Missing Italy
Wednesday, May 24, 2017 at 10:00PM by Eric Blume
We’re not far from crowning a new Palme d’Or winner at the Cannes Film Festival, and part of the fun and excitement for international film lovers is seeing which country takes the top prize. The last ten years has marked three winners from France (The Class, Blue is the Warmest Color, and Dheepan), and in fact France has won ten times since 1955 when the prize has been named the Palme d’Or (there was a ten year gap in 1964-74 where the top prize had a different name, for those into these technicalities).
Winning just under that number, with nine trophies, remains Italy. Once a mighty force on the international film scene, Italy seems to have fewer major filmmakers emerging. The last Italian film to win the Palme d’Or at Cannes was Nanni Moretti’s film The Son’s Room in 2001...