#3
Secrets & Lies
49th Cannes Film Festival
DIRECTED BY: Mike Leigh
Mike Leigh has another film at Cannes this year with Mr. Turner, which stars Timothy Spall in the title role, while another collaboration between Leigh and Spall won the Palm d’Or back in 1996.
Along with Spall, Secrets & Lies stars Brenda Blethyn, Phyllis Logan, Marianne Jean-Baptiste and Claire Rushbrook and while it’s no easy task trying to decide on which film of Leigh’s is his “best”, this one is definitely in the running.
Like most any feature from Leigh, it’s the performances that stand out as Jean-Baptiste plays a successful, black optemetrist seeking out her birth mother, which brings her to the door of a Cynthia Purley (Blethyn). The realization her birth mother is white obviously bleeds into the film’s title and I can promise you, if you have not seen this film you will be astonished once you do and realize what you’ve been missing out on seeing all these years.
#2
La Dolce Vita
13th Cannes Film Festival
DIRECTED BY: Federico Fellini
When I began my Best Movies section my first official entry was Federico Fellini‘s La Dolce Vita so it shouldn’t be any surprise it lands a spot so high on this list. That said I won’t bore you with any additional rambling when it comes to the film here, but if you’re interested you can view my full essay on La Dolce Vita right here.
#1
The Wages of Fear*
6th Cannes Film Festival
DIRECTED BY: Henri-Georges Clouzot
I absolutely love the work of Henri-Georges Clouzot, this being the first film of his I’d ever seen. To know it’s a 147-minute film featuring two pairs of men driving trucks over a mountain pass probably doesn’t make it sound like the most entertaining of films. To add the fact they are carrying unstable nitroglycerin and any small bump in the rugged terrain could blow them to bits does add a little to the proceedings, but it also means these fellas are going to have to drive pretty slow. So where is the intrigue? What makes it so great?
Clouzot’s direction and the story’s ability to draw you in through the characters and the political themes driving the feature make every scene absolutely harrowing. These men are desperate for the money that waits for them upon successful delivery of their cargo and they must work together to carry out the task. Conflicted personalities rear their ugly heads and tension mounts as narrow turns and collapsing bridges make for a rough path.
This is the film William Friedkin successfully remade into Sorcerer, which I recently reviewed. See the original and then see Friedkin’s and enjoy an impressive one-two punch as two master filmmakers buck the norm with a story most wouldn’t dare touch.
And that does it for me. Others I considered for the top ten include Roberto Rossellini‘s Rome, Open City*, Martin Scorsese‘s Taxi Driver, Coppola’s Apocalypse Now, Akira Kurosawa‘s Kagemusha, Cristian Mungiu‘s 4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days and Lars von Trier‘s Dancer in the Dark.
Other Cannes winners I’ve seen include Black Orpheus, Virdinia, The Leopard, If…*, MASH*, A Man and a Woman*, All that Jazz, Missing, Paris, Texas, Barton Fink, The Piano, The Pianist, Fahrenheit 9/11, The Class, The Tree of Life, Amour, Blue is the Warmest Color, Marty and The Lost Weekend*.
So now I give you the floor…. What are your favorite Cannes Film Festival winners? Speak up in the comments below.
