Moore Wins Top Prize At Cannes

AP ^ | 5-23-04

[My Favorite Headache]

CANNES, France - American filmmaker Michael Moore (news)'s "Fahrenheit 9/11," a scathing indictment of White House actions after the Sept. 11 attacks, won the top prize Saturday at the Cannes Film Festival (news - web sites).

AP Photo

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AFP Slideshow: Cannes Film Festival

'Fahrenheit 9/11' Wins Cannes' Top Prize (AP Video)

"Fahrenheit 9/11" was the first documentary to win Cannes' prestigious Palme d'Or since Jacques Cousteau's and Louis Malle (news)'s "The Silent World" in 1956.

"What have you done? I'm completely overwhelmed by this. Merci," Moore said after getting a standing ovation from the Cannes crowd.

The grand prize, the festival's second-place honor, went to South Korean filmmaker Park Chan-wook's "Old Boy," a blood-soaked thriller about a man out for revenge after years of inexplicable imprisonment.

Moore was momentarily flabbergasted when he took the stage to accept the award, a big difference from his fiery speech against President Bush (news - web sites) after winning the best-documentary Academy Award for 2002's "Bowling for Columbine."

"You have to understand, the last time I was on an awards stage, in Hollywood, all hell broke loose," Moore said.

The best-actress award went to Maggie Cheung (news) for her role in "Clean" as a junkie trying to straighten out her life and regain custody of her young son after her rock-star boyfriend dies of a drug overdose.

Fourteen-year-old Yagira Yuuya was named best actor for the Japanese film "Nobody Knows," in which he plays the eldest of four sibling raised in isolation, who must take charge of the family when their mother leaves.

The directing and writing prizes went to French filmmakers. Tony Gatlif won the directing honor for "Exiles," his road-trip about a couple on a sensual journey from France to Algeria.

Agnes Jaoui and her romantic partner, Jean-Pierre Bacri, won the screenplay award for "Look at Me," their study in self-image centering on an overweight young woman who feels neglected by loved ones. Jaoui and Bacri also co-star.

"Fahrenheit 9/11" won the top award at a festival that sharply divided Cannes moviegoers, who found a solid crop of good movies among the 19 entries in the festival's main competition but no great ones that rose to front-runner status.

While "Fahrenheit 9/11" was well-received by Cannes audiences, many critics felt it was inferior to Moore's Academy Award-winning documentary "Bowling for Columbine," which earned him a special prize at Cannes in 2002.

Some critics speculated that if "Fahrenheit 9/11" won the top prize, it would be more for the film's politics than its cinematic value.

With Moore's customary blend of humor and horror, "Fahrenheit 9/11" accuses the Bush camp of stealing the 2000 election, overlooking terrorism warnings before Sept. 11 and fanning fears of more attacks to secure Americans' support for the Iraq (news - web sites) war.

Moore appears on-screen far less in "Fahrenheit 9/11" than in "Bowling for Columbine" or his other documentaries. The film relies largely on interviews, footage of U.S. soldiers and war victims in Iraq, and archival footage of Bush.

Just back in Cannes after his daughter's college graduation in the United States, 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."

"Fahrenheit 9/11" made waves in the weeks leading up to Cannes after the Walt Disney Co. refused to let subsidiary Miramax release the film in the United States because of its political content. Miramax bosses Harvey and Bob Weinstein are negotiating to buy back the film and find another distributor, with hopes of landing it in theaters by Fourth of July weekend.

Moore said after the ceremony that he expected right-wing media outlets in the United States to characterize his prize as an award from the French, whose government opposed the U.S.-led war on Iraq. He noted that the nine-person Cannes jury that awarded prizes had only one French member and four Americans, including jury president Quentin Tarantino (news) and actress Kathleen Turner (news).

Many Americans now realize the French are "good friends of America who tried to do the right thing and tell us this was the wrong road," Moore said. "We owe the people of this country an apology for the way they were debased and treated in our media."

Thai director Apichatpong Weerasethakul's "Tropical Malady" — widely regarded by Cannes audiences as a snoozer for its elongated scenes of a man wandering a jungle alone, with no dialogue — won the festival's third-place jury prize.

Another jury prize went to Irma P. Hall for her role as an elderly Southern woman who foils a casino robbery in the Coen brothers' crime comedy "The Ladykillers," starring Tom Hanks (news) as the heist's ringleader.

Keren Yedaya's "Or," about a Tel Aviv prostitute in failing health and her teenage daughter, won the Golden Camera award for best film by a first-time director. The U.S.-born Yedaya, who grew up in Israel, gives lectures about the problems of prostitution for government officials and mental-health professionals.

Earlier Saturday, Senegalese filmmaker Ousmane Sembene (news)'s "Moolaade," an examination of the ritual of female circumcision that earned rave reviews, won the top prize in a secondary Cannes competition called "Un Certain Regard."

The 12-day festival's closing film — "De-Lovely," Kevin Kline (news)'s musical biography of Cole Porter — screened immediately after the awards. Kline and co-star Ashley Judd (news) then hosted a beach concert featuring Sheryl Crow (news), Alanis Morissette (news), Natalie Cole (news) and other singers from "De-Lovely" performing Porter tunes.

