Romania Triumphs, U.S. Hardly Registers at Cannes

The Romanian abortion drama, 4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days, was awarded the Palme d'Or at the 60th Cannes Film Festival this weekend. The choice was not a surprising one, considering the large amount of critical esteem the film has garnered thus far. The victory is also a sign of the growing strength of the Romanian film industry: at the same festival, another Romanian film, California Dreamin', won the main prize in the Un Certain Regard sidebar election, and last year's Romanian import, The Death of Mr. Lazarescu, opened in the U.S. to tremendous critical acclaim-critics compared it to Kafka. Some American critics, though, are concerned about the noticeable lack of winning American films over at Cannes. Of the five American films in the Competition-Gus Van Sant's Paranoid Park, the Coen brothers' No Country for Old Men, Quentin Tarantino's Death Proof (part II of Grindhouse), David Fincher's Zodiac, and James Grey's We Own the Night-only Paranoid Park was recognized, when Van Sant won the 60th Anniversary Prize. Paranoid Park is a small indie film, hardly the sort of massive blockbuster the U.S. film industry prides itself on. American film critics would do well to stop worrying about the festival's perceived snub, however, since Cannes has often shown a streak of perversity when it comes to American films: remember when they gave the Palme d'Or to David Lynch's gruesome, sensationalistic Wild at Heart?