Mary – Regular Lovers – Drawing Restraint 9 – Brokeback Mountain – Good Night, and Good Luck. – Bubble – Into Great Silence

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Jurors: Dante Ferretti (president), Ah Cheng, Claire Denis, Amos Gitai, Edgar Reitz, Emilíana Torrini, Christine Vachon
 

 
Golden Lion:Brokeback Mountain, USA, dir. Ang Lee
Special Jury Prize:Mary, Italy/France/USA, dir. Abel Ferrara
Best Director:Regular Lovers, France, Philippe Garrel
Best Actress:Don't Tell, Giovanna Mezzogiorno
Best Actor:Good Night, and Good Luck., David Strathairn
Marcello Mastroianni Award:Heading South, Ménothy Cesar
Best Screenplay:Good Night, and Good Luck., Grant Heslov & George Clooney
Technical Contribution:Regular Lovers, William Lubtchansky (cinematography)
FIPRESCI Prize:Good Night, and Good Luck., USA, dir. George Clooney
SIGNIS Award:Mary, Italy/France/USA, dir. Abel Ferrara
Venice Horizons Award:East of Paradise, France/Poland, dir. Lech Kowalski
Future Film Festival Digital Award:Corpse Bride, USA, dirs. Mike Johnson & Tim Burton


Competition Films I Have Seen:
Ranked in order of preference
 
My Golden Lion:
Brokeback Mountain (USA, dir. Ang Lee) - Lensing, score make pushy points of how "spare" they are; too coffee-table for its subject, but moving perfs by leads, Maxwell, and Mara

Heading South (France/Canada, dir. Laurent Cantet) - Sometimes so scared of exoticizing it grows too aridly detached, but an intriguing, vinegar approach to potentially seamy story

Gabrielle (France, dir. Patrice Chéreau) - Unabashed plunge into grand gestures; in memory, a tad too ripe, but while watching, I was rapt enough; Chéreau in operatic Margot mode

The Constant Gardener (UK/Brazil, dir. Fernando Meirelles) - Weisz and Fiennes work admirably hard for it, but Meirelles makes gimmick of himself (very! fast! edits!) and solemn upshot doesn't jell

Good Night, and Good Luck. (USA, dir. George Clooney) - One wants to admire it, but is maxi-sheen photography serving a purpose? Too much news footage? Why are secondary characters so wobbly?

Proof (USA, dir. John Madden) - Paltrow and Hopkins hint at what makes them special, but movie feels like charity intervention, trying to rouse them from career slumps

The Brothers Grimm (USA/UK, dir. Terry Gilliam) - Ledger's twitchy fun proves powerless before this ghastly monolith; bad or unclear ideas grow ever huger, like monster, rotting squashes



Sidebar Films I Have Seen:
Ranked in order of preference
 
Drawing Restraint 9 (USA/Japan, dir. Matthew Barney) - Adjacent to Cremaster films but not identical. Odd, thrilling study of tensions—cultural, sexual, audiovisual.

The Descent (UK, dir. Neil Marshall) - Horror thriller constructs exquisite suspense even before the beasties show up. Each cut and camera is right in place.

Corpse Bride (USA, dirs. Tim Burton & Mike Johnson) - A reinvigoration for Burton after years of spinning wheels. Fun parts are fun, macabre elements have kick. Fun tunes.

Into Great Silence (Germany, dir. Philip Gröning) - Not clear how hard the documentarians are working; certainly they might have cut more. Still, it's illuminating.

Bubble (USA, dir. Steven Soderbergh) - Will success spoil Steven Soderbergh? He's building back indie cred, without Full Frontal-type stars. Funny, bitter, minor.

The Exorcism of Emily Rose (USA, dir. Scott Derrickson) - Hollywood hogwash, where exotic ooga-booga experts are court witnesses. But scary, and not quite empty.

Cinderella Man (USA, dir. Ron Howard) - No disaster, but it's an expensive, box-checking Inspirational Drama, spending millions to stand with little people.



Competition Films I'm Curious to See:
Ranked in order of interest; more on this year's lineup here (opens in a new window)
 
Mary, Italy/France/USA, dir. Abel Ferrara
Regular Lovers, France, dir. Philippe Garrel
Lady Vengeance, South Korea, dir. Park Chan-wook
Persona non grata, Poland, dir. Krzysztof Zanussi
Don't Tell, Italy, dir. Cristina Comencini
Everlasting Regret, Hong Kong, dir. Stanley Kwan
Romance & Cigarettes, USA, dir. John Turturro
Magic Mirror, Portugal, dir. Manoel de Oliveira
Garpastum, Russia, dir. Aleksey German
The Second Night of Marriage, Italy, dir. Pupi Avati



Sidebar Films I'm Curious to See:
Listed alphabetically
 
13 Tzameti, France, dir. Géla Babluani
The Dignity of the Nobodies, Argentina, dir. Fernando Solanas
East of Paradise, France/Poland, dir. Lech Kowalski
Edmond, USA, dir. Stuart Gordon
Four Brothers, USA, dir. John Singleton
First on the Moon, Russia, dir. Aleksei Fedorchenko
The Secret Life of Words, Spain, dir. Isabel Coixet
Seven Swords, China/Hong Kong, dir. Tsui Hark
The Wild Blue Yonder, Germany/France, dir. Werner Herzog
Workingman's Death, Austria/Germany, dir. Michael Glawogger


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