Terrence Malick's epic “The Tree of Life” favorite at Cannes

 May 21, 2011 - 23:25 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net - Media reports suggest that President of the Cannes Film Festival jury, Robert De Niro, has a tough job on his hand with no single standout contender.

Terrence Malick's epic The Tree of Life, the wonderfully comic Le Havre and The Artist, the touching The Kid With a Bike, the stylish Drive, subtle Once Upon a Time in Anatolia and the radiant The Source and arguably two or three more, are named by Reuters among possible winners of the top prize in Cannes when awards are handed out on Sunday, May 22 evening.

According to Globe and Mail, one arguable favorite is Finnish director Aki Kaurismaki's Le Havre, a mordant “fairy tale” about an aged shoe-shine man who helps an African immigrant child in the French seaside town that gives the film its title. It's rated at a 3.2 out of a possible 4 stars from 10 international critics polled in Screen International. Second is Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardennes' film about the bond between a boy and his foster mother, The Kid with a Bike, with 3.1. The much more spectacular American entry, Terrence Malick's The Tree of Life, rated third at 2.8. It's tied with the French crowd-pleasing tribute to Hollywood's silent era, The Artist.

There are a couple of scenarios, the opinion says, that would constitute genuine upsets, if the festival's two creepiest entries, Sleeping Beauty from Australia, about a young woman who engages in anesthetized prostitution, or Michael, a portrait of a pedophile, were to take any top prizes. Even critics and juries tend to reject films that make them that uncomfortable.

The American website Indiewire gave its collective stable of critics an average of B-plus for all of those films, except for a B for The Artist.

The French magazine critics' poll in Le Film Francais also gave similar high grades to The Tree of Life, with four out of 16 critics giving it the top rating. One major difference was the French critics' enthusiasm for their homegrown entry, Polisse, a film about a police squad working in child protection, and their warmth toward Nanni Moretti's papal comedy, Habemus Papum.

Antonio Banderas and Cecile De France are named as possible contenders for Best Actor and Best Actress respectively.