CANNES (voa djc) – The Cannes Film Festival’s most coveted prize, the Palme d’Or (Golden Palm) was awarded Sunday to Roman Polanski for The Pianist, about a gifted Jewish musician who escapes deportation to a death camp from Nazi-occupied Poland. Mr. Polanski says the picture was his most personal film.
South Korea’s leading film director Im Kwon-Taek finally achieved international recognition, sharing the Best Director Prize for his movie “Chihwaseon” with U.S. director Paul Thomas Anderson’s “Punch-Drunk Love.”
The Cannes Jury Prize, headed this year headed by U.S. director David Lynch, went to the Palestinian film Divine Intervention by Elia Suleiman. The film took the risk of using humor to depict the tragedy of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Belgian actor Oliver Gourmet went home with the Best Actor award for his portrayal of a carpenter obsessed with a boy in the movie The Son.
Best actress went to Finland’s Kati Outinen, who played a Salvation Army worker who falls in love with the amnesia victim in The Man Without a Past.
A special prize marking Cannes’ 55th anniversary went to Michael Moore, whose Bowling for Columbine took a scathing look at the gun culture in the United States, starting with the 1999 massacre at the U.S. Columbine High School.
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“I always knew that one day I would make a film about this painful chapter in Polish history, but I didn’t want it to be autobiographical,” said Polish filmmaker Roman Polanski. – Photo: Florence Mathey |
It’s by reading the first chapter of Wladyslaw Szpilman’s memoirs that Polanski knew The Pianist would be his new film.” The film portrays the deportation of a brilliant Polish pianist, Wladyslaw Szpilman (Adrien Brody) and the pain and the struggle of living in the heart of the Warsaw ghetto. For Roman Polanski the strength of the book, written after the war by the author: “describes the reality of this period with surprising objectivity which is almost cool and scientific. In his book, there are bad Poles and good Poles, just like there were bad and good Jews, bad and good Germans…”
Survivor of the Krakow ghetto Roman Polanski “wanted to recreate (his) memories from childhood. It was also important for (him) to remain as close to reality as possible, and not make a film that was typically Hollywood”
Roman Polanski was the president of 1999’s Cannes Film Festival Jury and a member in 1968. The Pianist is his fourth film presented in Cannes.
Adrien BRODY Wladislaw Szpilman
Thomas KRETSCHMANN Captain Wilm Hosenfeld
Frank FINLAY The Father
Maureen LIPMAN The Mother
Emilia FOX Dorota
Ed STOPPARD Henryk
Julia RAYNER Regina
Jessica Kate MEYER Halina
A brilliant Polish pianist, a Jew, is confined in the Warsaw ghetto where he experiences suffering and humiliation. He escapes deportation and hides in the ruins of the city. A German officer comes to his aid and helps him to survive.
Szpilman
I’m not going anywhere.
Halina
Good! I’m not going anywhere either!
The Mother
Don’t be ridiculous, we’ve got to keep together
Szpilman
If I’m going to die, I prefer to die in my own home
The Mother
God forbid.
