Ostlund also won for his previous filmThe Square,about pretension and moral compromise in the art world,in 2017. He now joins a select group of male double winners – including Francis Ford Coppola,Ken Loach and Michael Haneke - who have all,as one Twitter wit put it,won Cannes as often as all the women combined.
Ruben Ostlund,winner of the Palme d’Or for Triangle of Sadness.AP
WhileTriangle of Sadness has plenty to say about inequality and the social order,it was a scene of mass seasickness when a storm hits the boat during a lavish dinner that made it the talk of the town when it was shown the previous weekend. As almost everyone else is vomiting up the colourful remains of mindful eating,the Marxist captain – played by Woody Harrelson – and a cheerfully amoral Russian oligarch conduct a drunken political debate over the ship’s loudspeaker system. It was a long scene of stupendous comic brio and a high yuck factor.
“We wanted after the screening[for people] to go out together and have something to talk about,” said Ostlund after he received the Palme,arguably the top prize in the film world. “All of us agree that the unique thing with cinema is that we’re watching together. So we have to save something to talk about but we should also have fun and be entertained.” In some good news for Australian Ostlund fans,his next feature is set on a long-haul flight from London to Sydney.
The festival’s second prize,the Grand Prix,was shared between veteran French auteur Claire Denis for her existential espionage filmStars at Noon and Flemish director Lucas Dhont forClose,about two boys whose childhood friendship starts to fray when they move to high school. Other awards skewed to films from beyond Europe,a welcome response from a festival bound by tradition that can often seem stuffy and insular.
Korea’s powerhouse film industry claimed two prizes. Best director went to Park Chan-wook for his murder intrigueDecision to Leave,while Song Kang-ho won best actor for his role inBroker as a dealer who takes unwanted babies and sells them to aspiring parents.Broker was set in Korea but directed by Japanese maestro Hirokazu Koreeda,who turns a potentially sordid subject into the sort of sweet drama about ad-hoc families we have come to expect from this director.
Director Ruben Ostlund is awarded the Palm d’Or Award for the movie Triangle of Sadness.Getty
From somewhat closer to home,Zar Amir Ebrahimi won the prize for best actress for her role as an investigative journalist inHoly Spider,an Iranian film based on a real case of a serial killer of prostitutes who claimed to be doing God’s work. Swedish-born filmmaker Tarik Saleh won best script for a political thriller set in Egypt,Boy From Heaven,about a scholarship boy in a religious university who steers a course between ideologically driven groups,each trying to install their favoured imam in the lifelong job as head of his college.
The important Camera D’Or for best first film,which can go to a film in any section of the festival,was awarded toWar Pony,set in the impoverished Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota and both written and performed by Lakota people. It was directed by Gina Gammell and Riley Keough,who is Elvis Presley’s granddaughter and was thus back on the red carpet for the out-of-competition premiere of Baz Luhrmann’s glitzy biopicElvis.
Cannes 75 was agreed among the press during the 12 days of non-stop films to be a less than vintage year,with no obvious masterpieces. In retrospect,however,there were plenty of strong films that should pull people back into the arthouse cinemas as they are released over the coming year. There were also a couple of blockbusters to remind everyone of the power of popular cinema – Top Gun Maverick,with Tom Cruise in attendance,andElvis – and the rich fantasy3000 Years of Longing from George Miller. Most importantly,the world had moved on from COVID caution to return to the Cannes Film Festival. That,in itself,made it a year to remember.
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