Michael Haneke is one of a few film directors who has won the highest award at the Cannes Film Festival twice. In 2009, the Palme d’Or was awarded to Haneke’s drama White Ribbon and on May 27 this year the jury presided by Nani Moretti announced his film Amour the best. Up until today, only the following film makers were as successful as Haneke: Francis Ford Coppola (US), Bille August (Denmark), Emir Kusturica (Serbia), Shohei Imamura (Japan), and the Dardenne brothers (Belgium).
The leading roles in Amour were performed by Jean-Louis Trintignant, Emmanuelle Riva, and Isabelle Huppert. Famous French piano player Alexandre Tharaud also starred in the film. For Riva (now aged 85) and Trintignant (aged 82), once world wide known (Riva – after starring in the genius film of the “New Wave” Hiroshima, Mon Amour, Trintignant – after the title role in A Man and a Woman) and now half-forgotten, Amour became a real revival. Haneke manages to shock customary to anything Cannes. In 1997 his extremely violent Funny Games caused a great scandal, in 2001 his The Piano Teacher won Cannes Grand Prix, and the leading actress in this film Isabelle Huppert won the Best Actress award. The title of the film, Amour, in fact, corresponds to the main plot: senior married couple lives in seclusion. Riva played a paralyzed music teacher Anne, who is shattered with stroke, Trintignant plays her husband George, who remains with Anne until the end. The film made a great impression on press and immediately proved to be a favorite among film critics according to the polls.
Grand Prix of the festival, to the displeasure of the audience, was awarded to Reality by Italian film director Matteo Garrone. It is a tragicomedy about a man who was so obsessed with TV shows, that at some point he began to live in an imaginary world. The observers considered equally controversial the awarding of the Prize for Best Director to Carlos Reygadas (Mexico) for Post Tenebras Lux shot in the highly experimental way. However, the 65th Cannes Film Festival just proved that new Latin America cinema is worth of special attention: the winner of the “Un Certain Regard” – the second largest program of the Cannes Film Festival, has become a Mexican film director Michel Franco for the family drama After Lucia.
Other directors – winners of Palme d’Or – were not left without encouraging. Jury Prize was awarded to the comedy The Angels’ Share by the master of social films Ken Loach (Great Britain, won Palme d’Or in 2006 for the film The Wind that Shakes the Barley). The film was shot in Glasgow with nonprofessional actors. At the same time, Romanian film director Cristian Mungiu (sensationally won Palme d’Or in 2007 with his drama 4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days) received the Award for the Best Screenplay for his new film Beyond the Hills, while Cosmina Stratan and Cristina Flutur who played the title roles in this film were awarded as the best actresses. Jury named Mads Mikkelsen the Best Actor for his role in the film The Hunt by Dane Thomas Vinterberg, a friend and colleague of Lars von Trier. Finally, the Cannes Camera d’Or for the best debut was awarded to Ben Zeitlin for his Beasts Of the Southern Wild.
It is especially delightful to see Serhii Loznytsia among the winners of the festival. He studied and lived for many years in Kyiv. His debut film My Joy was filmed in Ukraine. The new film – Belarusian-Russian-German production In the Fog is an adaptation of the story written by Vasilii Bykov and was awarded the prize of the International Federation of Film Press FIPRESCI. We can only hope that his next film about the tragedy of Babyn Yar, Loznytsia will make again in cooperation with Ukraine.
