TERRENCE MALICK'S film The Tree of Life, a long-delayed epic about life, death and the birth of the planet, picked up the Palme d'Or, the top prize at the Cannes film festival, at a characteristically glitzy ceremony last night.
Jane Fonda was on hand to present the award but Malick, a famously shy man who never gives interviews, retained his air of mystique by staying away from the auditorium.
The lengthy, lavishly presented film, starring Brad Pitt as a harsh father venting frustration on his unfortunate sons in the US midwest in the 1950s, received a combination of raves and brickbats from critics. Noting Malick's reputation as a singular genius – earlier films include Badlands, Days of Heaven and The Thin Red Line– analysts had, however, viewed the film as favourite for the award.
Elsewhere there were a few surprises. Maïwenn Le Besco's Poliss, a film studying the affairs of the child protection unit in Paris, was regarded as a rank outsider in a strong year but ran away with the Jury Prize (the equivalent of a bronze medal).
Audiences and critics had cheered Nicolas Winding Refn's Drive, an existential thriller starring Ryan Gosling as a getaway driver in Los Angeles. Many felt, however, that the film was too mainstream to pick up any of the major awards.
In the event the jury, headed by Robert De Niro, wisely handed Refn, a Danish film-maker with a taste for blood, the best director prize.
The biggest shock may have been the awarding of the best actress prize to Kirsten Dunst for Lars von Trier's Melancholia. The gasps came not because there was anything particularly wrong with the American star's turn – though many felt Tilda Swinton was a shoo-in for Lynne Ramsay's We Need to Talk About Kevin– but because, following von Trier's expulsion from the festival, it had been assumed Melancholiawas too tainted with controversy to receive any commendations.
The festival declared von Trier persona non grata following jokes he made about his affection for Hitler and the Nazi regime. “Thank you so much. It’s a once in a lifetime thing,” said Dunst – who sat uncomfortably beside Von Trier during the notorious press conference – upon accepting her award.
Following a lacklustre line-up last year, Cannes bounced back with an impressive array of films from masters such as Pedro Almodóvar, Aki Kaurismäki and Paolo Sorrentino.
The organisers also had an unexpected hit with a black-and-white, silent pastiche of vintage cinema entitled The Artist. Michel Hazanavicius, its director, might have expected to grab one of the big gongs but had to make do with a best actor prize for Jean Dujardin, the film's charming star.
As things worked out, the Grand Prix, the runners-up prize, was shared by strong films from very different art-house directors. Nuri Bilge Ceylan's Once Upon a Time in Anatoliais an austere, leisurely drama that follows a group of police officers searching for a body in a remote part of Turkey. The Kid With a Bike, directed by brothers Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, details the relationship between a kindly hairdresser and the troubled boy she fosters at weekends.
Had the Belgian brothers won the Palme d’Or they would have been the first film-makers to have done so three times.
The downside to a year in which so many directors delivered high-quality films is that many favourites were certain to be disappointed.
Chief among those must be Almodóvar. The Spanish director, despite multiple entries in the competition, has never won the Palme d'Or. His film, The Skin I Live In, a gripping revenge story about a plastic surgeon, was received with great enthusiasm but that spot on Almodovar's mantelpiece will have to remain vacant for at least another year.