brings the communal familiarity in cinematic entertaining through the love of a film. Tired or not I think all 325 people were all thankfully for the experience.

Last night (May 16^th) I climbed the grand staircase of the Lumiere theatre to watch Mahamat-Saleh Horoun’s “Un Homme Qui Crie –A Screaming Man”. It’s a very simple story. It centres around Adam (played by veteran actor Youssourf Djaoro), a former swimming champion in his early sixties who is now a pool attendant in a small hotel in Chad. He has a twenty something son Abdel who works along with him at the pool but with the war at the city gates and serious economic cut back only one of the two could keep their position in the aquatic dept. Because of this situation bad blood develops between father and son leaving us to examine the Oedipus complex.

Un Homme Qui Crie –A Screaming Man is the first Africa film to be screened in competition in the last 10 years of the festival. Which explain the long standing ovation that the director and cast received before the screening of the film. It was equally touching after the film during the second standing ovation when the camera captures tears streaming down the face of Youssourf Djaorot. It was a very conventional film for Cannes. It captured the look and feel of an art house film. However, as pride also began to fill me one question came to mind – are the 2300 people in attendance tonight be the only audience that will appreciate this film?

"Carancho" director Pablo Trapero and Kirk Cooper

However tonight (May 17^th) on the other side of the Palais in the Debussy Theatre a different film was shown. The film is called Carancho and it was selected in the Un Certain Regard section. I almost missed this film if it wasn’t for a meeting I had earlier at the Canada pavilion and later running into the same colleague heading to the film.

Carancho is from Argentina and is directed by Pablo Trapero (Familla Rodante- 2004). Sosa (Ricardo Darin) is unlicensed lawyer who lurks around the emergence rooms for clients. He meets Lujan (Martina Gusman) and they fall for each other but Lujan ends up too deep in the black market world of Sosa where bodies are the best form of currency. (trailer in Spanish below)

This by far has become one of my favourite film at the festival including Xavier Dolan – “Heartbeats”. Here is why. It was not predictable in the telling of the story nor did it fail to deliver a great performance by both Darin and Gusman. The director was successful in bringing together horrific accident scenes in the editing room that made the film seamless. I think it was design and certainly no accident that I end my night watching Carancho after a long day of meetings with the same colleague that I had a met with earlier for business. Strange as it may seem that just one of the many things that happens here in Cannes.

TIFF reception, Plages des Palmes

Time is something one should treasure while you are in Cannes. It can slip by you so quickly. Take for example the time I went to bed on Thursday  -4am - I awoke up on Friday morning at 11am. I was supposed to sleep only 4hours but that turned into a full 7 hours sleep which threw off my schedule completely. I agree that a good night sleep would make a person more efficient under the conditions of cannes but with so much happening each hour it would be a shame to sleeping through any of it.

Finally, when I did wake, I found out that the breakfast buffet at the hotel had ended leaving very little options. I had Hong Kong dim sum reception at noon followed by my first in Competition film of the fest “Chongqing Blues”. But before the movie could end I had slip out to attend a meeting back at the Canada pavilion with a company from the U.K. Directly after that meeting I had to attend the TIFF reception which so far has been the highlight of all my receptions. The invited guest varied among the international community. I had many delightful conversation with some old friends and I also made some new ones while I packed my stomach of mini cheese puffs - my first meal for the day.

This wasn’t just a typical reception.  It was TIFF’s way of announcing to the international community the opening of the brand new home for the festival, Bell Lightbox.  Piers Handling, Director and CEO of the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF)  made the announcement, stating that TIFF Bell Lightbox will open its doors to the public on September 12, 2010.

FMA Kirk Cooper, Jesse Wente Bell Lightbox programmer, Sugith Varughese FMA client

TIFF’s programming in TIFF Bell Lightbox will give context to films through innovative cross-media exhibitions, lectures, and film-related learning opportunities for all ages. The year-round programming in TIFF Bell Lightbox is being driven by Noah Cowan, Artistic Director, TIFF Bell Lightbox and his programming team, including aboriginal programmer Jesse Wente. To date, two significant programming initiatives have been announced for 2010: Essential Cinema, a TIFF-curated film and exhibition programme, and Tim Burton, the highly successful MoMA exhibit.

At such an impressive festival, TIFF held its own among the international community’s various efforts to bring a spotlight to their individual country’s achievements.  I couldn’t have been prouder to be a Canadian today.  I look forward to seeing YOU at TIFF in September!

Zaheer, Tennile, Charles, Sugith, Nick at Cannes 2010

by Kirk Cooper