A man being bludgeoned to death by a fire extinguisher in the Gaspar Noe’s 2002 Irreversible.

Two children being murdered by a sniper.

An un-simulated oral sex scene (to complete ejaculation in close-up) between Chloe Sevigny and Vincent Gallo in he 2003 The Brown Bunny.

Nicole Kidman literally standing above and peeing on Zac Efron’s jellyfish sting–in real time–

All of these movie scenes share something in common: They led to boos and walkouts from critics and audience members at the Cannes Film Festival.

Getting booed at Cannes has almost become sort of a ritual, a right of passage for many of the best filmmakers in the world, from Martin Scorsese to David Lynch, Sofia Coppola, Terrence Malick, Oliver Assayas and David Cronenberg.

Then, there are likes of Lars von Trier and Gaspar Noé, two filmmakers who court controversy and boos whenever they show a new film.

Even films that have won Cannes’ prestigious Palme d’Or are not immune to audience jeers (see “The Tree of Life,” “Wild at Heart” and more below).

Here are the some of the most controversial films in the festival’s history.

Taxi Driver (1976)

Photo : Everett Collection

Scorsese’s Taxi Driver is considered by s0me critics (not me) one of the greatest movies ever made.  It was later nominated for the Best Picture and other Oscars, though won none.

Nonetheless, the film got its start with boos and walkouts at the Cannes Film Festival.

According to some report, the film “drew loud boos from the crowd, many of whom streamed out of the theater ashen-faced over the film’s ultraviolent climax.”

Jodie Foster, playing a prostitute, was only a teenager at the time, but she remembered the festival’s screening and the film’s backlash: “The whole issue about the violence in the movie kind of exploded. Marty, Bobby and Harvey kind of got stuck at the Hotel du Cap and didn’t come out very much.”

Regardless of how festival attendees reacted to the film, the Tennessee Williams-led Cannes jury awarded “Taxi Driver” the top prize with the Palme d’Or (the first and only Scorsese film to have won that honor, though others played in competitions).