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 have prevailed. xosotin […]

The day after its festival win, the author of the graphic novel on which the film is based denounced the adaptation as “porn.”

        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 […]