The Tree of Life wins Palme d'Or at 2011 Cannes

Jury President Robert de Niro (L) shakes hands with producer Bill Pohlad (R) who receives the Palme d'Or award for the film ''The Tree of Life'', by director Terrence Malick, as they pose with Camera d'Or award winner director Pablo Giorgelli (2nd L) during the closing ceremony of the 64th Cannes Film Festival, May 22, 2011.
Credit: Reuters/Eric Gaillard.

Sunday evening, American director Terrence Malick’s The Tree of Life won the prestigious Palme d’Or of the 64th Cannes Film Festival.

Provocative Danish director Lars Von Trier who was banned from the Cannes for his controversial comments that portrayed him as an apologist of Adolf Hitler’s Nazi proved that he could not be ignored as his apocalyptic film "Melancholia" got the Best Actress award for American actress Kirsten Dunst.


CANNES, FRANCE – MAY 22: Actress Kirsten Dunst accepts her award for Best Actress at the Closing Ceremony at the Palais des Festivals during the 64th Cannes Film Festival on May 22, 2011 in Cannes, France. (Photo by Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images)

"What a week! My thanks to the Jury, this is a real honour. I'm grateful to the Festival for keeping the film in Competition. And I'm grateful to Lars Von Trier for letting me play the role with such freedom.," said the excited Kirsten Dunst who is famous for her romantic role of Mary Jane Watson the girlfriend and later wife of Peter Parker, the alter ego of Spider-Man in the Spider-Man trilogy.

The Films of Terrence Malick (MOMI, May 13-15) from Matt Zoller Seitz on Vimeo.

This is Malick’s fifth feature, starring Brad Pitt, Sean Penn and Jessica Chastain. The film story centers around a family with three boys in the 1950s. The eldest son witnesses the loss of innocence.

SYNOPSIS
The Tree of Life is the impressionistic story of a Midwestern family in the 1950's. The film follows the life journey of the eldest son, Jack, through the innocence of childhood to his disillusioned adult years as he tries to reconcile a complicated relationship with his father. Jack finds himself a lost soul in the modern world, seeking answers to the origins and meaning of life while questioning the existence of faith.

FEATURE FILMS

• 
  

  Palme d'Or

  
  THE TREE OF LIFE directed by Terrence MALICK


• 
  

  Grand Prix Ex-aequo

  
  BIR ZAMANLAR ANADOLU'DA (ONCE UPON A TIME IN ANATOLIA) directed by Nuri Bilge CEYLAN


• LE GAMIN AU VÉLO (THE KID WITH A BIKE) directed by Jean-Pierre et Luc DARDENNE


• 
  

  Award for Best Director

  
  Nicolas WINDING REFN for DRIVE


• 
  

  Award for Best Screenplay

  
  Joseph CEDAR for HEARAT SHULAYIM (Footnote)


• 
  

  Award for Best Actress

  
  Kirsten DUNST in MELANCHOLIA directed by Lars VON TRIER


• 
  

  Award for Best Actor

  
  Jean DUJARDIN in THE ARTIST directed by Michel HAZANAVICIUS


• 
  

  Jury Prize

  
  POLISSE (POLISS) directed by MAÏWENN


• 
  

  Vulcain Prize for an artist technician, awarded by the C.S.T.

  
  LA PIEL QUE HABITO (THE SKIN I LIVE IN) directed by José Luis ALCAINE


• 
  

  Special Distinction by the C.S.T.

  
  WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN directed by Paul DAVIES, Joe BINI

SHORT FILMS

• 
  

  Palme d'Or - Short Film

  
  CROSS (CROSS - COUNTRY) directed by Maryna VRODA


• 
  

  Jury Prize - Short Film

  
  BADPAKJE 46 (SWIMSUIT 46) directed by Wannes DESTOOP

• Prize of Un Certain Regard Ex-aequo
ARIRANG directed by KIM Ki-Duk

• HALT AUF FREIER STRECKE (STOPPED ON TRACK) directed by Andreas DRESEN

• Un Certain Regard Special Jury Prize
ELENA directed by Andrey ZVYAGINTSEV

• Directing Prize of Un Certain Regard
BÉ OMID É DIDAR directed by Mohammad RASOULOF

CINEFONDATION :

• 1st Prize Cinéfondation
DER BRIEF (THE LETTER) directed by Doroteya DROUMEVA

• 2nd Prize - Cinéfondation
DRARI directed by Kamal LAZRAQ

• 3rd Prize Cinéfondation
YA-GAN-BI-HANG (FLY BY NIGHT) directed by SON Tae-gyum

The Jury
Robert De Niro
President of the Jury
•
Olivier ASSAYAS
Director
•
Martina GUSMAN
•
Mahamat-Saleh HAROUN
Director
•
Jude LAW
•
Nansun SHI
•
Uma THURMAN
Actress
•
Johnnie TO
Director
•
Linn ULLMANN


~ Ekenyerengozi Michael Chima

Lars von Trier says 'I'm a Nazi' and rattles Cannes

Cannes boots von Trier for Hitler comments

Cannes festival reacts to Danish director's strange remarks about Nazis by declaring him 'persona non grata.'

Copyright (c) CBC 2011


Lars von Trier

Cannes, please revoke the ban on Lars von Trier

The controversial Danish film director and screenwriter Lars von Trier is well known for his provocative art films such as the horrifying Gothic and pornographic Antichrist that also shocked audiences at the 62nd Cannes Film Festival in 2009. Therefore, when it was reported that he has rattled the organizers of the festival at the Wednesday press parley before the premiere of his apocalyptic science fiction film Melancholia at the 64th Cannes Film Festival, I was not surprised, because it is his signature for grabbing headlines. The organizers should have ignored his “I’M A NAZI” joke and claiming to understand Adolf Hitler. He has done it again and got the whole paparazzi going gaga over his unsavoury act. And then apologized after getting the attention for his his new film. Lars von Trier's shocking allusion to Adolf Hitler is another deliberate kind of deus ex machina and it has attracted the attention of the global village.

"I am not anti-Semitic or racially prejudiced in any way, nor am I a Nazi," Lars von Trier said.
"I really wanted to be a Jew, and then I found out that I was really a Nazi, because, you know, my family was German," von Trier said. "Which also gave me some pleasure."

"What can I say? I understand Hitler, but I think he did some wrong things, yes, absolutely. But I can see him sitting in his bunker in the end," von Trier said. "He's not what you would call a good guy, but I understand much about him, and I sympathize with him a little bit. But come on, I'm not for the Second World War, and I'm not against Jews."

Declaring him "persona non grata" and banning him from future Cannes is UNFAIR and HYPOCRITICAL!

Hello Festival de Cannes! What happened to Freedom of Expression or Free Speech which is clearly defined and stated in Articles 18 and 19 of the United Nations' Universal Declaration of Human Rights Charter

Article 18.
Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance.

Article 19.
Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.

Please, the Cannes Film Festival should revoke the ban on this extraordinary radical Danish filmmaker and screenwriter, because it is reactionary and retrogressive in the further development of film-making as an art and a democratic vehicle for intellectual freedom.

~ By Ekenyerengozi Michael Chima

Did You See Lars von Trier's 'Antichrist'?

I do not know if the accredited Nigerian journalists at the 62nd Cannes Film Festival were at the screening of Lars von Trier's 'Antichrist' that is already competing for this year's Palme d'Or, because none of them has even mentioned it to me, while the film is currently the buzz of the moment at Cannes.
Of course it an art film and it generated the mixed reactions the director expected.