Cannes...

From Reuters:
"U.S. director Gus Van Sant won the Cannes film festival's coveted Palme d'Or award on Sunday for "Elephant," a film that uses real-life children to show how violence can turn high-school life to tragedy."

I have a couple friends who were in Cannes and were lukewarm about the film. They found it slow, sluggish and arty. Apparently, it is much in the vein of his previous film Gerry (which, maybe 525 people saw). That said I happen to like slow movies provided they are involving.

Van Sant has really taken a liking to the films of Hungarian director Bela Tarr and also to the type of films made by Taiwanese director Hao Hsiao-Hsien. Both of these filmmakers use minimal editing and beautifully composed shots. Their stories are more theme oriented than plot driven and their narratives are much more complex with the use of strong visual storytelling style. In other words they are everything Hollywood ain't. Which is just one reason why I love them.

That said, I'm not sure Van Sant is in their league but it's nice to see he has moved beyond the Good Will Hunting phase of his career.