MalahatTwo7
05-22-2004, 06:27 PM
Ya me too Michael. :) Don't ask why, but for some reason I figured this would happen... :( I always thought the Cannes Festival was for up and coming film makers and producers. I guess it was the only place where (ahmem) Mr Moore could get a showing.
Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11 wins top honour at Cannes Film Festival
DAVID GERMAIN Canadian Press Saturday, May 22, 2004
American director Michael Moore poses with the Palme d'Or awarded for the film "Fahrenheit 911". (AP/Michel Euler)
CREDIT: (AP/Michel Euler)
CANNES, France (AP) - American filmmaker Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11, a scathing indictment of White House actions after the Sept. 11 attacks, won the top prize Saturday at the Cannes Film Festival.
Fahrenheit 9/11 was the first documentary to win Cannes' prestigious Palme d'Or since Jacques Cousteau's The Silent World in 1956.
"What have you done? I'm completely overwhelmed by this. Merci," Moore said after getting a standing ovation from the Cannes crowd.
Fahrenheit 9/11 won the top award from sharply divided Cannes moviegoers, who found a solid crop of good movies among the 19 entries in the festival's main competition but no great ones that rose to front-runner status.
While Fahrenheit 9/11 was well-received by Cannes audiences, many critics felt it was inferior to Moore's Academy Award-winning documentary Bowling for Columbine, which earned him a special prize at Cannes in 2002.
Some critics speculated that if Fahrenheit 9/11 won the top prize, it would be more for the film's politics than its cinematic value.
With Moore's customary blend of humour and horror, Fahrenheit 9/11 accuses the George W. Bush's camp of stealing the 2000 election, overlooking terrorism warnings before Sept. 11, 2001, and fanning fears of more attacks to secure Americans' support for the Iraq war.
Moore appears on-screen far less in Fahrenheit 9/11 than in Bowling for Columbine or his other documentaries. The film relies largely on interviews, footage of U.S. soldiers and war victims in Iraq, and archival footage of Bush.
The best-actress award went to Maggie Cheung for her role in Clean as a junkie trying to straighten out her life and regain custody of her young son after her rock-star boyfriend dies of a drug overdose.
Fourteen-year-old Yagira Yuuya was named best actor for the Japanese film Nobody Knows, in which he plays the eldest of four sibling raised in isolation, who must take charge of the family when their mother leaves.
The directing and writing prizes went to French filmmakers. Tony Gatlif won the directing honour for Exiles, his road-trip about a couple on a sensual journey from France to Algeria.
Agnes Jaoui and her romantic partner, Jean-Pierre Bacri, won the screenplay award for Look at Me, their study in self-image centring on an overweight young woman who feels neglected by loved ones. Jaoui and Bacri also co-star.
Thai director Apichatpong Weerasethakul's Tropical Malady - widely regarded by Cannes audiences as a snoozer for its elongated scenes of a man wandering a jungle alone, with no dialogue - won the festival's third-place jury prize.
Another jury prize went to Irma P. Hall for her role as an elderly Southern woman who foils a casino robbery in the Coen brothers' crime comedy The Ladykillers, starring Tom Hanks as the heist's ringleader.
Keren Yedaya's Or, about a Tel Aviv prostitute in failing health and her teenage daughter, won the Golden Camera award for best film by a first-time director. The U.S.-born Yedaya, who grew up in Israel, gives lectures about the problems of prostitution for government officials and mental-health professionals.
© Copyright 2004 The Canadian Press
Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11 wins top honour at Cannes Film Festival
DAVID GERMAIN Canadian Press Saturday, May 22, 2004
American director Michael Moore poses with the Palme d'Or awarded for the film "Fahrenheit 911". (AP/Michel Euler)
CREDIT: (AP/Michel Euler)
CANNES, France (AP) - American filmmaker Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11, a scathing indictment of White House actions after the Sept. 11 attacks, won the top prize Saturday at the Cannes Film Festival.
Fahrenheit 9/11 was the first documentary to win Cannes' prestigious Palme d'Or since Jacques Cousteau's The Silent World in 1956.
"What have you done? I'm completely overwhelmed by this. Merci," Moore said after getting a standing ovation from the Cannes crowd.
Fahrenheit 9/11 won the top award from sharply divided Cannes moviegoers, who found a solid crop of good movies among the 19 entries in the festival's main competition but no great ones that rose to front-runner status.
While Fahrenheit 9/11 was well-received by Cannes audiences, many critics felt it was inferior to Moore's Academy Award-winning documentary Bowling for Columbine, which earned him a special prize at Cannes in 2002.
Some critics speculated that if Fahrenheit 9/11 won the top prize, it would be more for the film's politics than its cinematic value.
With Moore's customary blend of humour and horror, Fahrenheit 9/11 accuses the George W. Bush's camp of stealing the 2000 election, overlooking terrorism warnings before Sept. 11, 2001, and fanning fears of more attacks to secure Americans' support for the Iraq war.
Moore appears on-screen far less in Fahrenheit 9/11 than in Bowling for Columbine or his other documentaries. The film relies largely on interviews, footage of U.S. soldiers and war victims in Iraq, and archival footage of Bush.
The best-actress award went to Maggie Cheung for her role in Clean as a junkie trying to straighten out her life and regain custody of her young son after her rock-star boyfriend dies of a drug overdose.
Fourteen-year-old Yagira Yuuya was named best actor for the Japanese film Nobody Knows, in which he plays the eldest of four sibling raised in isolation, who must take charge of the family when their mother leaves.
The directing and writing prizes went to French filmmakers. Tony Gatlif won the directing honour for Exiles, his road-trip about a couple on a sensual journey from France to Algeria.
Agnes Jaoui and her romantic partner, Jean-Pierre Bacri, won the screenplay award for Look at Me, their study in self-image centring on an overweight young woman who feels neglected by loved ones. Jaoui and Bacri also co-star.
Thai director Apichatpong Weerasethakul's Tropical Malady - widely regarded by Cannes audiences as a snoozer for its elongated scenes of a man wandering a jungle alone, with no dialogue - won the festival's third-place jury prize.
Another jury prize went to Irma P. Hall for her role as an elderly Southern woman who foils a casino robbery in the Coen brothers' crime comedy The Ladykillers, starring Tom Hanks as the heist's ringleader.
Keren Yedaya's Or, about a Tel Aviv prostitute in failing health and her teenage daughter, won the Golden Camera award for best film by a first-time director. The U.S.-born Yedaya, who grew up in Israel, gives lectures about the problems of prostitution for government officials and mental-health professionals.
© Copyright 2004 The Canadian Press