La Belle Noiseuse
Grand Prix
M
France/Switzerland, 1991
Director: Jacques Rivette
Starring: Michel Piccoli, Jane Birkin, Emmanuelle Béart
What's it about?
New Wave director Jacques Rivette offered an extraordinary depiction of the artistic process at work with the story of Frenhofer, a famous artist living with his wife and ex-muse in the South of France, who is inspired to resume work on his unfinished masterpiece 'La Belle Noiseuse' after meeting a gorgeous young woman, played by Emmanuelle Béart. The creative process has a dramatic impact upon them all, and raises questions about the limits of art.
Watch David and Margaret's ★★★★★ review
Strokes of Fire
Best Director
MA15+
South Korea, 2002
Director: Im Kwon-taek
Starring: Choi Min-Sik, Ahn Sung-Kee, Yu Ho-jeong
What's it about?
This visually stunning film by famous Korean director Im Kwon-taek is set during the Chosun Dynasty of the 19th Century and tells the romanticised story of artist Jang Seung-ub (played by Choi Min-sik, Oldboy). Born into poverty in a peasant family, the uneducated Seung-ub taught himself to paint and ended up becoming one of Asia's most famous artists.
At Five in the Afternoon
Jury Prize
PG
Iran, 2003
Director: Samira Makhmalbaf
Starring: Agheleh Rezaie, Abdolgani Yousefrazi, Razi Mohebi
What's it about?
After picking up the Jury Prize for her 2000 film Blackboards, writer/director Samira Makhmalbaf was rewarded again for At Five in the Afternoon, her powerful and beautifully photographed portrayal of post-Taliban Afghanistan, and how women fared in its conservative society. It follows a young woman, Noqreh, who believes passionately that her gender should not bar her from becoming the president of her country, and who, unbeknownst to her father, starts attending a school for women and wearing Western clothes.
Watch interview with Samira Makhmalbaf
The Barbarian Invasions
Best Screenplay Best Actress: Marie-Josée Croze
MA15+
Canada, 2003
Director: Denys Arcand
Starring: Rémy Girard, Marie-Josée Croze, Louise Portal, Stéphane Rousseau
What's it about?
Denys Arcand's Cannes- and Oscar-winning movie is a five-star, five-hankie masterpiece about life, death and the importance of family and friends. Profound and affecting, it focuses on the final days of a professor/father/husband/lover/lout, as he mends relationships and farewells all of the loves of his life. You'll laugh, cry and feel everything in between.
[link title="Why You Should Watch: The Barbarian Invasions" url="node/24541"]
[link title="The Barbarian Invasions Review" url="node/2977"]
Oldboy
Grand Prix
MA15+
South Korea, 2003
Director: Chan-wook Park
Starring: Byeong-ok Kim, Hye-jeong Kang, Ji-tae Yu, Min-Sik Choi
What's it about?The extreme violence within Park Chan-wook's revenge classic Oldboy, caused a sensation at Cannes, where it was awarded Grand Prize by Quentin Tarantino's jury. The story of a kidnap victim's tortuous 15-year wait to discover who has framed for the murder of his wife, is no easy watch (at least one octopus was definitely harmed in the making of this film).
Oldboy ReviewSBS On Demand: Park Chan-wook double bill
RELATED: The Playlist discusses the films of "Director Park"
Exiles
Best Director
M
France, 2004
Director: Tony Gatlif
Starring: Lubna Azabal, Romain Duris, Zouhir Gacem
What's it about?
French director Tony Gatlif (Swing), who was born in Algiers to a Kabyle father and a Romani mother, goes back to his roots 43 years after he left Algeria, with the story of new lovers Zano (Romain Duris, The Beat My Heart Skipped) and his lover Naïma (Lubna Azabal, Incendies). The young couple makes the spontaneous decision to embark on a trip to Algeria to discover the homeland of their parents. Accompanied by music and meeting a plethora of interesting characters along the journey, the couple mirror their parents' exile.
