- US film-maker Michael Moore has won the Palme d'Or, the
top prize at the Cannes Film Festival for his movie Fahrenheit 9/11, a
scathing indictment of President George W Bush and his White House staff
in the wake of September 11, 2001.
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- "What have you done? I'm completely overwhelmed
by this. Merci," said the documentary maker after receiving the award
from actress Charlize Theron, the star of Monster, and a standing ovation
from the crowd.
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- "The last time I was on an award stage in Hollywood
[to receive an Oscar for his anti-gun documentary Bowling For Columbine],
all hell broke loose," he added with a laugh.
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- Moore dedicated the award to "my daughter and to
all the children in America and Iraq and throughout the world who suffered
through our actions."
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- He added: "I have this great hope that things are
going to change. I want to make sure if I do nothing else for the rest
of this year that those who died in Iraq have not died in vain."
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- Fahrenheit 9/11 attracted reams of priceless publicity
before the festival even began when Disney, the parent company of Miramax
which produced the film, said it did not want to distribute the picture
in the US in an election year.
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- Moore claims that Disney was concerned about losing tax
breaks in the state of Florida because of the film's strong anti-Bush message.
Miramax bosses Harvey and Bob Weinstein are currently negotiating to buy
back the film and find another distributor, with hopes of landing it in
US theatres by July 4, Independence Day.
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- Fahrenheit 9/11 was the first documentary to win the
prestigious award since Jacques Cousteau's The Silent World took the prize
in 1956 .
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- Director Quentin Tarantino headed the nine-member jury
handing out prizes in Cannes' main competition.
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- Other jurors included actresses Kathleen Turner, Emmanuelle
Beart and actress Tilda Swinton.
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- Swinton told the Sunday Herald: "It was a unanimous
verdict by the jury at the end of a very healthy democratic debate. Everyone
is so proud to give the Palme d'Or to this film.
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- "It's very important that the jury gave the Palme
d'Or to this film and also for Michael Moore to have won this for a piece
of brilliant film and not just as a piece of political statement. The things
he says can no longer be said on American TV and this film has reclaimed
and pushed forward a realm of cinema which can place its arguments in front
of the public. It is based on a dialectic between the audience, the film-maker
and the media and it does something very important."
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- Moore said the film has already been given a distribution
deal in Albania but still not one in the US.
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- In 2002, Moore's first commercially successful documentary,
Bowling For Columbine earned a special award at Cannes, but critics have
been sharply divided over whether Fahrenheit 9/11 was of the same innovative,
thought-provoking standard or not.
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- However, Cannes screenings of Fahrenheit 9/11 last week
caused scrums among journalists and critics all eager to get the first
look at the movie. Despite all the hype and fanfare about Latin America
films hotly rumoured to scoop the majority of other prizes, it was Asian
actors who scored the top performing awards.
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- Chinese actress Maggie Cheung won the best actress for
her role in Clean, a tale about a mother who tries to kick her drug habit
and reconcile with her long lost son, directed by Olivier Assayas.
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- Fourteen-year-old Japanese actor Yagira Yuuya won the
best actor award at the festival. Yagira stars in Nobody Knows, the story
of four children abandoned by their mother who have to fend for themselves.
Moore fended off competition for the top prize from French director Agnes
Jaoui's ugly-duckling tale Look at Me; South Korean film-maker Park Chan-wook's
vengeance saga Old Boy, as well as the hotly tipped Che Guevara portrait
The Motorcycle Diaries, directed by Brazilian Walter Salles. Other American
films including Shrek 2 and Tom Hanks' crime comedy The Ladykillers were
also amongst the 19 films in competition for the Palme d'Or.
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- Tomorrow, the last day of Cannes, the French town will
celebrate the close of the 57th annual film festival with gala encore showings
of all the winning films.
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reserved http://www.sundayherald.com/42223
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