Kirsten Dunst took the top prize forMelancholia, Jean Dujardin for The Artist, in the acting categories.

Le Gamin Au Vielo (aka: The Kid With a Bike), by the Dardenne brothers tied with Once Upon a Time in Anatolia by Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s for the Grand Prix, while actress/director Maïwenn‘s Polisse took home the Prix du Jury.

Here’s the winners from the press release

FEATURE FILMS

Palme d’Or:

The Tree of Life by Terrence Malick

Grand Prix:

Bir Zamanlar Anadolu’da (Once Upon A Time In Anatolia) by Nuri Bilge Ceylan

Le Gamin Au Vielo (aka: The Kid With a Bike) byJean-Pierre Dardenne & Luc Dardenne

Award for the Best Director:

Nicolas Winding Refn for Drive

Jury Prize

Polisse by Maïwenn

Best Performance for an Actor

Jean Dujardin in The Artist by Michel Hazanavicius

Best Performance for an Actress

Kirsten Dunst in Melancholia, by Lars von Trier

Award for the Best Screenplay

Joseph Cedar for Hearat Shulayim (aka: Footnote)

SHORT FILMS IN COMPETTION

Palme d’Or

Cross-Country by Marina Vroda

Jury Prize

Badpakje 46 (aka Swimsuit 46) by Wannes Destoop

Camera d’Or

Las acacias by Pablo Giorgelli

UN CERTAIN REGARD

PRIZE OF UN CERTAIN REGARD Ex-æquo

Arirang, by KIM ki-duk

Halt auf Freier Strecke (Stopped on Track) by director Andreas Dresen

SPECIAL JURY PRIZE

Elena by Andrei Zvyagintsev

DIRECTING PRIZE

Mohammad Rasoulof for Bé omid é didar (Au revoir)

CINEFONDATION

First Cinéfondation Prize

Der Brief (The Letter) by Doroteya Droumeva

Second Cinéfondation Prize
Drari by Kamal Lazraq
La Fémis, France

Third Cinéfondation Prize
Ya-Gan-bi-Hang (Fly by Night) by Son Tae-gyum
Chung-Ang University, South Korea

But Un Certain Regard  has always been the artier, more aesthete category at Cannes, which is saying something.

Arirang was written, directed and stars KIM ki-duk. From what I watched and have subsequently read, it consists almost solely of watching the director go about a very hermetic existence. We watch him eat, we watch him sleep. We watch a cat he has meow with the most wretched “meow” in recorded history. We watch KIM’s sleep get interrupted by someone knocking at the door. We watch him answer the door. We watch him look around as his porch is empty. We watch him go back to bed only to be interrupted by more knocking and by a still mysteriously empty porch. It goes on like this.

The directing prize went to Mohammad Rasoulof for Bé omid é didar (Au revoir). The film, according to the Cannes guide, is about a young female lawyer whose journalist husband has gone into hiding. Thus, when she discovers that she’s pregnant she faces a minefield of choices.

A special jury prize went to Elena by Andrei Zvyagintsev (the guy who did The Return).

The jury was a pretty eclectic bunch as it is. It comprised Serbian director/actor Emir Kusturica (jury president), actress Elodie Bouchez, Guardian critic Peter Bradshaw, Tribeca Chief Creative office Geoffrey Gilmore and Daniela Michel, director of the Morelia Festival in Mexico.

Personally, I would have gone with Miss Bala, which, though overly long, is an assured feature by director Gerardo Naranjo. It concerns a beauty contestant who, by being in the wrong place at the wrong time, gets involved with a Tijuana drug lord.

Von Trier’s logorrhoea at the press conference for Melancholia, where he pronounced himself a “Nazi” exposed him and his thought processes for what films like Dogville suggested, an autocrat with delusions of godhood with a moral compass that allowed for the worst of ideologies to become dogma (pun intended). One might also just say “a director” but Von Trier’s verbal vomiting, which he now excuses as a joke–and some of it certainly was meant to be merely outrageous– most certainly revealed his inner workings as he proceeded down the rabbit hole of his mind. He started out referring to himself as a “Nazi” but it was in the context of equating it with being of German descent (questionable anyway). He went on:

Of Hitler: “I think I understand the man. He’s not what I would call a good guy, but I understand much about him, and I sympathize with him a little. But come on – I’m not for the Second World War.  And I’m not against Jews – (Jewish filmmaker) Susanne Biers, no not even Susanne Bier  - that was also a joke.”

Of Israel: “I’m very much for Jews. No, not too much for Jews because the Israelis are a pain in the ass.”

After this last bit he began to look for an out: “How do I get out of this sentence?” he asked.

The moderator attempted to help him by interrupting him: “By asking another question. Here’s your salvation.”