The festival was to wrap up Sunday with encore screenings of award winners and other key movies that played the festival, including a combined, four-hour version of Tarantino's two "Kill Bill" installments.

[The Raven]

[The Raven]

Yep...the solution is big government....Let the purges and starvation begin..... Can't you statists EVER think of a solution other than government?

[DeaconRed]

doc·u·men·ta·ry (d¼k”y…-mµn“t…-r¶) adj. 1. Consisting of, concerning, or based on documents. 2. Presenting facts objectively without editorializing or inserting fictional matter, as in a book or film. --doc·u·men·ta·ry n., pl. doc·u·men·ta·ries. A work, such as a film or television program, presenting political, social, or historical subject matter in a factual and informative manner and often consisting of actual news films or interviews accompanied by narration.

[Recovering Hermit]

He's such a scumbag.

Whenever I see him, that's the first thing that runs through my mind.

Well, now that I think of it, it's pus-bag.

[Caipirabob]

I don't get it. Was this the "Cannes Film Festival" or the "Cannes Pie Eating Contest". I get them confused, and with Michael Moore winning it I'm really not sure...

"Alor! Eets Michael Moore! We must surrender, mes amis!"

[Hardastarboard]

It's a post about Michael Moore. Barf alert assumed.

[Jon Alvarez]

http://www.pabaah.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=483&mode=&order=0&thold=0

Moore is rewarded for his anti-Americanism...Note the singers performing, Judd, Crow, and Morisette are all Bush-haters.

[GBA]

I see that your account has been closed. Gee...now there's a surprise.

It's a shame, but you are truly lost if you believe any of the so-called double standards you listed has much more than a shred of truth. It is painful to read such a twisted emotionally based attempt at reason.

I have pity for you. After reading your tirade, I imagine you to be consumed by your hatred and your anger. How do you stand being you? How painful your life must be. Sad.

When you are able to see life as it really is instead of the bizarre cacophony of falsehoods you've listed, your life will improve. Good luck getting the help you clearly need.

[MeekOneGOP]

"UGH" is right, MFH. I'm about as impressed as I was Jimmah Cahtah
winning the Nobel Peace Prize .....

[The Wizard]

like the other fat man we all know and hate, this new fat man shows us how low an American can go if he has no problem lying and being a tool of the liberal democrat enemies of the country.

[MeekOneGOP]

Imagine that ! The French awarding a Bush-bashing film, eh ?!

[Jim Noble]

Gee, an anti-American film wins a European award?

What a surprise!

I'm shocked!

[OXENinFLA]

I was in the bookstore yesterday,picking up Dick Morris's new book, and this lady made a bee-line for Michel Moore's 'Dude where's my country'. I nearly bit through my tongue keeping my mouth shut.

[FreedomPoster]

Is there a link for that, or was it just on the radio show.

[Mo1]

And Michael Moore's petulant cancellation of media interviews after a couple of bad reviews for Fahrenheit 9/11 will only emphasise the hypocrisy of his thin skin. Yet neither Lantana nor Chopper were accepted into official competition, but both thrived.

[My back yard]

The film community is really making the case for their irrelevance

Yep.

[devolve]

MOOR DEVOURS FRANCE


   ^{HEAR THE PATRIOT} 

[sathers]

[Patton@Bastogne]

.


AlaskanFan and MyFavoriteHeadache,


Moore's film is not going to change anyones mind. His films are hardly blockbusters. All the Bush hating partisan dems and assorted Naderites will flock to this film- thats it.

He will make some good money off this film.


Most Americans view the Cannes Film Festival as an Ammoral Effeminate Self-Congratulating group of Europe's and Hollywood's far-left Artsy Crowd.

On top of that, it's completely, absurdly FRENCH, and most Americans instinctively know that HONOR abandoned France several decades ago.


Michael Moore will certainly make "some" money on his film, but probably only enough to cover Production Costs and his Porkine Living Expenses for the next two-three years.

Of course, Michael Moore's original Financial Goal was to mimic Mel Gibson's "Passion of The Christ", with Moore donating $ 100 million to defeat Bush in 2004, another $ 100 million going to feed Moore's insatiable greed, and the final $ 100 million being used to Al Franken's "Air America" propaganda network.


Make no mistake. Moore's Cannes Film Festival award was merely his (and the left's) Public Consolation Prize for having the Major U.S. Movie Distributions (Disney ?) cancel distribution of Moore's propaganda attempt.


Like his colleague John F. Kerry, Michael Moore has failed "miserably" in their attempts to poltically savage Bush.


Most Americans DEMAND a "full" U.S. Victory in Iraq, regardless of Kerry and Moore's (and the St. Pete Times) pathetic attempt to mimic Gobbel's propaganda machine.

Proof of that is the U.S. political environment after the 1968 Tet Offensive. Massive political demonstrations were the order of the day, often exceeding 100,000 persons.

That's hardly the case today.

Most Americans shrug-off Abu Gray prison after they've recalled the horrific photos of 2001-09-11, and then watch the evening news as "peaceful" Moslems murder Jewish babies and pregnant mothers by the truck load.



America will prevail in Victory in Iraq, and ultimately the entire Middle East.

Strength and Honor



Patton@Bastogne


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