Our Favorite Palme d’Or Winners
The 69th Cannes Film Festival is going on right now, so we thought it would be a good time to remember our favorite films that took home the festival’s highest prize. Since 1955, that’s been the Golden Palm, the Palme d’Or, and before 1955 it was the Cannes Grand Prix. The winners are an eclectic bunch, and include some of the most highly-acclaimed movies of the 20th century. After reading our favorites, see your top-ranked Cannes winners by using the links at the bottom of the article.
The Third Man (1949)
Everything about the world of The Third Man is slightly askew. Not just the camera, which is often at a tilted angle, or the strange decision to score the whole film with Anton Karas’ effective zither music, or even the fact that the film’s biggest name doesn’t appear until about halfway through the film. Yet despite everything in The Third Man feeling off, everything comes together to perfection, with all its disparate, strange pieces fitting together like a beautiful puzzle.
Amongst all the gorgeously shot Palme d’Or winners like Apocalypse Now, The Tree of Life, or Taxi Driver, The Third Man might not only be the most beautiful film to ever win Cannes’ top award, it might also be the most beautifully shot film of all time. Cinematographer Robert Krasker takes black and white film and makes it just as layered, nuanced and surprising as color.
Having worked for the British Army making wartime documentaries, director Carol Reed knew firsthand the type of destruction he was presenting in Europe. There’s a layer of sadness surrounding The Third Man, whether its the loss of a friend that starts Joseph Cotten’s Holly Martins adventure, the recent war whose evidence still remains on every street, or the bittersweet conclusion that ends the film.
What Reed created is almost a realistic, defeatist, noir version of Casablanca, filled with disappointments and heartbreak, and in turn, he created one of the most incredible and beautiful films ever made. — Ross Bonaime
- Global ranking: 35
- Wins 58% of matchups
- 8308 users have ranked it
- 77 have it at #1
- 873 have it in their top 20
Taxi Driver (1976)
“Loneliness has followed me my whole life, everywhere. In bars, in cars, sidewalks, stores, everywhere. There’s no escape. I’m God’s lonely man.” Such is the story of Travis Bickle, a cab driver on the brink of a violent break, brought to life memorably by Robert De Niro in Martin Scorsese’s Palme d’Or-winning masterpiece Taxi Driver. Indeed, De Niro’s iconic portrayal of that perturbed character is perhaps the most enduring aspect of the film — certainly in popular culture (“You talkin’ to me?”) — and for good reason: the character of Travis Bickle is the heart of this story, and without such perfect casting, the film would not work. Travis is a complex, difficult character; some would perhaps label him “unlikable.” I wouldn’t go that far, but he is troubled, to be sure. However, as the film progresses, we begin to understand him. We see the world as he sees it; we see the scum, the filth, the trash that needs to be washed away by “a real rain”; we feel the anguish, the aimlessness, the anxiety, and the frustration that develops when one feels completely alone and without purpose in a city with so much seedy activity. Then, suddenly, “there is a change.” And we understand it; we understand him. We understand because De Niro, Scorsese, and screenwriter Paul Schrader make us understand.
