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Triumphant Moore walks Cannes red carpet after winning top prize Sun May 23 2004 17:43:45 ET US filmmaker Michael Moore walked triumphantly up the red carpet at the Cannes film festival late Sunday for a repeat screening of his documentary criticising President George W. Bush, "Fahrenheit 9/11", one day after it won the event's coveted Palme d'Or. Accompanied by his wife and daughter, he spent several minutes posing for photos while brandishing his trophy. The nine-person Cannes jury, this year led by "Kill Bill" director Quentin Tarantino, warmly greeted Moore before he headed into the 2,320-seat theatre, where the crowd applauded as he put on his trademark baseball cap. Applause broke out several times during the film, whose black-tie showing marked the close of the festival. At the end, Moore grinned through a standing ovation that lasted a dozen minutes to tell the audience: "Thank you very much for your support -- and goodbye Mr Bush." The director has expressed his hopes that the documentary will sway US voters to oust Bush in November presidential elections. "Fahrenheit 9/11" beat 18 other films vying for the Palme d'Or, and Tarantino said it was chosen on artistic grounds, not on its overt left-wing politics. The documentary savages Bush, portraying him as a dumb president hopelessly out of his depth and only keen to further his family ties to Saudi oil money -- including the relatives of Osama bin Laden. It starts with Bush's ascension to the White House in 2000, then looks at the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington in 2001 -- blamed on bin Laden's Al-Qaeda network -- and scrutinises the situation in Iraq. It includes some new footage of Iraqis being mistreated by US troops, though not as badly as in the military photographs that have recently come to light, and is poignant when it presents a US woman grieving over her soldier son killed in Iraq. Throughout it all, the film takes the position that Bush and his officials deliberately misled the United States to start the Iraq war for their own ends. "These people have been out of control from the get-go and we as Americans have been responsible for letting that happen," Moore said Saturday after receiving the Palme d'Or. The director, who won an Oscar last year for the documentary "Bowling for Columbine", dedicated the Cannes trophy to his 22-year-old daughter and "to all the children in America, and in Iraq and around the world who have suffered from our actions". He has accused the White House of exerting pressure to stop the film from being seen in the United States before the presidential elections. Distribution deals have been arranged for most other countries in the world. The Cannes jury -- which this year counted a total of four US citizens, one French actress, a British actress, a Hong Kong director, a Belgian actor/director and a Finnish critic -- insisted Sunday that "Fahrenheit 9/11" won on cinematic merit. "We all agreed that 'Fahrenheit 9/11' was the best movie of the competition" totally independent of "all the politics crap," Tarantino told an unprecedented media conference organised by the festival to lift the lid on the jury's reasoning. International media disagreed, however. France's Le Parisien daily called it a "shock for George Bush," while Canada's Toronto Star saw the awards ceremony as "atypically politicised." "In the year of a (US) election that could well prove close, it's the kind of film that could make a historic difference," Britain's The Observer said. The White House has tried to shrug off the attention the award has generated. A spokeswoman said Saturday "It's a free country. It's what makes America great. Everyone has the right to say what they want. And beyond that, we're not going to comment." |
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