My 10 Favorite Cannes Palme d’Or Winners Since 1975

Bybrian

I love this time of year—when Cannes is in full swing, and a slate of new films are competing for the coveted Palme d’Or! There are many promising films this year to keep your eye out for (just to name a few):

  • 120 Beats per Minute (France) dir. Robin Campillo

  • The Beguiled (USA) dir. Sofia Coppola

  • Happy End (France, Germany, Austria) dir. Michael Haneke

  • Redoubtable (France) dir. Michel Hazanavicius

  • L’amant double (France) dir. Francois Ozon

  • The Killing of a Sacred Deer (UK, Ireland) dir. Yorgos Lanthimos

While we wait for those films to come to our US theaters, I decided to look back and list my favorite films winning the Palme d’Or since 1975. Bon cinema !

 

10. Farewell My Concubine (China, 1993) dir. Chen Kaige

9. Winter Sleep (Turkey, 2014) dir. Nuri Bilge Ceylan

Winter Sleep Official US Release Trailer (2014) – Nuri Bilge Ceylan Drama HD Aydin, a former actor, runs a small hotel in central Anatolia with his young wife Nihal with whom he has a stormy relationship and his sister Necla who is suffering from her recent divorce.

 

8. Rosetta (Belgium, 1999) dir. The Dardenne Brothers

Drama. Rosetta is a 17 year old girl who lives in a caravan with her alcoholic mother and wants nothing more than a decent job. Cast: Émilie Dequenne, Fabrizio Rongione, Olivier Gourmet, Anne Yernaux.

 

7. Taste of Cherry (Iran, 1997) dir. Abbas Kiarostami

6. Amour (Austria, 2012) dir. Michael Haneke

The official trailer for Sony Picture Classics “Amour” (2012). Georges and Anne are in their eighties. They are cultivated, retired music teachers. Their daughter, who is also a musician, lives abroad with her family. One day, Anne has an attack. The couple’s bond of love is severely tested.

 

5. The Tree of Life (USA, 2011) dir. Terrence Malick

From Terrence Malick, the acclaimed director of such classic films as BADLANDS, DAYS OF HEAVEN and THE THIN RED LINE, THE TREE OF LIFE is the impressionistic story of a Midwestern family in the 1950’s.

 

4. Paris, Texas (USA/West Germany, 1984) dir. Wim Wenders

New German Cinema pioneer Wim Wenders (Wings of Desire) brings his keen eye for landscape to the American Southwest in Paris, Texas, a profoundly moving character study written by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Sam Shepard.

 

3. The Child (Belgium, 2005) dir. The Dardenne Brothers

L Enfant (the Child) Trailer HD 2005 Bruno and Sonia, a young couple living off her benefit and the thefts committed by his gang, have a new source of money: their newborn son

 

2. 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days (Romania, 2007) dir. Christian Mungiu

4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days  – Cristian Mungiu. Drama about a woman who assists her friend to arrange an illegal abortion in 1980’s Romania.

 

1. Apocalypse Now (USA, 1979) dir. Francis Ford Coppola

During the on-going Vietnam War, Captain Willard (Martin Sheen) is sent on a dangerous mission into Cambodia to assassinate a renegade Green Beret, who has set himself up as a God among a local tribe. Directed by: Francis Ford Coppola. Cast: Martin Sheen, Marlon Brando, Robert Duvall, Frederic Forrest, Dennis Hopper, Harrison Ford, Scott Glenn, Laurence Fishburne.

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