Cannes 2019: the biggest losers and winners, the most talked-about films and a quirky movie that caught our eye

The final credits have rolled for another year on the Croisette in Cannes. The biggest winner at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival was South Korean director Bong Joon-ho, whose black comedy, Parasite, took home the coveted Palme d’Or for best film – more on that later. But this wasn’t the only high, or low, point of the event. Here are our top takeaways from a French fortnight. The buzziest film that didn’t win anything With the exception of Quentin Tarantino’s new movie, the most buzzed-about film of the festival played in the Director’s Fortnight. The Lighthouse, Robert Eggers’ follow-up to his much-admired 2015 film, The Witch, more than justified the hype. By the time I saw it, a repeat screening on the final Friday, word had got out, with queues around the block and audience excitement at near-fever pitch. Featuring Willem Dafoe as a crusty old lighthouse keeper and Robert Pattinson as his junior, this monochrome masterpiece will be one of the most talked-about movies this year. Both actors must surely be in line for some major awards. The biggest losers Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar could feel aggrieved that his Pain and Glory did not take the main prize. A semi-autobiographical tale of Salvador, an ailing film director who has reached a creative impasse – and even starts to smoke heroin to escape from his reality – it ranks alongside Talk to Her, All About My Mother and Volver as one of Almodóvar’s finest films. He could, at least, console himself that his long-time collaborator, Antonio Banderas, who plays Salvador, took home the prize for best actor. No question, it’s a career-best turn from Banderas. Undoubtedly, the hottest film on the Croisette was Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in … Hollywood . Playing almost 25 years to the day since the American director unveiled his second movie, the Palme d’Or-winning Pulp Fiction, in Cannes, this tale, set in 1969 in the shadow of the Manson Gang murders, brought with it some serious star power, in the shape of Brad Pitt, Leonardo DiCaprio and Margot Robbie. With panic-stricken journalists scrambling to get into screenings, was it worth the hype? The Wild Goose Lake: film noir exposes China’s dark side The answer would have to be “yes” – after a slow-burn two-hours the finale really explodes – although the film was quickly supplanted in people’s minds because it was followed directly by Parasite, which played the same night. Tarantino didn’t quite go home empty-handed. The long-running Palm Dog, awarded to the best canine in Cannes, went to Brandy, the very well trained pit bull who belongs to Cliff Booth, the fading stuntman Pitt plays. The biggest winners Women filmmakers were well rewarded by the festival jury led by Mexican filmmaker Alejandro González Iñárritu. Three of the four films in competition directed by women came away with major prizes. The Grand Prize went to Atlantique by Mati Diop, a former actress – notably in Claire Denis’ 35 Shots of Rum – who became the first black woman in Cannes history to direct a feature in competition. Parasite: Bong Joon-ho’s family drama sublime, demented Set in Senegal, West Africa, this ambitious tale of a young woman (Mame Bineta Sane) engaged to one man but in love with another embraces politics, sexuality, repression and refugees as it delicately walks a tightrope between realism and the supernatural. British rising star Emily Beecham won the best actress award for her role in Jessica Hausner’s Little Joe, an eerie, striking science-fiction film in which Beecham plays a scientist who develops a new strain of plant that has strange side-effects on those around it. The actress’ controlled turn made her a worthy winner, although there were times when it seemed she was merely an instrument in a remarkable aesthetic scheme. The third prizewinner directed by a woman was Portrait of a Lady on Fire, written and directed by the hugely talented French filmmaker Céline Sciamma (Girlhood, Tomboy). Once Upon a Time in Hollywood: Tarantino love letter to cinema This lesbian love story, set in the 18th century, about an artist (Noémie Merlant) who must paint the wedding portrait of a young woman (Adèle Haenel), was a favourite of critics, many of whom had tipped it for the top prize. Instead, Sciamma walked away with the award for best screenplay. With the jury passing up the chance to make Sciamma the first woman winner of the Palme d’Or since Jane Campion for The Piano (she remains the only woman to have won it), the top prize went to Bong for his wonderful Parasite , making him the second Asian filmmaker in a row to win the Golden Palm after Japan’s Hirokazu Kore-eda won for Shoplifters in 2018. So often the jury makes a left-field choice away from the film everybody was talking about, but not this time. A wondrously constructed satirical thriller about inequality and the rich-poor divide, it stars Bong regular Song Kang-ho as the father of a family who gradually worm their way into domestic positions in the household of a wealthy CEO (Lee Sun- kyun). Meticulously crafted, it’s the sort of film you simply marvel at – it gets better and more daring with every passing minute. Blending farce with black humour, violence and social commentary, it was a more than worthy winner. Taking the best director prize were the Dardenne brothers, who delivered the punchy Young Ahmed, a resonant tale of a 13-year-old Belgian-Arab boy (Idir Ben Addi) who sets out to kill his “infidel” female teacher after becoming swept up in Muslim extremism. The sort of film that, in other hands, would have been crass and tasteless, this 85-minute miniature from the experienced Belgian pair didn’t waste a morsel. The head-scratching selection The late inclusion in competition of former Palme d’Or winner Abdellatif Kechiche’s Mektoub My Love: Intermezzo raised eyebrows, with the director currently battling a sexual assault allegation. The sequel to a 2017 film, this three-and-half-hour entry about young French people partying, gyrating and more (an explicit 20-minute sex scene appeared real) saw critics roundly attack Kechiche for his continued leering over the female form. A #MeToo moment The #MeToo movement ensured it was not forgotten. On the red carpet, Sand Van Roy sported a sizeable tattoo on her back that read “Stop violence against women”. Van Roy had previously accused French director Luc Besson of a sexual offence. The biggest controversy Awarding Alain Delon an honorary Palme d’Or caused considerable concern. The French icon had, in the past, admitted to slapping members of the opposite sex. “We’re not giving him the Nobel Peace Prize,” quipped the festival’s artistic director Thierry Frémaux, not exactly tactfully. The quirky film that caught our eye I was a big fan of Deerskin, which opened the Director’s Fortnight. A quirky comic tale set in the Pyrenees mountains between France and Spain, it’s the brainchild of musician-turned-filmmaker Quentin Dupieux, who previously made the off-kilter killer-tyre tale Rubber. Here, Jean Dujardin, an Oscar winner for The Artist, returned as a man obsessed with a deerskin jacket to the detriment of everyone around him. It’s one of the funniest films I’ve seen in ages, and proof positive that Cannes can still make you smile. Want more articles like this? Follow SCMP Film on Facebook