'Oldboy' Wins Grand Prize of Jury at Cannes
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By Paolo Bertolin
Special Correspondent
CANNES, France _ South Korean director Park Chan-wook's "Oldboy" has won the Grand Prize of the Jury at the 57th Cannes International Film Festival. It is the first time for a Korean film to comes this close to grabbing the Palme d'Or, the most prestigious prize awarded at international film festivals.
Park, who received the laurel from Hollywood stars Kevin Kline and Ashley Judd, came on stage along with "Oldboy" protagonist Choi Min-sik, whom he warmly thanked along with producers and crew.
In an unprecedented twist, Park said he wanted to shared the honor _ usually reserved for directors _ with Choi, who in turn humorously recalled the "sacrifice" of four octopuses involved in the making of one of the film's most surprising sequences.
The film's mixed responses from international critics had many predicting that the jury would go for the more comfortable option of giving the best actor prize to Choi, whose performance was at its center.
But the strong support of Quentin Tarantino, president of the jury this year, led Park to get the runner-up prize.
The overall verdict is bound to raise controversy, at least in the United States, as the Palme d'Or was awarded to Michael Moore's anti-Bush documentary "Fahrenheit 9/11".
"What have you done?" uttered a sweating and emotional Moore as he addressed jury members. Declaring himself overwhelmed, Moore added that the jury really put him "in a mess", as this Palme d'Or would certainly stir up violent debate home. "Fahrenheit 9/11" was turned down by its U.S. distributor Miramax apparently following pressure from company owner Buena Vista, which feared possible retorts from the Bush administration, just prior to the film's coming in Cannes.
Moore, who had previously won the 55th anniversary prize at Cannes with the acclaimed "Bowling for Columbine", dedicated the Palme to his daughter and to all America's sons now fighting in Iraq.
The top choice was undeniably political, but other prizes went to widely different films, underlying the eclectic selection of this year's festival. Moore's political pamphlet is the first documentary to win at Cannes since Jacques Cousteau and Louis Malle's "Le Monde du Silence" in 1956.
"Oldboy", which polarized critics, is a rare example of unconventional genre moviemaking allowed into Cannes, a fact that bares much comparison to Tarantino's win with "Pulp Fiction" exactly 10 years ago.
"Oldboy" was also the most prominent instance of the Asian invasion at the festival this year. The best actress prize deservedly went to Hong Kong cinema queen Maggie Cheung for her moving performance as a drug-added music producer tries to get herself clean in Frenchman Olivier Assayas' compelling drama. Best actor nod went to Japanese child actor Yagira Yuya for Hirokazu Koreeda's "Nobody Knows", the sensitively observed tale of four abandoned children living a secluded life in a minuscule flat in Tokyo.
Finally, Apichatpong Weerasethakul's fascinating and elusive "Tropical Malady", perhaps the most artistically controversial among competing titles, secured the Prix of Jury for Thailand, for the first time competing at Cannes. Other prizes distinguished Agnes Jaoui and Jean-Pierre Bacri for their scripting of Jaoui's "Comme une Image (Look at Me)", actress Irma P. Hall for her magnetic supporting role in the Coen brothers' "The Ladykillers" and, quite unexpectedly, Gipsy director Tony Gatlif for his naively schematic "Exils". The Camera d'Or, a prize awarded to the best debut screened among all the festival's sections, went to powerful Israeli drama "Or" by Keren Yedaya, telling the story of a 17-year-old girl who fights to rescue her hooker mother from a miserable life on the street.
** Paolo Bertolin is a writer specializing in Asian films for Cineforum, an Italian film magazine. _ ED.
Special Correspondent
CANNES, France _ South Korean director Park Chan-wook's "Oldboy" has won the Grand Prize of the Jury at the 57th Cannes International Film Festival. It is the first time for a Korean film to comes this close to grabbing the Palme d'Or, the most prestigious prize awarded at international film festivals.
Park, who received the laurel from Hollywood stars Kevin Kline and Ashley Judd, came on stage along with "Oldboy" protagonist Choi Min-sik, whom he warmly thanked along with producers and crew.
In an unprecedented twist, Park said he wanted to shared the honor _ usually reserved for directors _ with Choi, who in turn humorously recalled the "sacrifice" of four octopuses involved in the making of one of the film's most surprising sequences.
The film's mixed responses from international critics had many predicting that the jury would go for the more comfortable option of giving the best actor prize to Choi, whose performance was at its center.
But the strong support of Quentin Tarantino, president of the jury this year, led Park to get the runner-up prize.
The overall verdict is bound to raise controversy, at least in the United States, as the Palme d'Or was awarded to Michael Moore's anti-Bush documentary "Fahrenheit 9/11".
"What have you done?" uttered a sweating and emotional Moore as he addressed jury members. Declaring himself overwhelmed, Moore added that the jury really put him "in a mess", as this Palme d'Or would certainly stir up violent debate home. "Fahrenheit 9/11" was turned down by its U.S. distributor Miramax apparently following pressure from company owner Buena Vista, which feared possible retorts from the Bush administration, just prior to the film's coming in Cannes.
Moore, who had previously won the 55th anniversary prize at Cannes with the acclaimed "Bowling for Columbine", dedicated the Palme to his daughter and to all America's sons now fighting in Iraq.
The top choice was undeniably political, but other prizes went to widely different films, underlying the eclectic selection of this year's festival. Moore's political pamphlet is the first documentary to win at Cannes since Jacques Cousteau and Louis Malle's "Le Monde du Silence" in 1956.
"Oldboy", which polarized critics, is a rare example of unconventional genre moviemaking allowed into Cannes, a fact that bares much comparison to Tarantino's win with "Pulp Fiction" exactly 10 years ago.
"Oldboy" was also the most prominent instance of the Asian invasion at the festival this year. The best actress prize deservedly went to Hong Kong cinema queen Maggie Cheung for her moving performance as a drug-added music producer tries to get herself clean in Frenchman Olivier Assayas' compelling drama. Best actor nod went to Japanese child actor Yagira Yuya for Hirokazu Koreeda's "Nobody Knows", the sensitively observed tale of four abandoned children living a secluded life in a minuscule flat in Tokyo.
Finally, Apichatpong Weerasethakul's fascinating and elusive "Tropical Malady", perhaps the most artistically controversial among competing titles, secured the Prix of Jury for Thailand, for the first time competing at Cannes. Other prizes distinguished Agnes Jaoui and Jean-Pierre Bacri for their scripting of Jaoui's "Comme une Image (Look at Me)", actress Irma P. Hall for her magnetic supporting role in the Coen brothers' "The Ladykillers" and, quite unexpectedly, Gipsy director Tony Gatlif for his naively schematic "Exils". The Camera d'Or, a prize awarded to the best debut screened among all the festival's sections, went to powerful Israeli drama "Or" by Keren Yedaya, telling the story of a 17-year-old girl who fights to rescue her hooker mother from a miserable life on the street.
** Paolo Bertolin is a writer specializing in Asian films for Cineforum, an Italian film magazine. _ ED.
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