American filmmaker Michael Moore’s "Fahrenheit 9/11," a scathing indictment of White House actions after the Sept. 11 attacks, won the top prize Saturday at the Cannes Film Festival. "Fahrenheit 9/11" was the first documentary to win Cannes’ prestigious Palme d’Or since Jacques Cousteau’s "The Silent World" in 1956. "What have you done? I’m completely overwhelmed by this. Merci," Moore said after getting a standing ovation from the Cannes crowd.
"Fahrenheit 9/11" won the top award from sharply divided Cannes moviegoers, who found a solid crop of good movies among the 19 entries in the festival’s main competition but no great ones that rose to front-runner status. While "Fahrenheit 9/11" was well-received by Cannes audiences, many critics felt it was inferior to Moore’s Academy Award-winning documentary "Bowling for Columbine," which earned him a special prize at Cannes in 2002. Some critics speculated that if "Fahrenheit 9/11" won the top prize, it would be more for the film’s politics than its cinematic value. With Moore’s customary blend of humor and horror, "Fahrenheit 9/11" accuses the Bush camp of stealing the 2000 election, overlooking terrorism warnings before Sept. 11 and fanning fears of more attacks to secure Americans’ support for the Iraq war. Moore appears on-screen far less in "Fahrenheit 9/11" than in "Bowling for Columbine" or his other documentaries. The film relies largely on interviews, footage of U.S. soldiers and war victims in Iraq, and archival footage of Bush. |