But Von Trier had committed himself, shifting to other Nazis he admired, like Albert Speer. “He was also maybe one of God’s best children.” I’ll be charitable and say that it sounds like he inadvertently dropped a “not” from the context. The director went on: “But (laughing) he had some talent that was possible for him to use when…(dropping all pretense)..Okay, I’m a Nazi.”

This caused the festival, in a move that was very dramatic and very French to declare von Trier a “persona non grata.”

“The Festival de Cannes provides artists from around the world with an exceptional forum to present their works and defend freedom of expression and creation. The Festival’s Board of Directors, which held an extraordinary meeting this Thursday 19 May 2011, profoundly regrets that this forum has been used by Lars Von Trier to express comments that are unacceptable, intolerable, and contrary to the ideals of humanity and generosity that preside over the very existence of the Festival.

“The Board of Directors firmly condemns these comments and declares Lars Von Trier a persona non grata at the Festival de Cannes, with effect immediately.”

I must say that I won’t look forward to the day when the festival rescinds this declaration. I give it five years.

Those snickering critics were wrong.The Tree of  Life is not only one of the most beautiful films I’ve ever seen, it may be one of the most audacious and Malick’s greatest. It is deeply religious in the best sense of the word, running the gamut from the creation of the universe (yes, there are dinosaurs), to the clean, innocent start of life, to the onset of wisdom and rebellion, to the eventual acceptance of the evanescent nature of life. Of course, there’s inherent risk with tackling subjects of that breadth and scope.

The plot follows a father (Brad Pitt), a mother (Jessica Chastain), as they raise their three sons in Waco, Texas. We later see the oldest son (Sean Penn) as a very conflicted adult.

It starts, however, with the quote from God in the book of Job after Job demands that God explain to him why he–a good man–is being punished with all sorts of calamities. God’s rejoinder, essentially a rebuke, is to ask Job just where was he when he was busy creating the whole universe.

Then Malick, with shocking cheek, decides to show us just how that all came about.

It’s a bit ironic that, it’s actually Malick creating the universe, raising the hoary head of director-as-deity/auteur and actually contradicting his point of a god-centered versus human-centered world, but he’s a benevolent deity at least.  Malick views life with reverence and it’s suffused through every frame of Tree. The accompanying score by Alexandre Desplat is sumptuous and nearly gothic (reminding me at points of 2001: A Space Odyssey). The cinematography by Emmanuel Lubezki is painterly; each frame is rich in texture and depth.

Pitt’s performance, of a stern, fallible, loving father, is another notch in his belt proving him one of the greats of our time. Penn, well, Penn doesn’t get to do much. Chastain also fulfills her role in the film, that of the never-judging earth mother. She’s already big and she’s going to get bigger.

Malick didn’t show up to Cannes and was roundly chided for it; people prayed he’d show up. People wanted answers. But Malick wisely realized that, much like real life, he couldn’t give simple, satisfactory answers to The Tree of Life and so, just like God, he let the work speak for itself.

With Robert De Niro heading the jury a likely frontrunner for the Palme d’Or may be Le Gamin Au Vielo (The Kid on a Bike), the new film from Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne. Cécile De France stars as a woman who decides to take very determined, very emotionally crushed child into her life. De Niro seems to have a soft spot for films where the protagonists has a lot of daddy issues and this one certainly does. Add also that The Dardennes have won the Palme before with The Child in 2005 and Rosetta in 1999.

The Artist, directed by Michel Hazanavicius (the guy who did OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies and its sequel) is a nearly entirely silent film that has a number of clever conceits and has become the talk of the town. With A Star Is Born storyline (hot actor’s career falls while his protege/lover’s rises) and two very likeable leads, Jean Dujardin and Bérénice Bejo (both from OSS as well) the film has become the unexpected talk of the festival. The Weinstein Company acquired the property and are very excited about it.

Miss Bala, which is in the Un Certain Regard category, starts out well but becomes an overly long muddle; it’s one  of those films where, when you watch a scene where a truck is heading out into the desert at night, it’s shot from the top of the cab where the beams are and it goes on for over a minute. It concerns a beauty contestant who, by being in the wrong place at the wrong time, gets involved in with a Tijuana drug lord. I hate it when that happens.
by Keith Simanton

Polisse is a surprisingly effective drama about the emotional wreckage visited upon the members of a child protective services unit in Paris. The film is directed by actress Maiwenn (she will likely soon be referred to as “one-time actress” because she’ll henceforth be known as a director) with compassion and humor (yes, humor, believe it or not) though it’s overly long. Let’s hope Harvey Weinstein can get involved and pare this thing down.

So too has director Lynn Ramsey’s We Need to Talk About Kevin, about two parents (John C. Reilly and Tilda Swinton) reviewing their rearing of their son who goes on a shooting rampage. Though everyone cites Swinton’s performance as remarkable many describe the film as very rough go with almost zero box office potential.

by Keith Simanton

The Jury that will choose the Palme d’Or will be headed by Robert De Niro (last year’s Jury President was Tim Burton).  This year’s other jurists include Uma Thurman, Jude Law, and directors Olivier Assayas and Johnny To. Lesser known names include Norwegian film critic Linn Ullman, Chinese film producer Shi Nansun, and Chadian director Mahamat-Saleh Haroun (his film, A Screaming Man, was in competition last year).

