2013 Cannes Film Festival

The world’s most prestigious film festival came to a close last Sunday, with renowned filmmakers, actors, models, singers and Cheryl Cole all making an appearance on the fancy red carpet – there were highs, lows, and some downright bizarre films in competition, as with every year, and Felix Film goes through this year’s big winners – we’ll look at the others next week – we’ve got exams...!

So Blue is the Warmest Colour was the big winner this year – with the coveted Palme d’Or going to both the director and its young actresses (typically it’s only the director who receives the prize). A film that is destined to become infamous for its 10-minute unsimulated lesbian sex scene, critics were blown away by its “wildly undisciplined” narrative in which a 15-year-old girl’s life changes forever when she falls for an older woman, and this has been called “a masterpiece of human warmth, empathy and generosity”.

Whether director Abdellatif Kechiche intended this or not, the film is also marked to become a symbol for France’s recent new law allowing same-sex marriage.

“A devastating mix of eroticism and sadness” as well as “an extraordinary, prolonged popping-candy explosion of pleasure, sadness, anger, lust and hope,” no wonder this walked home with the top prize.

Critics were equally ecstatic about the Coen Brothers’ latest, Inside Llewyn Davis, which walked away with the second prize, a film that tells the story of a singer-songwriter navigating his way through the folk music scene in 1960s New York. The Coens have always had a healthy winning streak with Cannes with their series of outstanding films, and it appears this year was no exception.

Oscar Isaac’s lead performance has been singled out for praise, as “delicate, restrained portrait that results in a different kind of movie than anything else the siblings have produced.”

The Coens have produced “a boldly original, highly emotional journey” one that is “as stunning and singular as anything in the Coens’ canon”

Described as an “instant A-list Coens; enigmatic, exhilarating, irresistible,” the UK will have to wait until 24th January 2014 to enjoy this gem.

Amat Escalante’s unfliching (that’s just a fancy way of saying very, very violent) look at the shocking effects of poverty, crime and drugs on a Mexican family polarised the critics, some praising, others criticising, the very use of extreme violence.

Just take this sentence for example: “Heli may be the most optimistic film you will ever see in which one young man sets another’s genitals on fire.” Ouch, and you start getting the full picture.

Successfully juggling four separate stories that take place all over the modern-day China, all of them inspired by real-life headlines, Jia Zhangke’s A Touch of Sin was the recipient of the Best Screenplay.

Adding moments of shocking, brutal violence into his usual style of long takes and documentary-style filming, it’s “a good deal more vigorous” compared to his previous work and noted this as a “departure” from some of his past quieter films.

In Alexander Payne’s Nebraska, a black-and-white movie exploring the relationship between a father and son who embark on a road trip to collect a $1 million prize, Bruce Dern is “simply marvelous” as he “underplays without a trace of neurosis or mannerism”

The film itself received praise, as “a bittersweet elegy for the American extended family”, one that “builds to a resolution that’s simultaneously touching and deeply...sad”

Oscar-winning director of A Separation, Asghar Farhadi’s new domestic drama won rave reviews as well as the Best Actress trophy for its star Bejo. Her performance is one that “finds all the right notes” with a “surprisingly dynamic, unsentimental central performance” as a woman seeking a divorce to marry another man.

She “embodies a particular brand of hotheaded, hopelessly romantic Gallic femininity without tilting into cliche”

Japanese film Like Father, Like Son was awarded the third best film prize, the Jury Prize, marking director Hirokazu Koreeda’s first ever Cannes win after three years of competition.

A baby-switch occurs after a series of errors and what families do about this is the premise of this “touchingly low-key” domestic drama.

Offering a “thoughtful exploration of meaning of parenthood” as well as providing a “wholly charming study of the evolution of parenthood,” Koreeda’s latest has been described as “sweet-natured” with its “witty combo of humour and human drama” that results in “charm and abundant human sympathy.”

Some complaints here however, as some noted the film overall “makes little emotional connection” and how the director “never quite manages to infuse it with the same depth of feeling his main character goes through.” And here’s the harshest one of all “[it] has overall depth and tenor of a Lifetime movie.”

Winners in full:

Palme d’Or: Abdellatif Kechiche (Blue is the Warmest Colour)

Honourary Palme d’Or: Adèle Exarchopoulos and Léa Seydoux (Blue is the Warmest Colour)

Grand Prix: Joel & Ethan Coen (Inside Llewyn Davis)

Best Director: Emat Escalante (Heli)

Best Screenplay: Jia Zhangke (A Touch of Sin)

Best Actor: Bruce Dern (Nebraska)

Best Actress: Bérénice Bejo (The Past)

Jury Prize: Hirokazu Koreeda (Like Father, Like Son)