Flashback: ‘Melancholia’ Was Supposed to Win the Palme d’Or in 2011 …

On Sunday, we had two separate reports about Terrence Malick and Lars von Trier. It got me thinking about Cannes 2011…

It wasn’t a surprise when Malick won the Palme d’Or at Cannes 2011 with “The Tree of Life.” It was one of the most critically-praised movies of the festival, despite a few detractors. The film wound up being named the second best film of the 2010s in our critics poll.

With that being said, the story goes that Malick’s masterpiece was not what was actually supposed to win the Palme. Speaking to the French publication, Liberation (via The Film Stage), Olivier Assayas had confirmed long-standing rumors that von Trier’s “Melancholia” was the film that actually won the jury’s hearts.

Assayas, who served on that year’s jury, presided by Robert De Niro, stated that only Jude Law and himself believed that “The Tree of Life” should have won the Palme d’Or. The majority of the jury members actually wanted von Trier’s almost-equally magnificent “Melancholia.”

It turns out that the only reason why the jury decided to switch it from von Trier to Malick was due to the infamous “Melancholia” press conference where von Trier made some rather dicey comments, saying that he understood why Hitler did what he did and could sympathize with the Nazi dictator.

The jury ended up awarding Melancholia’s Kristen Dunst the Best Actress prize. Assayas served on that jury alongside members Jude Law, Uma Thurman, actress Martina Gusmán, producer Nansun Shi, writer Linn Ullmann, and filmmakers Mahamat-Saleh Haroun and Johnnie To.

The De Niro-led jury couldn’t separate the art from the artist. The prize should always go to the best and most deserving film. That year’s edition of Cannes had other noteworthy films such as “The Artist,” “Footnote,” “The Kid With A Bike,” “Once Upon A Time In Anatolia,” “The Skin I Live In,” and “We Need to Talk About Kevin.”

“Tree of Life” and “Melancholia” were the two best films I saw play in competition that year.