The Movies:

The Opening Night Film is Midnight in Paris by Woody Allen, starring Owen Wilson, Rachel McAdams, Michael Sheen, and Marion Cotillard. Parisians love Woody but they might be mightily conflicted by this film as Carla Bruni, the wife of embattled French President Nicholas Sarkozy, co-stars.

The films in competition for the Palme d’Or include:

The Tree of Life, the much-awaited new work by Terrence Malick, which stars Brad Pitt, Sean Penn and the very likely soon-to-be-known Jessica Chastain

Pedro Almodovar‘s new film, The Skin I Live In, starring Antonio Banderas, Elena Anaya (who has been a perennially compelling, seductive, and unreasonably overlooked actress) and Marisa Paredes. It concerns a plastic surgeon who attempts to save his wife’s life by creating new skin for her. It’s a reunion of sorts since Almodovar last had Banderas in a film in 1990, in Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!

The Kid with the Bike (“La Gamin au Velo”) by Jean-Pierre Dardenne Luc Dardenne stars Cecile de France (Hereafter) as a woman who adopts a boy looking for the father who abandoned him.

L’apollonide is from Bertrand Bonello (The Pornographers) and centers on prostitutes at the turn of the 19th century. If it’s anything like Pornographers it will likely have a lot of sex but be anything but erotic.

Along the same lines, Sleeping Beauty stars Emily Browning and is about a girl who offers herself up to the life of an escort and whose specialty becomes somnambulism (which likely says more about her clients than about her). It’s the first feature from director Julia Leigh.

Possibly more titillating will be The Source, from director Radu Mihaileanu. He’s been nearly effective with past efforts such as Train of Life (about Jews who take an ingenious route to avoid the concentration camp) and The Concert (about a conductor who organizes a performance of former musicians). This time out, however, he’s basing his work on Aristophanes’ play Lysistrata wherein women go on a sex strike to force their men to engage in peace talks.

Hara-Kiri: Death of a Samurai is from the brilliant, twisted mind of Takashi Miike (Audition, 13 Assassins). It’s in 3-D, for heaven’s sake.

This Must Be the Place is from Paolo Sorrentino (Il Divo) and stars Sean Penn as a musician looking for his father’s executioner.

Then, of course, there is Lars Von Trier‘s Melancholia. Though I find many of his films to be, at once, strikingly beautiful and assured, yet intellectually simplistic and misanthropic on their best days Melancholia’s trailer makes it look like it may actually be watchable. It stars Kirsten Dunst and Charlotte Gainsborg (who gives the film the stamp of quality for the international critics) as two sisters who confront their own issues at the end of the world.

by Keith Simanton

Everything in 2010 seemed like it was last minute. The schedule wasn’t available until a week beforehand, films, like Ken Loach’s Route Irish, were added to the program like late schoolchildren running for the bus, and then there was last year’s poster.

Now I’m as much a fan of Juliette Binoche as the next Francophile but this poster was lifeless and uninspiring. It was as if the festival staff were getting ready to leave Paris for their time in Cannes and someone slapped their head. “Mon Dieu! We forgot to make a poster!” In walked Juliette Binoche, who was picking up her pass for the event and, viola, problem solved. Binoche even looks slightly bored.

This year’s poster is sexy, elegant and sleek; what one would expect of the most glamorous festival in the world. The image of a 26-year-old Faye Dunaway, particularly her luscious legs, shining out from the impenetrable black, was taken by photographer and filmmaker Jerry Schatzberg in 1967, shortly before she became a star in 1969 with Bonnie and Clyde. Schatzberg is the nearly forgotten director of such classics as The Panic in Needle Park, Scarecrow and Street Smart (where Morgan Freeman threw off “Easy Reader” to become an actor’s actor) and his first feature film,1970’s Puzzle of a Downfall Child (which starred Dunaway), has been re-mastered and will be screened during the festival.

I don’t know if this signals a trend or a theme in the Cannes posters but having one iconic actress anchor the poster each year seems like a truly grand idea.

Keith Simanton

Robert De Niro will serve as president of the 2011 Cannes Film Festival feature films jury.

The full list of jurists for all categories of Cannes have been released, and there are certainly some high-profile Hollywood names amongst those chosen to head to the Croisette this year for some intensive film-watching. Robert De Niro will preside over the Jury of the Competition, where he will be joined by stars Uma Thurman, Jude Law, and an impressive selection of international film luminaries.

See the full list of jurists and learn more about them at the official Cannes site.

The 2011 Cannes Film Festival runs from May 11-22, with festival winners announced and awarded May 22.