Damfino

Groucho's Movie Challenge Week 11: The Cannes Film Festival

What is Groucho’s Movie Challenge? Its mission is simple: let us all, as a forum, work to seek out films that might otherwise slip our radar. Each week, anybody who wants to participate will see a film within the guidelines, and return back to the forum to report on the film they saw. It’s easy, it’s fun, and everybody can participate. It’s not a trivia contest…it’s not a game…it’s merely a way we can all be exposed to new avenues of film appreciation…or at the very least see a good flick or two.

Week 11: The Cannes Film Festival

The Cannes Film Festival is held annually in May and it is one of the most prestigious film festivals in the world. The top prize of the festival is the Palm d'Or (Golden Palm) for the festival's best picture.

The challenge this week is to see a movie screened at Cannes. It should be a film you've never seen before and preference should be given to Palm d'Or winners. Report back with comments on your experience.

Here is a partial list of notable Palm d'Or winners (some years have two winners due to tie votes). Follow the link below for the complete list at IMDB.

2004 Fahrenheit 911
2003 Elephant
2002 Pianist, The
2000 Dancer in the Dark
1997 A Taste of Cherry & The Eel
1996 Secrets & Lies
1995 Underground
1994 Pulp Fiction
1993 Farewell My Concubine & The Piano
1991 Barton Fink
1990 Wild at Heart
1989 Sex, Lies, and Videotape
1988 Pelle the Conqueror
1984 Paris, Texas
1980 All That Jazz & Kagemusha
1979 Apocalypse Now & The Tin Drum
1977 Padre Padrone
1976 Taxi Driver
1974 Conversation, The
1970 MASH
1969 If....
1967 Blowup
1964 Umbrellas of Cherbourg
1963 The Leopard
1960 Dolce Vita, La
1959 Black Orpheus
1958 The Cranes Are Flying
1955 Marty
1954 Gate of Hell
1953 Wages of Fear
1952 Othello
1949 Third Man, The


Click here for the IMDB list of Palm d'Or winners

To see the each year's list of films in competition, click on the individual years at imdb. There are usually about 20 films in competition each year.


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Missed a previous version of the Movie Challenge? It’s never to late to play:

Week 1: Old Movie Week
Week 2: Foreign Film Week
Week 3: Silence is Golden
Week 4: The Truth is Stranger
Week 5: IMDB Top 250
Week 6: Unfamiliar Genres
Week 7: Martial Arts Films
Week 8: Watch a movie you didn't originally like
Week 9: If it ain't broke...FIX IT ANYWAY!
Week 10: The Greatest Year (The Year you were born)

wendersfan

I've seen every Palme d'Or winner that's available on video, and some that aren't. The Most recent Jury Grand Prize (aka '2nd Place') winner I haven't seen is Burnt By the Sun (1994). I've just put it at the top of my Netflix queue.

RyoHazuki

I think these should be changed to Groucholess Movie Challenge.

Damfino

Well, Groucho has sort of abandoned these threads, but he's entitled to keep his credit as founder.

littlefuzzy

His last post was on 5-14...


Unfortunately, Whale Rider wasn't nominated. I was going to watch this, as I just caught a glimpse of it on TV, and really liked what I saw. Luckily, I have M*A*S*H (unwatched,) which won in 1970.

Corvin

This thread needs more Groucho.

I'm going to be checking out Dancer in the Dark.

Cusm

Cool, I just got Elephant yesterday.

I noticed that you missed a mvoie on your list, you need to add The Brown Bunny.

Damfino

The Brown Bunny didn't win the Palme d'Or last year (Elephant did). but if you'd rather watch The Brown Bunny, be my guest!

Cusm

And someone said this thread needed more Groucho, I see I get the same reaction that he does...

cupcake jesus

Well, I've always been interested in seeing "Blowup" and "Black Orpheus," so here we go.

Just saw "Elephant," and liked it quite a bit--it seems to be a companion to "Gerry," which I caught on the Sundance channel the other night. "Elephant" is very accessible for an admitted "art film," and while I didn't have an immediate visceral reaction to it, thoughts of it seem to pop in my head every once in a while. It really sticks with you. Out of that list, I'd also suggest "Paris, Texas," and "The Conversation."

Funny, I don't own either.

karnblack

Finally, an excuse to watch The Third Man. I've had this DVD for a while, but I haven't gotten around to watching it. Now's my chance.

DVD Smurf

Paris, Texas want this to be released on DVD soon... I think I might watch Burnt By the Sun tomorrow...

JasonF

I picked up The Pianist last night and will watch it this weekend.

mljones99

I'll be watching The Golden Bowl on IFC tonight, does that count?

Damfino

Yes, it played at Cannes in the year 2000.

wmansir

ditto.

Damfino

Down By Law (1986)

Director: Jim Jarmusch (Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai, Night on Earth, Mystery Train)

Cast:
Tom Waits
John Lurie
Roberto Benigni

"It is a sad and beautiful world."

This is one of six Jim Jarmusch movies to appear at Cannes and this was the movie that introduced Roberto Benigni to American audiences.

Jim Jarmusch movies are an acquired taste. His films are always stylish and character driven. Down by Law is no exception. Here we have a hard luck disk jockey played by Tom Waits who has been framed for murder (Is this the same character he played in Mystery Train?) and a pimp who was set up for the crime of trying to lure a teenage girl into prostitution (entrapment?). Anyway, these two men find themselves sharing a prison cell and not liking each other until an Italian tourist (Benigni) convicted of murder joins their cell and gives them something in common (hating Roberto).

When the three men decide to escape the movie doesn't spend a lot of time on planning the escape, instead when we go from the idea to the actual escape in one jump cut. This device works for the movie since the film is about the characters and not about the fact that they are escaped prisoners.

The only thing that didn't work for me in the movie was the contrived part for Nicoletta Braschi (The future Mrs. Benigni) as the owner of an Italian restaurant in the middle of nowhere.

Note: I was planning on watching The Tin Drum for this challenge, but it's still in USPS limbo. Oh well.

Also: Does anybody know when Night on Earth is coming to DVD?

talemyn

I happened to rent this "just in time" too, but I did not enjoy it as much as you did. I thought that it was a very "pretty" film and fairly strong technically. I also thought that it was a fairly good depiction of the stereotypical life of an American teenager complete with issues, problems, etc.

However I was extremely disappointed with three things:

1) I thought that the movie did nothing to give any kind of realistic insight as to a cause, reason, input into the whole "grand finale" . . . both in the build-up beforehand and the aftermath
2) The "reasons" that they did include were very superficial and convenient.
3) I thought that there were some random extraneous plot/story points . . . for example:
I'm glad that I saw it overall, but, especially since I think it is a very important issue and I have a particularly soft spot in my heart for teenagers, I thought it fell short of what it could have been.

karnblack

I watched The Third Man. A very excellent movie, but I think it looses some steam once you find out who the third man is. Also, I think I was expecting too much from this film. I think it has been hyped too much at least in my mind. Definately worth watching.

Damfino

talemyn

Had it been told as a documentary, I think it could have pulled that off, but it was told as a story and, as a story, it came off as being really structurally weak (to me).

I agree that the approach that you mentioned is probably the best and most powerful one for the subject matter, but, to me, that doesn't make for a very strong film.
I agree completely, however, that "Hollywood ending" would have been ridiculous.

littlefuzzy

I watched M*A*S*H, which was entertaining, but different in many ways from the TV series that followed.

NavinJohnson

Watched Blowup for the first time Sunday and it became an instant favorite for me.