Cannes awards give global recognition for Asian cinema

Cast members of "La Vie D'Adele" (L to R) French actress Lea Seydoux, director Abdellatif Kechiche and actress Adele Exarchopoulos pose during a photocall after being awarded with "Palme d'Or" for the film "La Vie d'Adele" at the 66th Cannes Film Festival in Cannes, France, on May 26, 2013. The festival ended here on Sunday night. <Xinhua/Gao Jing>

A clutch of awards at the Cannes Film Festival has given global prominence to what insiders say is a bold era in Asian filmmaking, where China is emerging as a creative power. Directors from China, Japan, Singapore and Cambodia took to the stage at the Palais des Festivals where the world’s most prestigious movie bash ended on Sunday.

Praise was heaped on China’s Jia Zhangke for his screenwriting of “A Touch of Sin” (Tian Zhu Ding), which he also directed — a tale of corruption, greed and exploitation in modern China that festival jury boss Steven Spielberg said was nothing less than “visionary.”

Jia, 43, was born in the poverty-stricken province of Shanxi, which has frequently provided a grim tableau for his lens. After graduating from Beijing’s prestigious national Film Academy, he produced a series of gritty films portraying low-life characters including pickpockets, thugs and prostitutes, set in Shanxi and filled with long, meandering dialogue in local dialect.

“A Touch of Sin,” based on four true stories of poor people driven to acts of desperation, contains his most outspoken criticism yet of capitalist-communist China.

When a trailer for it was released last week, Internet chat rooms buzzed with expectation that it would never be seen in China — or at least not in the form seen in Cannes.

But Jia said the film — part-funded by a state-owned organisation, the Shanghai Film Group Corporation — had been given official approval and would be shown uncut. “Cinema makes me live,” Jia said in faltering English as he received the best screenwriting award. “China is now changing so fast. I think film is the best way to me to look for freedom.”

Spielberg and a fellow Oscar winner, Taiwanese-born American Ang Lee, pointed to exciting times in China, although Lee also warned of risk.

“China is coming on strong not just as a marketplace for international motion pictures, but coming on strong as a creative force,” Spielberg told a press conference. Lee said “A Touch of Sin” was “an important movie” that the jury had unanimously liked.

“The Chinese market and the people who love movies is growing up to be very sizeable, (and) perhaps (will) even one day surpass English-speaking territories,” said Lee.

“So I really hope it grows, whether it is commercially or artistically or anything in between, (and) that everybody can grow healthily,” he said. “A vicious cycle… is a big trap we need to look out for,” he warned, without elaborating.

Another laureate was Japan’s Hirokazu Koreeda, whose “Like Father Like Son” — a portrayal of two families who discover their boys were swapped at birth — won the third-ranked award, the Jury Prize.

Koreeda, 50, gained international recognition with “Nobody Knows” (2004), in which Yuuya Yagira, then 14, became the youngest actor to win Cannes’ Best Actor award. The movie is based on a real-life story in which four children were abandoned by their mother and left to fend for themselves.

Also highly praised this year was Singapore’s Anthony Chen, who won the Camera d’Or for a debut feature. It is also the first time that a Singaporean feature has won at Cannes.

“Ilo Ilo,” set during the Asian financial crisis in 1997, explores the lives of Singapore’s workaholic, ambitious middle classes and the domestic help on which they depend. It tells the tale of a Singaporean family and their Filipina maid, who befriends the family’s troubled son.

“The director’s intelligence and sensitivity bring forth very important issues — childhood, immigration, class struggles and the economic crisis,” said the jury citation.

On Saturday, a documentary on the Khmer Rouge earned Cambodia’s Rithy Panh the top award in the “Un Certain Regard” category, which showcases emerging directors.

Entitled “L’Image Manquante” — “The Missing Picture” in English — the 95-minute work mixes archive footage of Khmer Rouge atrocities with hand-carved, painted figurines to represent Panh’s lost relatives.

The Hollywood Reporter praised it as “a deliberately distanced but often harrowing vision of a living hell.” <AFP>

Japanese director Hirokazu Kore-Eda poses during the Award Winners photocall after he won the Jury Prize for "Soshite Chichi Ni Naru" (Like Father, Like Son) at the 66th Cannes Film Festival in Cannes, France, on May 26, 2013. The festival ended here on Sunday night. <Xinhua/Gao Jing>

‘Blue is the Warmest Color’ wins Cannes’ Palme d’Or

The tender, sensual lesbian romance “Blue is the Warmest Color: The Life of Adele” won the hearts of the 66th Cannes Film Festival, taking its top honor, the Palme d’Or.

The jury, headed by Steven Spielberg, took the unusual move of awarding the Palme not just to Tunisian-born director Abdellatif Kechiche, but also to the film’s two stars: Adele Exarchopoulos and Lea Seydoux. The three clutched each other as they accepted the award, one of cinema’s greatest honors.

