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While not quite the Palme d’Or many were hoping for, Xavier Dolan — just 25, seemed more than happy with his award for the film Mommy, his mother-son drama starring Anne Dorval as the single mother of a young, violent ADHD son (Antoine-Olivier Pilon). Their relationship becomes more complicated when a mysterious neighbour (Suzanne Clément) offers help.
Dolan shared his third-place Jury Prize with French film legend Jean-Luc Godard, 83, who quite amazingly, given his reputation and career, won his very prize the main Cannes competition for his film, Goodbye to Language.
Canada`s second win came for David Cronenberg`s film Maps to the Stars when the film`s lead player, Julianne Moore, was given a Best Actress win. In thanking the Cannes jury she called the director “a visionary.”
This is the first time that two Canadian films have won prizes in the same year in the Palme competition. This is also the first time that the festival had selected three Canadian films amongst the 18 going for the golden palm. The third, Atom Egoyan`s The Captive, finished out of competition and suffered some unkind reviews after its screening.
This year`s nine person jury was headed by Jane Campion.
The Palme went to Winter Sleep by Turkey`s Nuri Bilge Ceylan, an overly long story that seems to taker forever (three and a half hours) to tell. The big story might actually be in the second-place winner, the Italian film. The Wonders. A slight coming-of-age story directed by Alice Rohrwacher. She was not only a first-time Palme competitor but one of only two female directors in the 18-film competition.
As promised earlier, Xavier Dolan, who spoke in both official languages, stated this win was for his generation. It was clear his hopes were that in recognizing him, then all young, Canadian filmmakers would gain more respect, more time in the limelight as their careers begin to flourish. Mommy is Dolan`s fifth film and fourth to premiere at Cannes. It was the first time one of his films was selected for competition and so the win was special.
There are no firm release dates for any of the three Canadian films. |
