Palme Reader

As the 60th annual Cannes Film Festival sprints towards the finish line, Todd McCarthy of Variety, has news on the fest's big winners:

"4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days," Cristian Mungiu's stark, trenchant drama about a woman's experiences getting an abortion in the waning days of Romania's communist era, won the Palme d'Or at the 60th edition of the Cannes Film Festival.

Screened on the festival's first full day, "4 Months" is one of the few Cannes films in memory to have led wire-to-wire in critics' polls and come out on top on awards night. IFC bought the picture during the fest for U.S. release.

But while few would dispute that the most important prize went to the right film, the remainder of the awards bore all the earmarks of compromise-necessitated give-and-take on a jury at odds with itself, so much did the selections zig-zag among the esoteric, the political and the female-driven.

For starters, the Grand Prix, the prestigious runner-up award, was given to Naomi Kawase's "The Mourning Forest," an ultra-arty, arid and slow French-Japanese co-production that had viewers and critics streaming for the exits early and was supported only by die-hard partisans on the fest circuit.

Then there was a specially created award, the 60th anniversary prize, for Gus Van Sant's "Paranoid Park ," a well crafted but narrowly conceived drama (also French-financed) of a teenager skateboarder in denial about having accidentally caused a man's death. Nod seemed odd on three counts, in that it is such a small film, that Van Sant only recently won the Palme d'Or, for "Elephant ," and that it was, by most estimations, the third most accomplished American film in the competition this year, after the unhonored "No Country for Old Men 2007)," from the Coen Brothers, and David Fincher's "Zodiac."...

Other prize winners can be found here...

As 4 Months...savors its big win in the south of France--Be sure to take time and remember the fallen soldiers of the US Armed Forces who have given their lives in defense of this country and in the name of freedom around the world.

The Last Reel offers a heartfelt thank you!!--Memorial Day 2007