THE WHITE RIBBON

Written and directed by Michael Haneke

Christian Friedel
Ernst Jacobi
Leonie Benesch
Ulrich Tukur
Maria-Victoria Dragus
Leonard Proxauf

Premiere date: May 21, 2009 (Cannes Film Festival)
R for some disturbing content involving violence and sexuality.

In a village in Protestant northern Germany, on the eve of World War I, the children of a church and school run by the village schoolteacher and their families experience a series of bizarre incidents that inexplicably assume the characteristics of a punishment ritual. Who could be responsible for such bizarre transgressions?

Cannes Film Festival

Palme d'Or

FIPRESCI Prize

Cinema Prize of the French National Education System

SECRETS & LIES

Written and directed by Mike Leigh

Brenda Blethyn
Maurice Jean-Baptiste
Timothy Spall
Claire Rushbrook

Premiere date: September 27, 1996
R for language.

Hortense, a young black optometrist, has just buried her beloved adoptive mother. In her sorrow, she embarks on a search for her birth mother, who turns out to be Cynthia, a white factory worker living a lonely life with her surly daughter Roxanne. No one in the family, except Cynthia's brother Maurice and his wife Monica, knows that the teenage Cynthia gave up a child for adoption without ever seeing the baby. Hortense contacts Cynthia, and after a heart-wrenching reconciliation, they become best friends. Cynthia convinces Hortense to attend a birthday party and meet the family - as a mate from the factory - but during the cake and champagne celebration, the family's secrets and lies emerge in a cathartic, emotional sweep.

Cannes Film Festival
Palme d'Or
Best Actress - Brenda Blethyn
Prize of the Ecumenical Jury
xx
5 Academy Award Nominations
Best Picture
Best Director
Best Actress - Brenda Blethyn
Best Supporting Actress - Marianne Jean-Baptiste
Best Original Screenplay

BARTON FINK

Screenplay by Joel and Ethan Coen
Directed by Joel Coen

John Turturro
John Goodman
Judy Davis
Michael Lerner

Premiere date: May 1991 (Cannes Film Festival)
R for language and some scenes of violence.

Barton Fink is a Broadway playwright lured to Hollywood with the promise of untold riches by a boorish studio chieftain. Despising the film capital and everything it stands for, Barton Fink comes down with an acute case of writer's block. He is looked after by a secretary who has been acting as a ghost writer for an alcoholic screenwriter. Also keeping tabs on Fink is a garrulous traveling salesman, the most likable, stable character in the picture. And then comes the plot twist to end all plot twists, plunging Barton Fink into a surreal nightmare that would make Hieronymus Bosch look like a house painter.

Cannes Film Festival
Palme d'Or (unanimously)
Best Director
Best Actor - John Turturro

3 Academy Award Nominations
Best Supporting Actor - Michael Lerner
Best Art Direction
Best Costume Design

SEX, LIES, AND VIDEOTAPE

Written and directed by Steven Soderbergh

James Spader
Andie MacDowell
Peter Gallagher
Laura San Giacomo

Premiere date: January 20, 1989 (Sundance Film Festival)
R

The voyeuristic indie drama paints an intense, intimate portrait of discord among a frigid housewife, her philandering husband, her promiscuous sibling and an intriguing out-of-towner. When Spader arrives with a trunk load of videotapes featuring women who confess their sexual secrets on camera, he gradually turns the quartet's lives inside out.

Sundance Film Festival
Audience Award - Dramatic
Grand Jury Prize Nominee

Cannes Film Festival
Palme d'Or
Best Actor - James Spader
FIPRESCI Prize

1 Academy Award Nomination
Best Original Screenplay

4 MONTHS, 3 WEEKS AND 2 DAYS

Written and directed by Cristian Mungiu

Anamaria Marinca
Laura Vasiliu
Vlad Ivanov
Alexandru Potocean

Premiere date: May 17, 2007 (Cannes Film Festival)
R

In a country where abortion is outlawed, a young college student, Gabita, finds herself in big trouble. Unsure what to do, she turns to her roommate, Otilia, for help. On the day on which the film takes place, the pair connects with a black market doctor, Bebe, in order to take care of Gabita’s pregnancy - but, of course, it isn’t that simple. The resulting 24 hours reveals a harrowing descent into a world in which the possibility of tragedy lurks around every corner.

Director Mungiu’s decision to film every scene in a hyper-documentary style, with long, unbroken takes, ratchets up the tension to nearly unbearable proportions. Adding even greater drama is his decision to focus on the friend, not the victim. Marinca’s face, filmed in unflinching close-ups, expresses the impossibly complex flood of emotions that nag her throughout the day.

Cannes Film Festival
Palme d'Or
FIPRESCI Prize
Cinema Prize of the French National Education System

Trailer for The White Ribbon

Austrian filmmaker Michael Haneke won the Palme d'Or at Cannes earlier this year for The White Ribbon, which focuses on a children's choir in northern Germany just before World War I. The film is also playing at Telluride and Toronto this month.

The international trailer just recently made its way online, and it looks great. I'm of the opinion that black and white is criminally under-used today. I think it makes for some beautiful imagery when used correctly (the red coat in Schindler's List comes to mind), and I love to see modern filmmakers put it to good use.

Germany selected the film as its official entry to the Academy Awards' Best Foreign Language Film race, and it also picked up the FIPRESCI Best Picture prize last month. It may be the most decorated film of the year so far.

The White Ribbon will hit US theaters December 30th.

Cannes Winners

Last time I was here, the Cannes Film Festival was just starting up overseas. Well, obviously, we have a winner. Here's the full list of honored films from the festival.

Palme d'Or: The White Ribbon by Michael Haneke

Grand Prix: A Prophet by Jacques Audiard

Best Director: Brillante Mendoza for Kinatay

Jury Prize: Fish Tank by Andrea Arnold, Bakjwi by Park Chan-wook

Best Screenplay: Spring Fever by Lou Ye

Best Actress: Charlotte Gainsburg in Antichrist

Best Actor: Christoph Waltz in Inglourious Basterds

Lifetime Achievement Award: Alain Resnais

Short Film Palme d'Or: Arena by Joao Salivixa

Short Film - Special Distinction: The Six Dollar Fifty Man by Louis Sutherland

Prix Un Certain Regard: Dogtooth by Yorgos Lanthimos

Un Certain Regard - Jury Prize: Police, Adjective

Un Certain Regard - Special Jury Prize: No One Knows About Persian Cats by Bahman Ghobadi, The Father of My Children by Mia Hansen-Love

Cinefondation: 1st prize - Baba by Zuzana Kirchnerova, 2nd prize - Goodbye by Fang, 3rd prize - Diploma by Yaelle Kayam, Don't Step Out of the House by Jo Sung-hee

Camera d'Or: Samson and Delilah by Warwick Thornton

Camera d'Or - Special Distinction: Ajami by Scandar Copti

The one that shocked me was Best Director going to Brillane Mendoza for Kinatay. Not to say I know anything about Mendoza's directorial skills. I definitely don't. But Kinatay was so severely panned by the press during Cannes that I really didn't think it stood a chance at winning anything. The acclaim may prove to add ammunition to some AMPAS campaigns next year. Specifically for The White Ribbon, A Prophet, and Christoph Waltz's much talked about performance in Tarantino's latest.