What matters most to Filmbrain about the Cannes results. . .

NOT that Michael Moore and Fahrenheit 911 grabbed the Palme d'Or (though that was a nice international "F-you" to GWB & pals).

NOT that Maggie Cheung took home the Prix d'interprétation féminine.

NOT that Agnès Jaoui walked away with the Prix du scénario (although, as Filmbrain mentioned two days ago, he's always been a fan of her writing).

NOT that fourteen year-old Yagira Yuya won the coveted Prix d'interprétation masculine.

BUT THAT Oldboy, spat upon by French critics (and Roger Ebert) was awarded Le Grand Prix.

Filmbrain has decided to react by hurling a heap load of Rabelaisian insults on the critics that failed to see the film's brilliance (and a double helping to those that decried "Oh...what about the poor octopus?!"):

Breschedens, plaisans rousseaulx, galliers, chienlictz, averlans, limes sourdes, faictneans, friandeaulx, bustarins, talvassiers, riennevaulx, rustres, challans, hapelopins, trainneguainnes, gentilz flocquetz, copieux, landores, malotruz, dendins, baugears, tezez, gaubregeux, gogueluz, claquedans, boyers d'etrons, bergiers de merde, et aultres telz epithetes diffamatoires!

(In case you couldn't guess, Filmbrain really liked Oldboy.)

Comments

[nick]

Postif loved it, and most of the french critics (Friday night), said it was favorite for the palme d'or. How many French critics of Old boy have you read anyway?

Otherwise, I think the 911 Palme was a logical award given the political tone of the ceremony (which started with the statement of the Short Movie Belgium director's statement, then the Camera d'or Israeli Director, and finally Michael Moore).

I am very happy for Maggie Cheung, and quite upset with Jaoui-Bacri screenplay's award. As we say in "modern French", "c'est de la merde".

[Ed]

Nick,

I heard that Oldboy was not universally loved by the French critics (or the US critics, for that matter) because of the brutality and animal abuse. Granted, I have not been reading the French daily papers, but I wonder how many reviews written after it won were filtered through "Grand Prix" colored glasses.

Are you aware that "It's the shit" means "It's good" in the US? :-)

[ambersan]

Odd. When you a do a search for Ebert's review for Oldboy, you find a 4-star one with glowing praise. Was there a previous review by Ebert that was less than positive? Perhaps it got the Brown Bunny treatment by ol' Roger.

[Filmbrain]

Ebert's initial writeup from Cannes was pretty negative.