What I love most about this film is that it is about loneliness, but it is set in New York City, the most populous city in the country. That’s what’s so unique and true about it: often, individuals feel most alone, most isolated, when they are surrounded by people and interact with them, but are connected to no one. A concept like that begins with one person and a blank page; that is why I always mention Schrader, the screenwriter, when I talk about this film. It takes a certain kind of person to craft this story and create a character like Travis Bickle, and although De Niro and Scorsese made him real for us, there would be no Bickle without Schrader. There are so many things I love about this film; I would be remiss if I failed to mention Jodi Foster’s seemingly effortless performance as Iris, or the supporting work of Harvey Keitel, Cybill Shepherd, and Albert Brooks. Then there are Martin Scorsese’s unique, inspired visual choices, and the way he so perfectly captures the dark city streets of mid-1970s New York. And that final shootout? It blew my mind the first time I saw it. It is truly a film worthy of the appreciation and adoration it has received since it won the top prize at Cannes all those years ago. — Matt Ray
- Global ranking: 37
- Wins 63% of matchups
- 47952 users have ranked it
- 547 have it at #1
- 7363 have it in their top 20
Kagemusha (1980)
Kagemusha must have come as a relief to the Cannes audience, to critics, and to admirers of Akira Kurosawa. It was the troubled director’s first film in five years, his first samurai film in fifteen years, and the first jidaigeki he had shot in color. Moreover, the money for the project had come from Western auteurs like George Lucas; would his blockbuster aesthetic influence the final product? The aging Kurosawa, who painted the film’s storyboards despite his steadily weakening eyesight, downplayed expectations, saying that this long-delayed film was only a dress rehearsal for the next one he planned to make, Ran. With all of that baggage, it would have been understandable, if regrettable, had Kagemusha turned out to be a flop. Instead, it became Kurosawa’s only film to earn Cannes’ highest award. It is a gorgeous, contemplative, and deeply emotional movie, full of extended cuts of surreal dreamscapes, symmetrical interiors, and galloping mounted warriors. Tatsuya Nakadai gives a double performance that is both authentic and a contributor to the heightened reality Kurosawa strives for. — David Conrad
- Global ranking: 564
- Wins 52% of matchups
- 845 users have ranked it
- 0 have it at #1
- 23 have it in their top 20
Wild at Heart (1990)
Whenever I look at the list of Palme d’Or winners, one name always jumps out at me: David Lynch’s Wild at Heart. WHAT? That movie won a Palme d’Or? Among all of Lynch’s filmography, probably only Inland Empire is as maligned, and none are more dismissed. I don’t know why the judges at Cannes decided to award this film (which received both ovations and boos, as most Palme d’Or winners do, quite frankly), but I’m pretty much right there with them. It’s a way over the top lovers-on-the-run story, which is one of my favorite things. Some Badlands, some Bonnie & Clyde, some Natural Born Killers, some True Romance (the latter two came out later, btw), a little bit of Lynch weirdness but not a lot, and a LOT of Nicolas Cage in the kind of role that suits him best: a small-time crook in love with a white trash girl (Laura Dern) whose mother (standout OTT role for Diane Ladd) sends contract killers after him to keep them apart. It’s a trashy movie. No one’s saying it’s not. But it’s the right kind of trash. When Cage takes a break from fighting and running away long enough to break into an Elvis song, it’s RIDICULOUS but also amazing, and I am on board. I love Lynch films in general, but this is the one that’s the most fun to rewatch. — Jandy Hardesty
- Global ranking: 816
- Wins 41% of matchups
- 3694 users have ranked it
- 8 have it at #1
- 97 have it in their top 20
The Tree of Life (2011)
If an American film is more fitting for the Palme d’Or than Terrence Malick’s The Tree of Life, it would almost be entirely side-eyed by the movie-going populace. Abstract, shot almost exclusively in twilight time by Emmanuel Lubezki, and undeniably spiritual, The Tree of Life already meets resistance from those who would rather make snide remarks about the arthouse crowd. But between Lubezki’s gorgeous cinematography and the earnest nature of Malick’s spiritual meditations, The Tree of Life ends up containing a wallop of emotion and resonance. Split between a depiction of the concepts laid forth in the Biblical Book of Genesis and a depiction of a ’50s American suburban family, the film uses abstract sequences to give operatic stakes to the pastoral drama. Those stakes are elevated by amazing performances: Brad Pitt and Jessica Chastain as grieving, struggling parents, and Hunter McCracken as their kid who has to deal with the loss of his brother coinciding with his loss of childhood innocence. There are few endings more cathartic than the finale to The Tree of Life, which rewards emotional investment in the film tenfold. — Alex Christian Lovendahl
- Global ranking: 883
- Wins 56% of matchups
- 3284 users have ranked it
- 56 have it at #1
- 400 have it in their top 20
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