Lesbian Drama Triumphs at Cannes as Douglas Wins Nothing

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By Farah Nayeri - May 26, 2013

“Blue Is the Warmest Colour,” a graphic lesbian love story directed by Abdellatif Kechiche, won the Palme d’Or at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, where Steven Spielberg headed the jury.



The runner-up Grand Prix went to Joel Coen and Ethan Coen’s “Inside Llewyn Davis,” with Justin Timberlake. And in the best-actor category, Michael Douglas -- who played the eccentric pianist Liberace in Steven Soderbergh’s “Behind the Candelabra” -- lost out to Bruce Dern, the wandering old man in Alexander Payne’s “Nebraska.”

Critics adored the winning movie, known in French as “La Vie D’Adele -- Chapitre 1 & 2.” Three hours long, the film is about a 15-year-old girl whose life is transformed when she meets a young woman with short blue hair. Spielberg, announcing the Palme d’Or winner on stage at the closing ceremony, said it also went to actresses Lea Seydoux and Adele Exarchopoulos.

Stepping up to the microphone, the film’s French-Tunisian director dedicated his prize “to the great youth of France, who I met during the lengthy shoot, and who taught me a great deal about the spirit of freedom and togetherness.”

He also dedicated it to the rebellious youth of Tunisia -- instigators of the Arab Spring -- “for their aspiration to live freely, express themselves freely, and love freely.”

Founded in 1946 in the French Riviera resort, Cannes is the world’s leading film festival. Orson Welles, Luis Bunuel, and Ingmar Bergman were early winners. The festival is both a venue for splashy Hollywood-movie premieres and a springboard for low-budget international titles; 4,000 journalists cover it.
Best Actress

The best-actress award went to France’s Berenice Bejo (the dancing ingenue in “The Artist”) for her role as a reality-bitten divorcee in Asghar Farhadi’s “The Past.” Set in the Paris suburbs, the film contrasts with Farhadi’s previous work, Oscar-winning “A Separation,” which took place in Tehran.

The evening’s other loser was Italy’s Paolo Sorrentino, whose “The Great Beauty” was a sarcastic Fellinian reverie set in 21st-century Rome -- a city of coke, cardinals, and Botox -- with actor Toni Servillo the world-weary protagonist.

As best director, the jury recognized Amat Escalante, director of the violent Mexican movie “Heli.”

Gay love appeared in more than one movie at this year’s festival -- even as tens of thousands of protesters took to the streets of Paris yesterday to protest the recent legalization of gay marriage.

Soderbergh’s “Candelabra” had Douglas, a.k.a. Liberace, and his much younger lover Scott Thorson (Matt Damon) kissing and sharing tubs and beds. “Stranger by the Lake,” a French movie directed by Alain Guiraudie, showed one man falling dangerously in love with another he met at a lakeside cruising spot; there was graphic sex there, too.
Tepid Gatsby

The festival started with a splashy red-carpet premiere for Baz Luhrmann’s “The Great Gatsby,” which had received tepid reviews during its North American debut five days earlier.

Actor Leonardo DiCaprio took the opportunity to boast of the movie’s $51 million in opening-weekend box office sales. Hours later, he joined revelers at an exclusive party in a mega-tent that featured live performances by Bryan Ferry and Florence Welch (of Florence + the Machine).

Otherwise, Cannes this year offered a new kind of offscreen action. No sooner had director Sofia Coppola screened her movie about teenage burglars in Hollywood (“The Bling Ring”) than real-life robbers, as if on cue, started fanning out across the French Riviera.

One set of thieves stole an estimated 1 million euros ($1.3 million) in jewelry from a hotel safe in central Cannes. The gems from the house of Chopard were for stars to borrow and wear on the red carpet. Chopard also happens to be the designer of the Palme d’Or.

Days later, a 2 million euro diamond necklace, loaned to a wearer for a gala at the exclusive Hotel du Cap, vanished overnight from a guarded area of the hotel. Geneva-based jeweler De Grisogono issued a brief statement reporting the loss.

Muse highlights include Guy Collins and John Mariani on wine, Scott Reyburn and Frederik Balfour on the art market, Farah Nayeri on film and Gwen Ackerman on Israel art.

