The Cannes Festival is one of the film events par excellence every year, where they meet some of the most relevant films that we are going to be seeing in the coming months -sometimes even years-. Exceptional films are always found in their selection, and some of them sometimes win the most important prize of the contest, the palm of gold.
With the celebration of the new edition of the French festival, we review some of the great winners of this prestigious Palme d’Or that can be seen on streaming platforms. Films of different styles, different authors and different times, which show that the juries chosen by the organization sometimes get it right in a big way.
‘Marty’ (1955)
director: Delbert Mann. Distribution: Ernest Borgnine, Betsy Blair, Esther Minciotti, Joe Mantell, Karen Steele.
Only three films have won the Palme d’Or and ended up winning the Oscar for Best Picture. The last one was ‘Parasite’ in 2020, but its predecessors go back at least 60 years before. One was ‘Days without trace’, by Billy Wilder. The other, the relatively obscured ‘Marty‘, an exquisite drama starring Ernest Borgnine.
Borgnine plays a forty-year-old butcher unlucky in love who still lives with his mother. He is shy and somewhat clumsy, but still tries every night he can. One day, he meets an insecure and shy girl like him (Betsy Blair), and during that night an unexpected and intense romance begins. A authentic little gembut full of delicacyserene but heartfelt drama, and a rather warm charm.
See in Filmin | Criticism in Espinof
‘Viridiana’ (1961)
director: Luis Bunuel. Distribution: Silvia Pinal, Fernando Rey, Francisco Rabal, Margarita Lozano, José Calvo, Teresa Rabal, Luis Heredia.
The the only Spanish film that managed to triumph at the top of Cannes, and was close to not even being able to be shown by the authorities of the Franco dictatorship. In fact, Luis Buñuel’s film was not released in Spain until 1977, once Franco died, and he had to pass himself off as Mexican in order to overcome various obstacles and censorship.
It’s easy to see why he can flake conservatives out of “neatness” and “decency,” because ‘Viridiana‘ is a very stark against religion and oppression of the underprivileged classes. Buñuel’s surrealism here leaves more room for a prodigious classicism that makes it a total masterpiece, one of the essential works by the Aragonese filmmaker.
See on HBO Max and on FlixOlé | Criticism in Espinof
‘All That Jazz (The Show Begins)’ (1979)
director: Bob Fosse. Distribution: Roy Scheider, Jessica Lange, Leland Palmer, Ann Reinking, Ben Vereen.
A masterful exercise in self-fiction Bob Fosse, where he reviews his entire complex existence and everything related to the world of entertainment to which he has paid so much devotion. It is an ambitious storybut manages to land those ambitions without committing to easy solutions, giving one of the best behind-the-scenes glimpses of the world it depicts.
Cannes could not resist acknowledging Fosse’s impressive work, which he found in a dedicated roy scheider the key to be able to open the channel, counting his existential doubts, his problems and his fears together with his great moments of luxury. He does it with the format that he has best mastered, the musical, making one of the most unique and brilliant works that the genre has seen.
See in Filmin | Criticism in Espinof
‘Paris, Texas’ (1984)
director: Wim Wenders. Distribution: Harry Dean Stanton, Nastassja Kinski, Dean Stockwell, Aurore Clement, Hunter Carson.
It’s easy to imagine the Cannes 1984 jury unprepared for the emotional bulldozer that is ‘Paris, Texas‘, the masterful work of Wim Wenders which is a one of the best cult movies of all time. An uncertain road trip -real and from life- that reveals very powerful and unexpected emotional weapons.
Wenders’ film oozes humanity, even if it can be eccentric. An elegant work full of emotion, even if not abused to be tear-producing. It is also the greatest display of the talent of Harry Dean Stantonone of those eternal secondary that always gave life to every movie in which it appeared, and managed to make it, at least, a little better than it should be under normal circumstances.
Watch on Amazon Prime Video | My magical movie sequences: ‘Paris, Texas’, the dialogue in the Peep Show