Mine, all mine:
Director Cristian Mingiu holds the award for Palm D'Or, the top prize at the
60th Cannes Film Festival, for his film from Romania, "4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2
Days" (aka 4 Luni, 3 Saptamini Si 2 Zile") last night in Cannes, France.
(AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)
Last night in Cannes, the 60th edition
of the world's largest and most prestigious film festival closed its curtains on
a night of big prize winners, highlighted by the gritty and unsettling "4
Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days", winning the Palm D'Or, the top prize. The film,
a small-budget, realistic film from Romania about the lengths to which a woman
has to go to ensure that her best friend obtains an illegal abortion during the
last days of the Ceaucescu dictatorship in the 1980's gripped the attention of
the Cannes jury and never let go. Cristian Mingiu's film beat 21 others in
competition for the most coveted prize.
Naomi Kawase's film, "Mogari No Mori" ("The Mourning Forest") from Japan, took
home the grand prize, or second place. The film is about two people in a
retirement home grappling with their emotions in the wake of personal loss.
Julian Schnabel, the art painter and film director from the U.S., won the best
director prize for his film "The Diving Bell and The Butterfly", which is in the
French language. The film is based on a French magazine editor's memoir.
The editor learned to write again by blinking one eyelid, after a stroke that
had left him paralyzed.
American director Gus Van Sant continued his good run at Cannes as he received
the special prize for his film "Paranoid Park", about a young skateboarder whose
life takes a wrong turn after he accidentally kills a security guard. Four
years ago Van Sant won the Palm D'Or for "Elephant".
This year, the jury prize was split between two films: "Persepolis" directed by
Marjane's Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud and "Stellet Licht" (Silent Light)
directed by Carlos Reygadas. "Persepolis" is based on Ms. Satrapi's own
graphic novel of coming of age during the Islamic Revolution in Iran in the late
1970's, while Mr. Reygadas' film is about a taboo love between Mennonite farmers
in northern Mexico.
Another film dealing with abortion came away with a prize, this time for acting.
Russia's Konstantin Lavroneko won best actor for "The Banishment", a drama, also
from that country, about an unexpected pregnancy that severely strains a
marriage. Best actress honors were bestowed upon Jeon Do-yeon from South
Korea, in her role as a widow grappling with the recent death of her husband in
"Secret Sunshine". Fatih Akin won best screenplay for "The Edge Of Heaven"
a film from Germany and Turkey, which the writer also directed, which focused on
loss and forgiveness across cultures.
Finally, Romania's Cristian Nemescu, who was killed in a car crash in 2006 at
the tender age of 27, was posthumously honored for his incomplete film
"California Dreamin'" with the "Un Certain Regard" award. The film was about
American soldiers inhabiting a village in Romania.
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