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26 May 2013 Last updated at19:08 GMT


Cannes Film Festival: Lesbian drama wins Palme d'Or

COMMENTS (101)

Director Abdellatif Kechiche accepted the award with actresses Lea Seydoux (left) and Adele Exarchopoulos

[size=1.077em]Blue is the Warmest Colour, an intimate love story about two young French women, has won the Palme d'Or for best film at the Cannes Film Festival.
[size=1.077em]It has attracted attention for its explicit sex scenes as well as the acclaimed performances of actresses Adele Exarchopoulos and Lea Seydoux.
[size=1.077em]Hollywood veteran Bruce Dern won best actor for his performance in Nebraska.
[size=1.077em]And French star Berenice Bejo, known for silent film The Artist, won best actress for her role in The Past.
[size=1.077em]The winners were picked from the 20 films in competition and were named at the festival's closing ceremony on Sunday.
[size=1.077em]Blue is the Warmest Colour is a three-hour coming-of-age movie in which Exarchopoulos plays a 15-year-old who falls in love with an older woman, played by Seydoux.

Berenice Bejo shot to fame in Oscar-winning silent film The Artist

[size=1.077em]Directed by Abdellatif Kechiche, it won rave reviews in Cannes, being described as "epic yet intimate" by The Guardian.

[size=1.077em]But it also shocked some critics. Variety magazine said it contained "the most explosively graphic lesbian sex scenes in recent memory".

[size=1.077em]The Hollywood Reporter said the "sprawling drama" would "raise eyebrows" as it crossed the barrier "between performance and the real deal".

[size=1.077em]Some had questioned whether the sex scenes may make it too explicit for the top prize.

[size=1.077em]But director Steven Spielberg, who chaired the jury, told reporters: "I think it will get a lot of play... I think this film carries a very strong message, a very positive message."

[size=1.077em]In an unusual move, Spielberg awarded the prize to the two lead actresses as well as the director.



Oscar Isaac earned acclaim for his role in the Inside Llewyn Davis
[size=1.077em]Accepting the prize, Abdellatif Kechiche said: "I should like to dedicate this film to the wonderful youth of France whom I met during the long period while making this film.

[size=1.077em]"Those young people taught me a lot about the spirit of freedom and living together."

[size=1.077em]Blue is the Warmest Colour prevented US film-makers the Coen brothers from repeating their Palme d'Or success of 1991, when they won for Barton Fink.

[size=1.077em]Their latest film Inside Llewyn Davis, about the 1960s New York folk scene, won this year's Grand Prix, effectively the runners-up prize.

[size=1.077em]The best actor award marks a return to the critical bosom for Bruce Dern, who is best known for roles in 1970s films including Coming Home, The Cowboys and The Great Gatsby.

[size=1.077em]Now 76, he has won for playing an ageing, alcoholic father on a road trip to collect a lottery prize. The film, titled Nebraska, was directed by Sideways and The Descendants film-maker Alexander Payne.


Steven Spielberg led the jury, which also included Nicole Kidman

[size=1.077em]Berenice Bejo's best actress prize has proved that her performance in The Artist was not a one-off. Her film The Past is a family drama made by Iranian director Asghar Farhadi as the follow-up to his Oscar-nominated 2011 drama A Separation.

[size=1.077em]Mexico's Amat Escalante, who made brutal drama Heli about the country's drugs war, was something of a surprise choice for best director.

[size=1.077em]China's Jia Zhangke won best screenplay for A Touch of Sin, an examination of rampant corruption in his country.
[size=1.077em]The Jury Prize went to Like Father, Like Son, about two families who discover that their six-year-old boys were switched at birth, directed by Japan's Hirokazu Kore-eda.
[size=1.077em]Films that missed out included Behind the Candelabra, in which Michael Douglas plays the legendarily flamboyant entertainer Liberace, and Italian director Paolo Sorrentino's The Great Beauty, a sumptuous story about an ageing novelist.
[size=1.077em]Spielberg was joined on the jury by Life of Pi director Ang Lee, actress Nicole Kidman and Oscar-winner Christoph Waltz.
[size=1.077em]The other judges were We Need To Talk About Kevin film-maker Lynne Ramsay, French actor Daniel Auteuil, Romanian director Cristian Mungiu, Japanese director Naomi Kawase and Bollywood star Vidya Balan.