Love could conquer all at Cannes film festival

THE Cannes film festival drew to a close last night with a screening of Mud, a coming-of-age tale set on the Mississippi River and starring Matthew McConaughey and Reese Witherspoon.

The festival – which this year has enjoyed cheers and jeers in equal measure – ends with an awards ceremony today where the coveted Palme d’Or for best picture will be announced.

As many of the 4,000 reporters and critics packed their bags for home, the conversation yesterday turned to which of 22 movies in the main competition line-up is most likely to win.

Austria’s Michael Haneke, who is gaining a reputation as a controversial and accomplished European director, moved audiences to tears with Amour, an elegiac and restrained portrayal of an elderly woman’s illness and death and how her husband copes.

The performances from lead actors Jean-Louis Trintignant and Emmanuelle Riva, both in their 80s, were singled out, although Cannes tends not to give a single movie more than one award.

Another uncompromising depiction of suffering, this time based on an exorcism that went tragically wrong, has put Romanian Cristian Mungiu in with a good chance of victory with Beyond the Hills, set in a remote monastery.

Either movie would be a popular winner, although the fact that both directors have won the Palme d’Or before could affect the judges’ decision. At least six more eligible films are seen as contenders, albeit ones that have sharply divided festival-goers.

Of the five Hollywood productions in competition, Killing Them Softly, starring Brad Pitt, has been the most popular so far, setting a gangster story against a backdrop of economic and political crisis in the United States.

Wes Anderson’s opening-night comedy Moonrise Kingdom was also a success, although, like Ken Loach’s equally well-received Scottish comedy The Angels’ Share, it is unlikely to win top honours as Cannes juries tend to favour more weighty films when handing out the big prize.

French hopes lie with the Jacques Audiard’s powerful romance Rust & Bone, starring Oscar-winner Marion Cotillard as a trainer of killer whales who loses her legs in an accident.

Veteran Alain Resnais, in competition with You Ain’t Seen Nothin’ Yet!, has a 65-year association with Cannes which could act in his favour.

Mud, which closed the festival last night and is also in the running for the prize, echoes Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, and was warmly received by critics.