[link title="Read review" url="node/2834"]
Broken Flowers
Grand Prix
M
USA, 2005
Director: Jim Jarmusch
Starring: Bill Murray, Jessica Lange, Sharon Stone
What's it about?
Bill Murray stars in Jim Jarmusch's languid, contemplative comedy as Don, a resolutely single man who has just been dumped by his latest lover (Julie Delpy). His life is turned upside down when he receives by mail a mysterious pink letter from an anonymous former lover, informing him that he has a 19-year-old son who may now be looking for his father. This discovery sees Don undertake a road trip to discover which one of his past lovers could have sent the note. Murray is as usual excellent as the deadpan, laid back Don, as is the rest of the prestigious cast that includes Sharon Stone, Jessica Lange, Tilda Swinton, Julie Delpy, and Chloë Sevigny.
[link title="Broken Flowers review: An exemplary performance from Bill Murray" url="node/2644"]
The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada
Best Actor: Tommy Lee Jones
M
USA, 2005
Director: Tommy Lee Jones
Starring: Tommy Lee Jones, Barry Pepper, Dwight Yoakam
What's it about?
Tommy Lee Jones made a big splash at Cannes in 2005 with his feature directing debut, a magnificent western, which not only earned him the Best Actor award, and his writer Guillermo Arriaga (21 Grams) the award for Best Screenplay, but was also nominated for the Palme d'Or. Jones gives a powerful performance as Texas ranch hand Pete Perkins, who undertakes a dangerous journey to have his deceased friend 'Melquiades Estrada' buried back in his hometown in Mexico.
Watch The Movie Show original ★★★★★ Review
Il Divo
Jury Prize
MA15+
Italy, 2008
Director: Paolo Sorrentino
Starring: Toni Servillo, Anna Bonaiuto, Giulio Bosetti
What's it about?
Festival darling Paolo Sorrentino (The Great Beauty) offers a grim but fascinating portrait of the character and career of the seven-time Italian Prime Minister, Giulio Andreotti (Toni Servillo, who was also representing Gomorrah in Cannes that year), renowned for leading one after another of Italy’s rapid succession of administrations and surviving a major bribery and corruption investigation, while opponents and former allies mysteriously dropped dead around him.
Persepolis
Jury Prize
PG
France, 2007
Director: Vincent Paronnaud, Marjane Satrapi
Starring: Chiara Mastroianni, Catherine Deneuve, Simon Abkarian, Danielle Darrieux,
What's it about?
Based on Marjane Satrapi's acclaimed graphic novel, the black and white animation Persepolis recounts her experience growing up as a precocious and outspoken young Iranian girl during the Islamic Revolution. The story follows Marjane (voiced by Chiara Mastroianni) as she outsmarts the 'social guardians' and discovers punk, ABBA and Iron Maiden, while living with the terror of government persecution and the Iran/Iraq war. A powerful, eye-opening and thoroughly entertaining gem.
[link title="Why You Should Watch: Persepolis" url="node/127294"]
Gomorrah
Grand Prix
MA15+
Italy, 2008
Director: Matteo Garrone
Starring: Salvatore Abruzzese, Simone Sacchettino, Toni Servillo
What's it about?
Based on Roberto Saviano's 2006 investigative book, which sold millions of copies worldwide, Gomorrah describes in a chilling way how the Camorra, a powerful mafia-like organization, touches all the aspects of economic life in Naples. In this fictionalised adaptation, we follow five different characters, all affected by the criminal organisation, whose only values revolve around power, money and blood. An eye-opening, must-see film.
[link title="Read ★★★★ review" url="node/4596"]
Three Monkeys
Best Director
MA15+
Turkey, 2008
Director: Nuri Bilge Ceylan
Starring: Yavuz Bingol, Hatice Aslan, Ahmet Rifat Sungar
What's it about?
