Gus' Elephant wins Palme D'Or

Marco Tullio Giordana's La Meglio Gioventú wins Un certain regard sidebar prize

In a competition regarded by critics as the worst in many years, the jury at this year's Cannes Film Festival had to seek special permission from the festival to give both the best direction prize and the Palme d'Or to Elephant and Gus van Sant, a director who having done mainstream Hollywood films, has for his last two pictures returned to a more experimental, auteur route.
The jury, headed by film and theatre director Patrice Chereau, also gave multiple prizes to Canadian Denys Arcand's Barbarian Invasions - best actress to Marie-Josee Croze, and best screenplay - and Nuri Bilge Ceylan's Distant (Uzak) - best actors to Mehmet Emin Toprak and Muzaffer Ozdemir.
That left the established festival names - Francois Ozon with Swimming Pool, Lars von Trier with Dogville, and Peter Greenaway with The Tulse Luper Suitcases - with nothing.
The Jury Prize went to Samira Makhmalbaf's At Five In The Afternoon, the Camera d'Or to Christoffer Boe's Reconstruction, and Special Mention to Sedigh Barmak's Osama. Alexander Sokurov's Father And Son was awarded the FIPRESCI Prize.
The only Italian film in the main competition section, Pupi Avati's Il Cuore Altrove, walked away empty-handed, but Marco Tullio Giordana's La Meglio Gioventu, won the Un certain regard sidebar prize. Constanza Quatriglio's The Island, which competed in the Director's Fortnight competition, also won nothing.
Other Italian films at the Cannes festival included Nanni Moretti's Il Grido D'Angoscia Dell' Uccello Predatore 20 Tagli D'Aprile and The Last Customer, which both enjoyed special screenings.
Reflecting the emphasis on Italian cinema at this year's festival, three Italian features screened along with four documentaries devoted to Federico Fellini. They were Mario Sesti's L'Ultima Sequenza, Gideon Bachman's Ciao, Federico!, André Delvaux's La Double Vue: La Dolce Vita et le Neo-Realism; and Carmen Piccini's Federico Fellini.
A line-up of restored classics were also screened during the fortnight in the Salle Bunuel, as a way to help audiences discover rare films and to provide them with the opportunity to see cinematic treasures in their finest possible version. The Italian films were Ettore Scola's 1974 C'eravamo tanto amati, Alberto Lattuada's 1960 I Dolci Inganni, and Pier Palo Pasolini's 1964 Il Vangelo Secondo Matteo.

Publication Date: 2003-06-01
Story Location: http://tandemnews.com/viewstory.php?storyid=2786