Pedro Almodovar throwing some shade at Venice winner “Happening” isn’t anything new for the Spanish filmmaker, he has a past of being adamantly vocal about his films not winning the top prize at festivals. I believe the Venice jury, led by Bong Joon-ho picked a great movie, although “The Power of the Dog” would have been my pick.
Almodovar's “Parallel Mothers” is not one of his best movies. American critics seem to like it a lot, but European cr
Many thought that Almodovar's best shot was winning the Palme for “Pain and Glory” back in 2019, but “Parasite” would end up winning that year.
He lost his cool in 1999 when everyone was predicting “All About My Mother” to win the Palme d’Or only for Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardennes’ “Rosetta” to pull off the surprise win. Behind-the-scenes, Roger Ebert had stated that Almodovar was furious about the loss, so were many at the festival, as it was far and away the most critically-acclaimed of the competition films.
Of course, “Rosetta” is a great movie, but so is “All About My Mother,” and winning the Palme d’Or really comes down to the tastes of the jury. In 1999, it was presided by David Cronenberg and, if you ask me, his jury made the right decision.
Just looking today at the 1999 Cannes Film Festival competition, it was a subpar bunch of films. First off, Lynne Ramsay’s “Ratcatcher” played Un Certain Regard but deserved a competition slot. Ditto Steven Soderbergh’s “The Limey,” which played out of competition.
The competition films that seem to have aged well from Cannes’ 52nd edition are “L'humanité,” “The Straight Story”, “All About My Mother”, “Rosetta”, “Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai,” and “Time Regained”.