Austrian director Michael Haneke’s somber drama “The White Ribbon” claimed the top prize Sunday at the Cannes Film Festival, where Quentin Tarantino and Lars von Trier entries earned the acting honors.
It was a big night for Austria, whose triumphs included Christoph Waltz as best actor for Tarantino’s World War II epic “Inglourious Basterds.” Charlotte Gainsbourg won the best-actress honor for von Trier’s “Antichrist,” a film that riled and repelled many Cannes viewers with its explicit images of physical abuse involving a grieving couple.
Haneke addressed his wife as he accepted his award, noting that “happiness is very rare.”
“This is one moment in my life in which I’m very happy, and so are you, I believe,” said Haneke, who received the festival’s Palme d’Or for his gorgeously photographed black-and-white tale. “The White Ribbon” examines themes of communal guilt, distrust and punishment among residents of a small German town besieged by tragedies and strange occurrences as World War I approaches.
The second-place grand prize went to French director Jacques Audiard’s prison drama “A Prophet,” about an illiterate inmate who educates himself and becomes a player in drug and smuggling circles.
Gainsbourg delivers a terrifying performance as a psychotic woman torturing her husband (Willem Dafoe) and mutilating herself during a trip to the woods intended as a healing sojourn after the death of their child.
Waltz earned the best-actor award for his gleefully homicidal role as Nazi Col. Hans Landa, renowned in Germany as an ace “Jew hunter” in “Inglourious Basterds,” Tarantino’s rewrite of the history books that follows the exploits of a band of Jewish Allied commandos led by Brad Pitt. Tarantino spins a wildly different take on how the war ended as Pitt’s crew plots to take out top Nazi leaders at a film premiere in Paris.
“Above all I owe this to Hans Landa and his unique and inimitable creator, Quentin Tarantino,” Waltz said. “You gave me my vocation back.”
Gainsbourg thanked Dafoe and von Trier, “who allowed me to live what I believe to be the strongest, most painful and most exciting experience of my whole life.” She also thanked her father, the late singer and actor Serge Gainsbourg, who would have been “proud and shocked, I hope.”
The nine-member Cannes jury headed by French actress Isabelle Huppert, which included actresses Robin Wright Penn and Asia Argento and director James Gray, presented a special award to beloved French filmmaker Alain Resnais, who was in the competition with the offbeat tale “Wild Grass.” The film follows the odd relationships that spring up after a married man forges a relationship with a woman whose stolen wallet he recovers.
Several well-received entries among the 20 Cannes competition films were shut out for prizes, including two from past Palme d’Or winners — Jane Campion’s historical pageant “Bright Star” and Ken Loach’s soccer-themed comedy “Looking for Eric.”
Also snubbed were Academy Award winners Ang Lee for his rock ‘n’ roll comedy “Taking Woodstock” and Pedro Almodovar for his tragic romance “Broken Embraces.”
British director Andrea Arnold’s teen drama “Fish Tank” and South Korean filmmaker Park Chan-wook’s vampire romance “Thirst” shared the festival’s jury prize, the third-place award. Arnold won the same prize with her first film, “Red Road,” in 2006, while Park won the festival’s second-place honor with “Old Boy” in 2004.
The directing award went to Filipino filmmaker Brillante Mendoza for “Kinatay,” a harsh story centered on police inflicting bloody retribution on a prostitute who crossed them.
Chinese director Lou Ye’s “Spring Fever,” a tale of forbidden romance involving homosexual relationships, won the screenplay award for writer Feng Mei.
The prize for best first film went to Australian writer-director Warwick Thornton for “Samson and Delilah,” his love story about two teens living in an isolated aboriginal community.
Cannes Film Festival Prize Winners List
Awards presented Sunday at the 62nd Cannes Film Festival, chosen by a jury headed by French Actress Isabelle Huppert:
•Palme d’Or (Golden Palm): “The White Ribbon,” by Michael Haneke (Austria)
•Grand Prize: “A Prophet,” by Jacques Audiard (France)
•Jury Prize: “Fish Tank,” by Andrea Arnold (Britain) and “Thirst,” By Park Chan-wook (South Korea)
•Special Prize: Alain Resnais
•Best Director: Brillante Mendoza, “Kinatay” (The Philippines)
•Best Actor: Christoph Waltz, “Inglourious Basterds” (United States)
•Best Actress: Charlotte Gainsbourg, “Antichrist” (Denmark)
•Best Screenplay: Feng Mei, “Spring Fever” (China)
•Camera d’Or (first-time director): “Samson and Delilah,” by Warwick Thornton (Australia)
•Best short film: “Arena,” by Joao Salaviza (Portugal)
Apple and Google Face UK Investigation Into Mobile Browser Dominance
Apple and Google aren't giving consumers a genuine choice of mobile web browsers, a British watchdog said Friday in a report that recommends they face an investigation under new U.K. digital rules taking effect next year.
The Competition and Markets Authority took aim at Apple, saying the iPhone maker's tactics hold back innovation by stopping rivals from giving users new features like faster webpage loading. Apple does this by restricting progressive web apps, which don't need to be downloaded from an app store and aren't subject to app store commissions, the report said.
"This technology is not able to fully take off on iOS devices," the watchdog said in a provisional report on its investigation into mobile browsers that it opened after an initial study concluded that Apple and Google effectively have a chokehold on "mobile ecosystems."
The CMA's report also found that Apple and Google manipulate the choices given to mobile phone users to make their own browsers "the clearest or easiest option."
And it said that the a revenue-sharing deal between the two U.S. Big Tech companies "significantly reduces their financial incentives" to compete in mobile browsers on Apple's iOS operating system for iPhones.
Both companies said they will "engage constructively" with the CMA.
Apple said it disagreed with the findings and said it was concerned that the recommendations would undermine user privacy and security.
Google said the openness of its Android mobile operating system "has helped to expand choice, reduce prices and democratize access to smartphones and apps" and that it's "committed to open platforms that empower consumers."
It's the latest move by regulators on both sides of the Atlantic to crack down on the... Read More