It was an elated and humbled Mads Mikkelsen who accepted the price for Best Actor at the Cannes Film Festival this past weekend. The 46-year old Dane had his big break in Denmark, as Tonny in Nicolas Winding Refn’s ‘Pusher’ and garnered attention on the international scene as the bond villain Le Chiffre in the 2006 James Bond film ‘Casino Royale’.

Mikkelsen won the prestigious Palms as the first Danish Actor to ever get the honors. He won for his portrait of Lucas in Thomas Vinterberg’s psychological thriller ‘The Hunt’. Lucas is in a new relationship and a new job after a rough divorce, trying to start anew. But when a rumor turns viscous, accusing the mild-mannered kindergarten teacher of sexually abusing a child, the noose starts to tighten around the neck of an innocent man.

The film itself was well received at Cannes and the press was buzzing with questions as the rumors were that director Vinterberg’s wife, who is 9 months pregnant, was due on Sunday – the night of the award show.

But the water held and despite losing out on the Palme d’Or of Michael Haneke’s French film ‘Amour’ (Love), the filmmaker and the production company Zentropa were pleased to see Mads Mikkelsen be handed the prize, by Gong Li.

The Palme d’Or winner, Haneke, is the 7th director to be rewarded twice with the highest honor at Cannes, having previously won for ‘Das Weiße Band – Eine Deutche Kindergeschichte’ (The White Ribbon) in 2009. ‘Amour’ is the story of Georges and Anne, a cultivated, retired couple whose love is put to the ultimate test when the wife’s health and mental condition begins to deteriorate rapidly after an attack. French acting legends Emmanuelle Riva, 85, and Jean-Louis Trintignant, 81, hold the leading roles.

Next up for Mikkelsen is the filming of ‘The Necessary Death of Charlie Countryman’, which has just started in Bucharest. He takes on another villainous role, this time opposite Shia LaBeouf and Evan Rachel Wood. After that, the danish heart-throb is scheduled to appear in Asger Leth’s (‘Man On A Ledge’) new, creative production ‘Move On’ where user interaction will steer the narrative and shooting locations, according to Indiewire.com.

To Indiewire, Mikkelsen explained why he got involved in ‘Move On’: “People out there will be part of it which is going to be new to all of us. They’re not going to take us in a direction that is totally fucked up but they might come with some inputs I like: ‘That’s not bad, let’s try that.’ It’s hard to have that kind of openness in a film but we will try it and I’m sure something will come out of that will be surprising for us.”

Image Courtesy of  cinemafestival / Shutterstock.com

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64th Cannes Film Festival ended with an exquisite award night on 22nd of May, Sunday.

This year’s jury president was Robert de Niro. Other jury members were Olivier Assayas, Martina Gusman, Mahamat-Saleh Haroun, Jude Law, Nansun Shi, Uma Thurman, Johnnie To, and Linn Ullmann.

Here are the 2011 Awards for feature films:

Terrence Malick for his The Tree of Life won Palme D’or. Malick did not attend the Awards Night. The producer of the film, Bill Pohlad got the prize and said Malick is a shy and a discreet person, but he is very happy to have this honour.

This year, Grand Prix award went to two directors: Nuri Bilge Ceylan, for  Bir Zamanlar Anadolu’da (Once Upon a Time in Anatolia) , and Jean Pierre and Luc Dardenne for Le Gamin au Vélo (The Kid With a Bike).

Best Director award went to Nicolas Winding Refn for Drive.

Joseph Cedar got Best Screenplay for Hearat Shulayim (Footnote).

Kirsten Dunst got the award for Best Actress, with her performance in Lars Von Trier’s Melancholia. She thanked the Festival for keeping the film in competition. And she also thanked Lars von Trier for “letting her to play the role with such freedom”.

Jean Dujardin got the award for Best Actor in The Artist by Michel Hazanavicius.

Maïwenn for her Polisse (Poliss) got the Jury Prize.

This year’s festival was quite sensational due to Danish director Lars Von Trier’s nazi comments at the press conference of his film Melancholia. In the offical press release, Festival declared that they were disturbed because of Lars von Trier’s comments and acknowleged and passed his apology. His film Melancholia remained in competition.

The trailers of the films in competition are available on Festival de Cannes’ webpage:

http://www.festival-cannes.fr/en/trailers.html

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Terrence Malick’s latest and long awaited film, The Tree of Life, had its premiere at 64th Cannes Film Festival, on 17th of May and has been nominated for Palme D’or, among other absorbing films like Lars von Trier’s Melancholia, Almodovar’s The Skin I Live In, Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s Once Upon a Time In Anatolia. The story focuses on an American family during 1950’s. The cast is quite impressive, starring Brad Pitt, Sean Penn and Jessica Chastain. This is Malick’s 5th movie as a writer and director.