“The film had a beautiful French youth that I discovered during the long time filming the movie,” said Kechiche at the festival closing ceremony Sunday. “It taught me a lot about the spirit of freedom.”

Exarchopoulos stars in the French film as a 15-year-old girl whose life is changed when she falls in love with an older woman, played by Seydoux. The three-hour film caught headlines for its lengthy, graphic sex scenes, but bewitched festival goers with its heartbreaking coming of age story.

“Life of Adele,” which premiered at Cannes just days after France legalized gay marriage, was hailed as a landmark film for its intimate portrait of a same-sex relationship.

“The film is a great love story that made all of us feel privileged to be a fly on the wall, to see this story of deep love and deep heartbreak evolve from the beginning,” said Spielberg. “The director didn’t put any constraints on the narrative, on the storytelling. He let the scenes play as long as scenes play in real life.”

Spielberg called Kechiche (“Games of Love and Chance,” `’The Secret of the Gran”) a “sensitive, observant filmmaker.”

Chinese director Jia Zhangke (R) and his wife, actress Zhao Tao pose during a photocall after being awarded with "Best Screenplay" for the film "Tian Zhu Ding (A Touch of Sin)" at the 66th Cannes Film Festival in Cannes, France, on May 26, 2013. The festival ended here on Sunday night. <Xinhua/Gao Jing>

Cannes’ feting of “Life of Adele” came the same day tens of thousands of protesters marched against the new law Sunday in Paris, and police clashed with some demonstrators. Seydoux called the film “a witness to our time.”

“If it can show everyone tolerance, then it’s gratifying,” said Exarchopoulos.

But jury member Cristian Mungiu, the Romanian director, said current events had no bearing on the decision.

“We were giving awards to cinema,” said Mungiu. “Not for political statements.”

“Gay marriage is something that many brave states in America are resolving,” said Spielberg. “This film actually carries a wry, strong message, a very positive message.”

The Palme d’Or, which the jury selected from the 20 films in competition at Cannes, had been viewed as a relatively wide-open race ahead of Sunday’s awards. The festival audience embraced the jury’s choice, giving Kechiche and his two stars a standing ovation. “Life of Adele” had ranked highest in critics polls at the French Riviera festival.

The jury otherwise spread the awards around.

Director and jury member Agnes Varda, left, and jury member and actress Zhang Ziyi, right, present Anthony Chen, center, the Camera d'Or award for his film Ilo Ilo during an awards ceremony at the 66th international film festival, in Cannes, southern France, Sunday, May 26, 2013. <AP/Invision/Todd Williamson>

The Coen brothers’ 1960s folk revival “Inside Llewyn Davis” earned the Grand Prix, Cannes’ second most prestigious award. The film’s breakout star, Oscar Isaac, accepted the award for the Coens, who won the Palme in 1991 for “Barton Fink.”

Best actor went to 76-year-old Bruce Dern for Alexander Payne’s father-son road trip “Nebraska.” Berenice Bejo, the “Artist” star, won best actress for her performance as a single mother balancing a visiting ex-husband and a new fianc？in Asghar Farhadi’s “The Past.”

The jury prize, Cannes’ third top award, went to Kore-eda Hirokazu’s gentle switched-at-birth drama “Like Father, Like Son.” Mexican filmmaker Amat Escalante took best director for his brutal drug war drama “Heli.” Best screenplay went to Zhangke Jia’s “A Touch Of Sin,” a four-part depiction of the violence wrought by China’s economic boom.

Singaporean director Anthony Chen won the Camera d’Or, the award for best first feature, for his “Ilo Ilo.” Set during the Asia financial crisis in 1997, the film is about a Singaporean family and its new maid.

Moon Byoung-Gon is presented the Best Short Film award for his film Safe during an awards ceremony at the 66th international film festival, in Cannes, southern France, Sunday, May 26, 2013. <AP/Invision/Todd Williamson>

Spielberg, whose jury also included Ang Lee, Nicole Kidman and Christoph Waltz, said the group bonded immediately, joking: “I wanted to take them all home with me.”

The Palme d’Or can catapult a filmmaker to international renown, and significantly raise the profile of a film. “Life of Adele” was picked up for U.S. distribution during Cannes by IFC’s Sundance Selects. Last year’s winner, Michael Haneke’s “Amour,” went on to win best foreign language film at the Oscars, as well as land the rare best picture nomination for a foreign film. In 2011, Terrence Malick’s “The Tree of Life” topped Cannes.

Sunday’s awards encompassed films from France, Japan, the United States, Mexico, China and Singapore.

Said Spielberg: “We crossed the world through these films.” <AP/Newsis>