Pictures from the Cannes Film Festival

I can't believe that two months ago I was at the Cannes Film Festival. I also cannot believe it has taken me this long to post my pictures from the fesitval onto this blog. But here they are at long last, a selection of my pictures from the 2009 Cannes Film Festival. Enjoy!

Back

I have returned to New Jersey after two weeks in Cannes. It was a great experience. I'll post pictures from my trip this week. 

Les Winners

I'm leaving for the US in a few minutes so I am going to quickly post the Cannes Film Festival winners.

Palme d'Or

The White Ribbon - dir. Michael Haneke

Grand Prix

A Prophet - dir. Jacques Audiard

Special career prize

Alain Resnais

Best Actor

Christoph Waltz - Inglourious Basterds

Best Actress

Charlotte Gainsbourg - Antichrist

Best Director

Filipino Brillante Mendoza - Kinatay

Best Screenplay

Mei Feng - Spring Fever

Jury prize (shared)

Fish Tank - dir. Andrea Arnold

Thirst - dir. South Korean Park Chan-Wook

Camera D’Or (for debut film)

Samson and Delilah - dir. Warwick Thornton

Best short film

Arena - dir. Joao Salaviza

Last Few Days

Today is the last day of the festival. I saw Un Prophete, which is rumored to win the Palme d'Or. I'm sad the festival is over but I'm looking forward to the rest of the summer.

I finished my internship on Friday. It was a good experience, but I never want to work in pubic relations again.

Yesterday I went on a day trip to Eze, a small town about 40 minutes from Cannes. I took a ton of pictures and video which I will upload - along with all of my pictures when I get back to NJ.

I'll update again when I get back to the States.

L'Avventura

Saw Antonioni's L'Avventura last night and much of the cast was at the screening. I've seen L'Avventura before but not in a theater. I'm now convinced that movie theaters were invented for this film. While it is great on a small screen, Antonioni's long, drawn out shots that depend entirely on compostition are more impactful when seen on the big screen.

The best part of the screening was a shot in which Monica Vitti walks out onto a porch. This shot is the poster for this years festival and when the audience realized this, everyone clapped. If there is one thing I will miss about Cannes it is how the audience claps for everything, EVERYTHING. It doesn't matter if what is great, like this shot, is in the middle of the film, somebody always claps.