Malick’s biography is quite interesting, he studied philosophy at Harvard University, and was influenced by philosophers like Martin Heidegger, who has been considered as one of the greatest thinkers of 20th century. Heidegger’s  emphasize on Dasein’s (which could be translated as Being-there, since Heidegger avoids using metaphysical concepts such as human) situation with regard to its relation between Being, Dasein’s existential analyze with the concepts such as care (Sorge) and fear (Angst), especially in his masterpiece Being and Time, and his critique of technology are significant aspects of his philosophy.  Malick  translated Heidegger’s “Vom Wesen des Grundes” as “The Essence of Reasons”  and it was published in 1969. His philosophy background effected his film career, and many critics consider his films as cult, especially his Golden Bear awarded film The Thin Red Line (1998).

Malick did not show himself at the premiere of  The Tree of Life, while his film made a tremendous impact, and divided the audience into two. Protests and applauses heard at the same time. At the press conference of the film, the abscence of Terrence Malick made people even more curious, and the reason for Malick’s nonattendance given as his being a shy person. Brad Pitt answered the question of “does he eat and talk?” as “yes, he even goes to the bathroom”. The religious and theological aspects in his movie related to his own perspectives were also brought up  and his interest in philosophy was emphasized once again at the press conference.

The trailer of The Tree of Life is quite mysterious like Malick himself, but definitely draws attention. Here is the synopsis at Festival de Cannes’ official page:

“The Tree of Life is the impressionistic story of a Midwestern family in the 1950′s. The film follows the life journey of the eldest son, Jack, through the innocence of childhood to his disillusioned adult years as he tries to reconcile a complicated relationship with his father. Jack finds himself a lost soul in the modern world, seeking answers to the origins and meaning of life while questioning the existence of faith.”

Award Ceremony of Cannes Film Festival is on 22nd of May. We will see how Malick’s The Tree of Life impressed the jury.

Watch : The Tree of Life Trailer

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Today marks the beginning of the Cannes International Film Festival at the Palais des Festivals et des Congrès, in the south of France. In the Danish newspaper Politiken’s online edition, film critic Kim Skotte took a look at this years selection of competing features and noted that Denmark still have what it takes to walk among titans.

For Danes, the oldest and most prestigious film festival in the world is often centered on the surprisingly consistent representation of Danish craftsmanship. You could say that after winning this years Best Foreign Language Film at the Oscars, Denmark is not afraid to strut their feathers at the French Riviera. This year has Lars von Trier and his movie Melancholia as well as Nicolas Winding Refn’s Drive competing while a third movie, Labrador, has been chosen for an exclusive screening in the official program.

However, the Danes do realize that the Cannes is not just about our own contributions.

If we look at the contenders for the Palme d’Or, this year sports an unusually strong mix of directors – that is, if we base our predictions on the accomplishments of these which is really all we can go on at this point. Of course, the pro can sometimes fail miserably while the virtually unknown can bring positive surprises. Guesswork aside, the battle for the golden palms is gonna be fought amongst established ‘old-timers’, upcoming talents and the odd jokers.

Besides Lars von Trier, who won the highest prize in 2000 with Dancer In The Dark, the selection holds several other winners and especially – nearly-winners.

Amazingly enough, the Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar has never won the Palms though he came close in 1999 with Todo Sobre Mi Madre (All About My Mother). This year he has a new shot with La Piel Que Habito (The Skin I live In), based on the novel Tarantula by the French crime author Thierry Jonquets. The movie is said to be a new direction for the filmmaker with a twist of old. This is founded in the fact that the story has been described by Almodóvar to Cineuropa as “a horror story without screams or frights” and stars Antonio Banderas as the troubled plastic surgeon.

The jury, headed by veteran Robert De Niro this year, has the opportunity to fall for an array of other styles however. The Belgian brothers Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne have previously won two times already and their film Le Gamin au Velo could prove a third success.

From Italy, two strong contenders are present. Paolo Sorrentino first made an impression with his experimental Il Divo which won the Jury prize in 2008. This year is his fourth time at the French resort with his American excursion This Must Be The Place, starring Sean Penn. He is matched by Nanni Moretti, a seventh time contender who have also managed to win in 2001 with La Stanza Del Figlio (The Son’s Room)

Overall, the field is speckled with experienced people – Terrence Malik, director of The Thin Red Line, brings The Tree of Life while the Finish director Aki Kaurismäki makes his fourth appearance along with Japanese Naomi Kawase, the youngest winner of Caméra d’Or.

The scene is set for a battle of established names and talents and even though film is regarded an art form, the competition between May 11-21 could prove a fierce race, leaving us gasping for air. If you want to learn more, please visit the Festival site.

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