Though the 63rd Cannes Film Festival was an unusually low-key affair, the closing night Palme d’Or triumph for a Thai artist-filmmaker helped the show end on a high note, writes Saibal Chatterjee
Thai filmmaker Apichatpong Weerasethakul receives the Palme d'Or from French actress Charlotte Gainsbourg
The 63rd Cannes Film Festival shunned excess. It attracted fewer stars, delivered a lower dose of razzmatazz and its ‘selection officiel’ did not have the usual complement of films. It was probably symptomatic of a world only just beginning to emerge from a meltdown. However, the carnival-like atmosphere that inevitably engulfs the world’s premier film festival was anything but missing. It was business as usual on the French Riviera.
As the excitement surrounding the race for the Palme d’Or peaked, the jury’s choice of winner left a sizeable chunk of attendees a tad perplexed. For Thai avant-garde filmmaker Apichatpong “Joe” Weerasethakul’s singular triumph at was more than just a vindication of his brand of personal cinema.
The decision of the nine-member jury headed by Hollywood maverick Tim Burton to award one of cinema’s biggest prizes to Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives was nearly as much about art and politics.
But that is the way it almost always pans out in Cannes. The festival revels in springing surprises. It celebrates ground-breakers.
Weerasethakul is nothing if not one. His exquisite Uncle Boonmee, the first Asian film to win the Palme d’Or since 1997, pushes the boundaries of the cinematic medium with unwavering precision and intent – the defining attributes of the 39-year-old filmmaker’s art. His cinema makes no concessions to the norms of the mainstream Thai movie industry dominated by action flicks, period epics and horror tales.
In matters more mundane, the inventive director has for years been a vocal opponent of the censorship laws in place in his country and the Cannes award for his latest film is a tribute to the spirit of creative freedom that he represents at a time when Thailand is in the throes of unprecedented civil strife.
The political significance of this year’s Palme d’Or, therefore, was not lost on anybody. But, then, Cannes and politics have always gone hand in hand.
Thai filmmaker Apichatpong Weerasethakul receives the Palme d'Or from French actress Charlotte Gainsbourg
The 63rd Cannes Film Festival shunned excess. It attracted fewer stars, delivered a lower dose of razzmatazz and its ‘selection officiel’ did not have the usual complement of films. It was probably symptomatic of a world only just beginning to emerge from a meltdown. However, the carnival-like atmosphere that inevitably engulfs the world’s premier film festival was anything but missing. It was business as usual on the French Riviera.
As the excitement surrounding the race for the Palme d’Or peaked, the jury’s choice of winner left a sizeable chunk of attendees a tad perplexed. For Thai avant-garde filmmaker Apichatpong “Joe” Weerasethakul’s singular triumph at was more than just a vindication of his brand of personal cinema.
The decision of the nine-member jury headed by Hollywood maverick Tim Burton to award one of cinema’s biggest prizes to Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives was nearly as much about art and politics.
But that is the way it almost always pans out in Cannes. The festival revels in springing surprises. It celebrates ground-breakers.
Weerasethakul is nothing if not one. His exquisite Uncle Boonmee, the first Asian film to win the Palme d’Or since 1997, pushes the boundaries of the cinematic medium with unwavering precision and intent – the defining attributes of the 39-year-old filmmaker’s art. His cinema makes no concessions to the norms of the mainstream Thai movie industry dominated by action flicks, period epics and horror tales.
In matters more mundane, the inventive director has for years been a vocal opponent of the censorship laws in place in his country and the Cannes award for his latest film is a tribute to the spirit of creative freedom that he represents at a time when Thailand is in the throes of unprecedented civil strife.
The political significance of this year’s Palme d’Or, therefore, was not lost on anybody. But, then, Cannes and politics have always gone hand in hand.
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