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Camera d'Or: Cesar Acevedo, La Tierra y la Sombra
Short Film Palme d'Or: Ely Dagher, Waves '98

I was watching the livestream expecting them to show the awards ceremony on there. You can imagine my confusion when it came on with the hosts talking about the winners. "Dheepan" wining is very unexpected, I'm not familiar with the director and "Son of Saul" not winning the Camera d'Or is very unexpected too. Also, seeing that Sundance Selects has the U.S. rights to "Dheepan" I wouldn't be surprised if Criterion tries to pick it up.

ordinaryperson wrote:"Dheepan" wining is very unexpected, I'm not familiar with the director

It was definitely a surprise based on the mixed reviews, but Audiard's last two films competed for the Palme too, so he was something of a favorite before the festival started. The Beat That My Heart Skipped, A Prophet, and Rust and Bone were pretty prominent on the U.S. and European arthouse circuit, but I've been mixed on all of them.

"Son of Saul" not winning the Camera d'Or is very unexpected too.

I had predicted it too, but apparently the Camera d'Or usually goes to something lower profile that doesn't really have a shot at the bigger awards, which Son of Saul obviously did.

I guess this cements Mara running for the Oscar in Best Actress against Blanchett and not supporting. Very surprising they didn't share the award as expected

I wonder if Criterion will release Dheepan or pass on it. Good news for IFC films at any rate. They could use it after the embarrassing 100o+ screen release of The D-Train.

I didn't really notice the reception Dheepan got. It didn't seem to be talked up as one of the favourites. But Audiard has nearly two decades of good work under his belt, so it's not completely a left field choice.

Audiard is probably my favourite living director, so I'm delighted he's won. But it is surprising given the admiring but not ecstatic reviews Dheepan seems to have had. His films are often a bit perplexing at first glance, but rewarding in the long run.

The Fanciful Norwegian wrote:Palme d'Or: Jacques Audiard, Dheepan
Grand Prix: László Nemes, Son of Saul
Best Director: Hou Hsiao-hsien, The Assassin
Best Actor: Vincent Lindon, The Measure of a Man
Best Actress: Emmanuelle Bercot, Mon roi / Rooney Mara, Carol
Jury Prize: Yorgos Lanthimos, The Lobster
Best Screenplay: Michel Franco, Chronic

While some movies were clearly expected to be there, they weren't expected to get these prices. I'd bet on The Lobster getting the best Screenplay, Son of Saul Best Director, The Assassin the Jury Prize or the Grand Prize and Blanchett getting Best Actress instead of Mara. And Lindon was strongly rumored. Good for him, he deserved something for a very long time, now.

Still, Bercot getting Best Actress is very surprising regarding how Mon roi was received, and the Palme d'Or for the Audiard movie which is said to be his weakest is very surprising.

tenia wrote: and the Palme d'Or for the Audiard movie which is said to be his weakest is very surprising.

I have not ready anybody referring Dheepan as his weakest film. Have they not seen A Self-Made Hero ?

From the complaints I have read, I feel like its critics have no affinity for Audiard's love for genre. When he does get criticised, it tends to be for embracing genre conventions, as he appears to at the end of Dheepan which I've read getting compared to

Spoiler

Death Wish

. Many critics thought Rust & Bone was ludicrous because Audiard's tendency towards a social realist style (not too far from the Dardennes) creates an odd tension with what is essentially his take on the classic melodrama, with plot turns so brazen, they would make D.W. Griffith blush.

My favourite film of his is still his most outright genre film, the romantic thriller Read My Lips, which now mostly gets overlooked in discussions of his work in favour of the more "serious" (and male centred) A Prophet. Read My Lips is one of my favourite films of the last couple of decades. I love its dreamy wooziness and it features one of the most fully realised and compelling female protagonists of any film I can think of.

Lost Highway wrote:I have not ready anybody referring Dheepan as his weakest film. Have they not seen A Self-Made Hero ?

I think that's a great film; I agree totally with what you say about Audiard's engagement with genre conventions, and in that case I think he was playing with a kind of Oscar-baiting art-house war film template, but ultimately in a very complex and idiosyncratic way.

Read my lips, The Beat That My Heart Skipped & A Prophet are very very great movies (I'm not so fond of Rust & Bone at all, I found it overlong and the turns of the story are quite predictable to me, especially with the main guy's son), and they never went higher at Cannes than getting the Grand prix du jury. It's a bit like Scorsese getting plenty of Oscars for The Departed, The Aviator & Hugo but nothing for Goodfellas (well, only 1), Casino or Taxi Driver.

A Self Made Man is from 1996, so in this case, it would mean Dheepan is Audiard's weakest movie since 20 years. That's still not very good looking.

The second time I watched Rust & Bone it didn't hold up that well for me but I like its sex positive attitude and Cotillard's character was great. Like with Hawks, Audiard is a director who mostly makes films about men but the rare times they focus on female protagonists I find them even more interesting than their male characters. The film is flawed, however I think there is method to its madness. I also was happy that Audiard turned his attention to a female protagonist again and that he returned to some of the themes of Read My Lips, even if the earlier film is superior.

It's a while since I saw A Self-Made Hero and it has mostly faded from my memory. I just remember that it's the only Audiard film I didn't take to at all and that its satire and plot progression struck me as obvious and predicatable. There is a quality of French farce to the whole thing which I don't relate to.

I think his first film See How They Fall is one of his very best. Unfortunately its ill served by its non-anamorphic DVD release and it remains little seen. It's a crime/gangster film on the lowest rung of that food chain and it revolves around one of the more unusual same sex relationships I've seen on film, turning what often is subtext in hardboiled macho tales, into text.

Lost Highway wrote:I think his first film See How They Fall is one of his very best. Unfortunately its ill served by its non-anamorphic DVD release and it remains little seen. It's a crime/gangster film on the lowest rung of that food chain and it revolves around one of the more unusual same sex relationships I've seen on film, turning what often is subtext in hardboiled macho tales, into text.

Seconded all round - it's a wonderful and moving film.