Cannes Film Festival 1987
Jury President: Yves Montand
Other Jurors: Theo Angelopoulos, Gerald Calderon, Daniele Heymann, Elem Klimov, Norman Mailer, Nicola Piovani, Jerzy Skolimowski, Jeremy Thomas


Palme d'Or:Under the Sun of Satan, France, dir. Maurice Pialat
Grand Jury Prize:Repentance, Georgia, dir. Tenghiz Abuladze
Jury Prize:Shinran: Path to Purity, Japan, dir. Rentarô Mikuni
Yeelen (Brightness), Mali, dir. Souleymane Cissé
Best Director:Wings of Desire, Wim Wenders
Best Actress:Shy People, Barbara Hershey
Best Actor:Dark Eyes, Marcello Mastroianni
Best Artistic Contribution: Prick Up Your Ears, Stanley Myers, composer
Technical Grand Prize: Le cinéma dans les yeux, France, dirs. Gilles Jacob & Laurent Jacob
40th Anniversary Prize: Intervista, Italy, dir. Federico Fellini
FIPRESCI/International
    Critics Prize:
Repentance, Georgia, dir. Tenghiz Abuladze
Prize of the Ecumenical Jury:Repentance, Georgia, dir. Tenghiz Abuladze
Camera d'Or (first feature): Robinsonada, or My English Grandfather, Georgia, dir. Nana Dzhordzhadze


Competition Films I Have Seen:
Ranked in order of preference
 
My Palme d'Or
Under the Sun of Satan (France, dir. Maurice Pialat) - Eerie, muscular, hypnotic. Conjures divinity as a fathomless mystery, cruel myth, and brute, tactile fact.

Wings of Desire (Germany, dir. Wim Wenders) - Stunningly nuanced lensing, boldly mytho-historical conception, subcutaneous tenderness. Grandiose but sublime.

Repentance (Georgia, dir. Tenghiz Abuladze) - Surreal-judicial epic of Soviet despotism flaunts real fire and gutsy conceptions despite rough patches, blunt last act

Dark Eyes (Italy/Russia, dir. Nikita Mikhalkov) - Handsome lensing and palette gratify even when they overpower thinnish story or erratic tone. Mastroianni in his element.

Yeelen (Brightness) (Mali, dir. Souleymane Cissé) - Odd blend of Africa for Export and defiant opacity, for better (mostly) and worse. Rhythms entrance. Iffy gender codes.

The Belly of an Architect (UK, dir. Peter Greenaway) - As ever, Greenaway's prodigious qualities give onto his ponderous demerits. Robust, ambitious, unwieldy.

Barfly (USA, dir. Barbet Schroeder) - Bukowski's poetics keep eluding screen translation, but full-circle structure pays off, as do Müller's, Dunaway's industry

Shy People (USA, dir. Andrei Konchalovsky) - As in Runaway Train, Konchalovsky gets some juice from his seedy, overwrought clichés, but the whole is still dubious.

Prick Up Your Ears (UK, dir. Stephen Frears) - Familiar Frears-y blend of intriguing off-rhythms and desultory construction. Oldman's good, Molina's overripe

The Glass Menagerie (USA, dir. Paul Newman) - Newman's professed desire to film the play as written yields a defensible but dutiful drama. The women thrive.

Aria (UK, dir. Miscellaneous) - Off-pitch. Grab bag never jells; some bits feel like real clinkers. Jarman, Godard, and crazy Ken Russell keep us interested.



Sidebar Selections I Have Seen:
Ranked in order of preference
 
Something Wild (Out of Competition: USA, dir. Jonathan Demme) - Demme's still learning to ground antic energies, but deliciously loose Daniels and Griffith lead a colorful charge

Raising Arizona (Out of Competition: USA, dir. Joel Coen) - First third makes such blazing comic impression that manic, less charismatic remainder sails by on charm, goodwill

Matewan (Directors' Fortnight: USA, dir. John Sayles) -

Babette's Feast (Directors' Fortnight: Denmark, dir. Gabriel Axel) - A bit thin relative to its reputation, but an understandable popular favorite with rich flavors and candlelit tones

Un Zoo la nuit (Directors' Fortnight: Canada, dir. Jean-Claude Lauzon) - Neon, involving blend of Jacques Audiard and Atom Egoyan, evading obviousness or airlessness whenever they encroach

I've Heard the Mermaids Singing (Directors' Fortnight: Canada, dir. Patricia Rozema) - Mini-budgeted, gently eerie, gallery-set Canadian charmer is fun aunt to Cheryl Dunye, Miranda July

Street Smart (Directors' Fortnight: USA, dir. Jerry Schatzberg) - Direction, writing, feints at auto-critique all wobble. But study of self-debasement engages, and lead actors excel.

Radio Days (Out of Competition: USA, dir. Woody Allen) - After long, errant start—lame voice-over, stale jokes—film gradually coheres via rich look, tangy mix of ardor and rue.

The Whales of August (Out of Competition: UK, dir. Lindsay Anderson) - Gish's treasured, still-agile face can't save this over-lit, under-written wisp. Nobody's line readings work.



Competition Films I'm Curious to See:
Ranked in order of interest; more on this year's lineup here (opens in a new window)
 
Zegen, Japan, dir. Shôhei Imamura
Chronicle of a Death Foretold, Italy, dir. Francesco Rosi
Shinran: Path to Purity, Japan, dir. Rentarô Mikuni
Subway to the Stars, Brazil, dir. Carlos Diegues
The Family, Italy, dir. Ettore Scola
A Man in Love, France, dir. Diane Kurys

Also in Competition: Field of Honor, France, dir. Jean-Pierre Denis
The Last Manuscript, Hungary, dir. Károly Makk
Pierre and Djemila, France, dir. Gérard Blain


Sidebar Films I'm Curious to See:
Listed alphabetically; more on this year's lineup here (opens in a new window)
 
Un Certain Regard: Blind Chance, Poland, dir. Krzysztof Kieślowski
The Distant Land, Austria, dir. Luc Bondy
Epidemic, Denmark, dir. Lars von Trier
The House of Bernarda Alba, Spain, dir. Mario Camus
A Month in the Country, UK, dir. Pat O'Connor
Robinson, or My English Grandfather, Georgia, dir. Nana Dzhordzhadze
Directors' Fortnight: Diary of a Mad Old Man, The Netherlands, dir. Lili Rademakers
Heaven, USA, dir. Diane Keaton
Home of the Brave, USA, dir. Laurie Anderson
Rita, Sue, and Bob, Too!, UK, dir. Alan Clarke
Shadows in Paradise, Finland, dir. Aki Kaurismäki
Wedding in Galilee, Palestine/France, dir. Michel Khleifi
Wish You Were Here, UK, dir. David Leland
Critics' Week: Yam Daabo, Burkina Faso, dir. Idrissa Ouedraogo
Out of Competition: Fellini's Intervista, Italy, dir. Federico Fellini
Tough Guys Don't Dance, USA, dir. Norman Mailer

Trackbacks: Permalink Cannes Page 1987 Home Blog E-Mail