So much for Steven Soderbergh’s “Che,” Jury head Sean Penn’s supposed biased lefty leanings and Clint Eastwood’s “The Changeling/I’m Not Really Sure What I’m Called, or The Exchange,” the 2008 Cannes top honor went to the French classroom film, “Entre les Murs” (“The Class”), directed by Laurent Cantet.
Prior to Sunday’s (May 25) award announcement, pundit speculation was predicting that Penn – the governor of the Cannes 2008 tribune – would campaign the jury to award the Palme d’Or to either Soderbergh’s four-hour two-part biopic of Che Guevara because of his sympathetic pinko predilections, or Eastwood’s Change, err ‘Exchange,’ because the actor had worked with him before (“Mystic River”) and because the Dirty Harry director had never been awarded with the top prize all these years (and because ‘Exchange’ was one of the few American films that was unanimously liked by the notoriously picky Cannes crowd).
But, nope, all these predictions were off the mark. “Entre Les Murs” win shouldn’t be that much of a surprise though considering that when it screened on the closing night of the festival, critics and audiences were overjoyed to find a film that lifted the week’s gloomy mood after much tepid fare before it. On Saturday (May 24), Reuters wrote that ‘Murs’ “earned one of the warmest receptions” at the film fete. The film won its victory with a unanimous vote from all nine members of the jury (which included Natalie Portman, Alfonso Cuaron, Alexandra Maria Lara and “Persepolis” scribe Marjane Satrap).
Best director went to Turkish filmmaker Nuri Bilge Ceylan for the widely praised “Three Monkeys,” about a father who takes the fall for his employer’s crime in exchange for financial support for his wife and son, only to have the subterfuge backfire. As many had forecasted, Benicio Del Toro won the Best Actor award for his portrayal of Cuban revolutionary, Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara in Steven Soderbergh’s titular “Che” epic. Best Actress went to Sandra Corveloni for her role in Walter Salles’ “Linha de Passe.”
“I’d like to dedicate this to the man himself, Che Guevara,” Del Toro accepting his award. He also thanked Soderbergh, “who got up every day, forced me to this. … He was there pushing it, and he pushed all of us.”
The runner-up and third-place prizes for Best Film both went to Italian films, Matteo Garrone’s well-received “Gomorrah,” Paolo Sorrentino’s “Il Divo.” The first-time director prize went to British filmmaker Steve McQueen’s “Hunger” and “special prizes” went to Clint Eastwood and French icon Catherine Deneuve, who appeared in two films at Cannes this year (in Deneuve’s case, her award was essentially a lifetime achievement award, in Eastwood’s case the award was a fat “sorry, better luck next time” consolation award).
Last year,the Romanian film “4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days,” won the top prize. The fact that an American movie didn’t win a top prize again (GASP!) will likely compel knee-jerk pundits to declare 2008 a tepid year for films. Whatever, keep your pants on everybody, it’s fucking May. BTW, the AFP called Del Toro, “the Latino Brad Pitt,” perhaps their writers should stop drinking during the day before filing copy.