Fahrenheit 9/11 (2004)       Despite the fact that Michael Moore’s inflammatory anti-Bush screed earned a 20-minute standing ovation at its Cannes premiere (one of the longest in the festival’s history), Quentin Tarantino and his jury’s decision to award the doc the Palme d’Or was seen by some as a […]

        Crash (1996)   David Cronenberg’s aggressively unpleasant drama about car fetishists found itself swept to the podium in an unlikely way: Though nominated for Cannes biggest award, the Palme d’Or, it instead won a Special Jury Prize. The waves of shock on the Croisette were palpable, especially from traumatized viewers who […]

    Pulp Fiction (1994)     The first midnight screening was a sensation, but by the time Tarantino had claimed the fest’s highest prize, a critical backlash was already in force. The director accepted his award to jeers, possibly launched by those who felt that Krzysztof Kieślowski’s Three Colors: Red—the culmination of his trilogy—should […]

  Wild at Heart (1990)   Only a month after the pilot episode for his breakthrough show Twin Peaks aired, director David Lynch captured the Palme d’Or for this lurid crime fantasia. Not all were pleased with the riding-high filmmaker: The ceremony’s announcement was drowned out by boos, the loudest (they say) from critic Roger Ebert. […]

L’Argent (1983)   Robert Bresson is among cinema’s most respected directors, but that didn’t stop Cannes audiences from booing the premiere of what became his final film, an accusatory but incredible ensemble drama about the fallout from a few counterfeit bills. Orson Welles’s jury recognized L’Argent as the real deal, and allowed Bresson to split the […]