27/05/2002 - Winners & losers of the 55th Cannes Film Festival. A large number of quality films made the jury's work harder

No doubt some of you will remember the scene from Fellini´s I Vitelloni where the company of street entertainers comes to Rimini and belts out a patriotic song from the First World War about the beauties of the city of Trieste. That song became popular with artists working in post-WWII Italy when it was still unclear whether Trieste would be returned to Italy. No sooner audiences heared the first notes, they immediately broke into rounds of spontaneous and enthusiastic applause.
Without in any way offending Roman Polanski´s The Pianist - an excellent film in many ways - his winning the Palme d´Or reminded me of that particular scene. How could the jury allow a pan-European megaproduction about the Holocaust directed by a world famous filmmaker to leave empty-handed? After all, it´s not as if anyone found the courage to stand up and voice their disapproval, is it? In addition, the jury had to find a way to apologise for giving Palestinian Elia Suleiman an important award for Divine Intervention.
That said, the jury had its work cut out for it this year; there were so many top quality films, and each with its own distinct character. The jury showed its guts in the awards it presented to the actors. Despite being able to choose from an authentic galaxy of stars, they went for two brilliant unknowns whose names are familiar to perhaps a handful of film fans. Belgium´s Olivier Gourmet, star of the Dardennes´ magnificent Le fils -The Son and Finland´s Kati Outinene, the pet actress of Aki Kaurismaki whose The Man without a Past was the film of this festival.
What can we say about another film that the jury totally ignored, Marco Bellocchio´s My Mother´s Smile? Apart from the fact that it is the first ever film to find France´s two most important film publications, Cahiers du Cinéma and Positif in total agreement. The film also distinguished itself by winning an all-important Mention by OCIC (the International Catholic Cinema Organisation) despite numerous clashes with the Vatican daily, Osservatore Romano, and Italy´s Catholic Film Center who called it «misleading» and «a poor film».

(Translated from Italian)