ENTERTAINMENT / Movies
Romanian abortion film wins Cannes prize
(AP)
Updated: 2007-05-28 08:45
Romanian director Cristian Mungiu (C) holds the Palme d'Or award for his
film '4 Luni, 3 Saptamini Si 2 Zile' ('4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days') as
he is watched by British actress Charlotte Rampling (L) and hugged by
Jury President British director Stephen Frears during the awards ceremony
at the 60th Cannes Film Festival May 27, 2007.[AP]
CANNES, France - A harrowing film about illegal abortion in Communist-era
Romania beat 21 movies by well-known directors such as Quentin Tarantino,
Ethan and Joel Coen, and Wong Kar-wai to win the Cannes Film Festival's
top prize Sunday.
Romanian director Cristian Mungiu's low-budget film, "4 Months, 3 Weeks
and 2 Days," depicts the horrors a student goes through to ensure her
friend can have a secret abortion.
Mungiu, who was awarded the Palme d'Or by actress Jane Fonda, said he
didn't even have enough money to shoot the film just six months ago. He
hoped the win would inspire other "small filmmakers from small countries."
"You don't necessarily need a big budget and big stars to tell a story
that everyone will listen to," said 39-year-old Mungiu, the first
Romanian to win Cannes' top prize.
The films shown at Cannes' 60th anniversary edition ran the gamut of
weighty subjects, from death and loss to abortion and aging. The winners
of the awards, announced by jury president Stephen Frears (director of
"The Queen"), reflected the darker themes.
Japanese director Naomi Kawase's "Mogari No Mori" ("The Mourning Forest")
took the festival's grand prize, the second-highest award, in a surprise.
The film is about two people �� a retirement home resident and a
caretaker at the center �� struggling to overcome the deaths of loved
ones.
The prize for best director went to American Julian Schnabel for his
French-language film "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly," based on a
memoir by a French magazine editor who became paralyzed after a stroke
and learned to write again by painstakingly blinking his eyelid.
The movie is Schnabel's third, after "Basquiat" and "Before Night Falls."
The jury awarded a special prize to director Gus Van Sant for his
impressionistic "Paranoid Park," which depicts a teenage skateboarder
whose life is turned upside down when he accidentally kills a security
guard. Van Sant, who won the festival's top prize in 2003 for "Elephant,"
recruited untrained actors on MySpace.com and shot the film in just a few
weeks.
Two films shared the jury prize: "Persepolis," Marjane Satrapi's moving
and humorous adaptation of her graphic novels about growing up during and
after Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution, which she co-directed with Vincent
Paronnaud; and "Stellet Licht" ("Silent Light"), Carlos Reygadas' tale of
forbidden love set among Mennonite farmers of northern Mexico.
Acting honors went to Russia's Konstantin Lavronenko, who played a
troubled husband "The Banishment," a drama about a couple whose marriage
disintegrates during a stay in the countryside. The prize for best
actress went to South Korea's Jeon Do-yeon, who played a widow struggling
to cope with her husband's death in "Secret Sunshine."
German writer and director Fatih Akin's "The Edge of Heaven," a
German-Turkish cross-cultural tale of loss, mourning and forgiveness, won
the prize for best screenplay.
Several high-profile movies that screened at Cannes were not in the
running for prizes, including Michael Moore's "Sicko," "Ocean's Thirteen"
starring George Clooney and Matt Damon, and "A Mighty Heart," featuring
Angelina Jolie as the widow of slain journalist Daniel Pearl.
The Coen brothers' "No Country for Old Men," a bloody, darkly funny tale
about a ruthless killer in Texas, was hailed by critics but snubbed by
the jury. Other films up for the top prize included Tarantino's "Death
Proof," Wong's "My Blueberry Nights," and David Fincher's "Zodiac."
In a big weekend for Romania, another film from the country took honors
in a secondary competition called "Un Certain Regard." Director Cristian
Nemescu died in a car crash last year at age 27, leaving his "California
Dreamin'" incomplete. Jurors had initially decided not to judge the film,
about U.S. soldiers in a small Romanian village, but changed their minds
when they saw it.
On Saturday night, festival organizers screened the late Henry Fonda's
"Twelve Angry Men," then surprised his daughter, Jane Fonda, with a
special lifetime achievement award at a gala dinner.
Festival President Gilles Jacob recounted Fonda's career highs and lows,
including her controversial trip to North Vietnam in 1972, joking that he
never thought the festival would honor someone who had been "spied on and
hounded by the FBI."
The 69-year-old Fonda, visibly moved, put the focus back on her father,
responding in excellent French, "For my father, his films were his way of
representing justice, quality and democracy." She added her hope that one
day, "the United States will again become the country that he stood for."
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