Chapter 729: Cannes Best Actress and Best Actor (3) |
"Link, are you happy?"
Monica Bellucci turned her head and teased.
"Yes."
Link looked at Marion Cotillard on the stage and smiled.
"Marion is over a decade older than you, does that not bother you?"
Monica laughed.
"Of course not, love doesn't care about age or skin color, all that matters is a spiritual connection, Marion and I hit it off well."
"You hit it off well with many women."
Monica clapped along with everyone else as Marion stepped down from the stage.
"Wow!"
When Nicole Kidman read out his name, a wave of noisy cheers rose through the venue because it made no sense for Link to receive this award, and even he himself found it unreasonable.
According to the tradition of the Cannes Film Festival, the eight prizes in the main competition are distributed like a cake, with each of the eight selected films receiving one award.
But this time, the jurors at Cannes dared to give the best actor and actress awards to the leads of the same film, which was incredible.
Moreover, this year's Cannes Film Festival was considered to be the highest quality one in the past five years. International directors like the Coen brothers, Roman Polanski, Jim Jarmusch, Hirokazu Koreeda, François Ozon, Abdellatif Kechiche, Asghar Farhadi, and Jia Zhangke all had works in the main competition.
There were also four other nominees for Best Actor who were veteran actors.
"Bruce Dern, the protagonist of 'Nebraska', is 76 years old this year, a veteran of Hollywood,
'The male lead of 'Venus in Fur', Mathieu Amalric, is a French veteran actor, three-time winner of the Best Actor at the César Award, and also winner of the Best Director at the Cannes Film Festival.
Jiang Wu of 'A Touch of Sin' is likewise a veteran actor.
And the male lead of 'Inside Llewyn Davis', Oscar Isaac.
Although Link's performance in 'Rust and Bone' was also quite good, it did not seem to have any clear advantage over the other four.
Under such circumstances, the jury still awarded him the prize, causing the audience to feel surprised and confused.
Regardless of what others thought, upon hearing his own name, Link embraced Marion and Monica, and amidst the warm applause, he buttoned up his jacket and stepped up to the podium to receive the Palme d'Or from Nicole Kidman.
"Can this guy even win an award?"
Leonardo frowned as he watched Link's retreating figure.
"I watched Link's performance in 'Rust and Bone,' and it was really good."
Tobey Maguire said, clapping his hands.
"I know, but I can't believe his performance was better than Bruce Dern's or Mathieu Amalric's."
Leonardo huffed.
"Link is our friend, shouldn't we be happy for him? Why do you seem unhappy?"
Tobey Maguire looked at him puzzled.
Leonardo grinded his teeth and managed a slight smile, "I'm not jealous of Link. Although I've never won Best Actor at Cannes, I've won Golden Globes and Berlin Film Festival awards, so I'm not jealous of him. I'm just realistically commenting on the matter. Just now, the Cannes Film Festival awarded Marion Best Actress, and now they've given Best Actor to Link. It's not according to the rules."
"The Cannes Film Festival has no rule that says each film can only receive one award. If a film is good enough and the actors perform well, it's okay to receive two or three awards simultaneously. Link and Marion Cotillard's performances in 'Rust and Bone' are on par with each other, giving them both the best actor and actress awards is reasonable."
Tobey Maguire said.
"Humph, don't believe me, just wait and see, after the award ceremony ends, the media will definitely rip Link apart."
Leonardo said.
"What does this have to do with Link?"
"Of course, it does. Who doesn't know he's a PR whiz? Who can guarantee this award wasn't the result of PR? Even if it wasn't, the media will think it was."
Leonardo said.
"… If there's one most romantic place in the world, it's got to be Cannes. Thank you, beautiful Cannes, thank the jurors, and thank all the fans who supported me, I love you all."
Link waved his hand and walked off the stage to the sound of enthusiastic applause.
Although many had doubts about this award, no one would discuss it under Link's nose, after all, he's the boss of Lionsgate Films, and no one could be sure they wouldn't work with him in the future.
Seeing him approaching, the audience in the crew area all greeted him with smiles, applause, and cheers.
The ceremony continued with the presentation of other film awards.
Finally, Spanish director Amat Escalante won Best Director for "Heli", the Coen brothers claimed the Grand Jury Prize for "Inside Llewyn Davis", and the French LGBT film "Blue is the Warmest Color" won the highest Palme d'Or.
After the film festival awards ceremony ended, besides Roman Polanski's 'Venus in Fur' and Paolo Sorrentino's 'The Great Beauty' receiving nothing, the news of Link and Marion winning best actor and actress for 'Rust and Bone' became the biggest story of this year's Cannes Film Festival.
The Cannes Film Festival sparked numerous discussions and controversies afterwards.