Acclaimed Turkish director and Cannes favourite Nuri Bilge Ceylan (winner of the Grand Prix for Once Upon a Time in Anatolia in 2011 and the Palme d'Or for Winter Sleep in 2014) won Best Director for this psychological thriller which follows an ambitious politician, who after fleeing a hit-and-run accident, pays off his chauffeur to take the rap to avoid hurting his election chances. But this devil’s bargain is not without consequences for his family, as simmering tensions and sexual intrigue wreak havoc in a household already haunted by hidden ghosts.
Lorna's Silence
Best Screenplay
M
Belgium, 2008
Director: Luc Dardenne, Jean-Pierre Dardenne
Starring: Arta Dobroshi, Fabrizio Rongione, Jérémie Renier
What's it about?
When Lorna’s Silence first premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in 2008, the Dardenne brothers didn't get as much love as they did the previous years with their Palme D’or winners Rosetta (1999) and The Child (2005). This haunting depiction of the immigrant experience remains nonetheless a very solid effort by the Belgian duo, thanks to a tight script which earns them a Best Screenplay award, and powerful performances by the mostly non-professional actors. The story centres on a young Albanian immigrant Lorna, who falls under the thumb of a gangster when she participates in a sham marriage to a heroin addict in order to gain permanent residency and a job in Belgium.
[link title="Lorna's Silence Review" url="node/4625"]Why You Should Watch: 'Lorna's Silence'
The White Ribbon
Palme d'Or
M
Germany, 2009
Director: Michael Haneke
Starring: Christian Friedel, Ernst Jacobi, Leonie Benesch
What's it about?
After winning the Grand Prix in 2001 with The Piano Teacher, Austrian master Michael Haneke won his first Palme d'Or for The White Ribbon (later winning another one with Amour in 2012). Shot in black and white, this tautly constructed whodunnit is set on the eve of WWI in a staunchly Protestant village in northern Germany. The village is plagued by a series of mysterious accidents – the doctor tumbles from his horse, a farmer’s wife falls to her death from a barn loft – which become increasingly more sinister and brutal. Neighbour turns against neighbour, even as the cruelty pervading the village breeds fresh atrocities.
Fish Tank
Jury Prize
MA15+
UK, 2009
Director: Andrea Arnold
Starring: Katie Jarvis, Michael Fassbender, Kierston Wareing
What's it about?
Andrea Arnold won over the Jury with this powerful coming-of-age story about Mia (untrained actress Katie Jarvis), a teenager who always gets in trouble, and has become excluded from school and ostracised by her friends. In the hope of one day escaping the grim London council estate where she lives with her single, party-loving mother and little sister, she trains hard to become a hip-hop dancer. Things start to change with the arrival of her mother's new boyfriend Connor (Michael Fassbender), the only person who seems to genuinely care about her.
[link title="Why You Should Watch: Fish Tank" url="node/23278"]SBS On Demand: Andrea Arnold double bill
The Hunt
Best Actor: Mads Mikkelsen
MA15+
Denmark, Sweden, 2012
Director: Thomas Vinterberg
Starring: Mads Mikkelsen, Thomas Bo Larsen, Annika Wedderkopp
What's it about?
Mads Mikkelsen deservedly won the award for Best Actor in Cannes for his unforgettable performance as a village kindergarten teacher who is wrongly accused of sexually abusing children at the school, after a friend's young daughter falsely claims he exposed himself to her. The accusations see the tight-knit community rally against Lucas, who is forced to face a lonely fight for his life and dignity, as he is ostracised, arrested, and loses nearly all his friends. A chilling reflection on the dangers of mass hysteria, paranoia and ignorance.
[link title="The Hunt: Mads Mikkelsen interview" url="node/1165"]
[link title="The Hunt review: Group hysteria drama gets it right" url="node/5939"]SBS On Demand: Mads Mikkelsen Movie Marathon
