Italy's Marco Bellocchio is to to get
a career Palme d'Or at this year's Cannes FIlm Festivakl on July
6-17, organizers said Tuesday, joining Jodie Foster as this
year's two recipients of the honour.
Bellocchio, 81, whose films include Fists in the Pocket, The
Prince of Homburg, The Nanny, The Religion Lesson, Win, Dormant
Beauty and The Traitor, will receive the award along with Foster
on the final evening of the fest.
The cult and engagé director will also present his latest work,
Marx Can Wait, in the Cannes Premiere section of the fest.
A friend of late cinema great Pier Paolo Pasolini, Bellocchio's
other films include China is Near (1967), Sbatti il mostro in
prima pagina (Slap the Monster on Page One) (1972), Nel Nome del
Padre (In the name of the Father - a satire on a Catholic
boarding school that shares affinities with Lindsay Anderson's
If....) (1972), Victory March (1976), A Leap in the Dark (1980),
Henry IV (1984), Devil in the Flesh (1986), and My Mother's
Smile (2002), which told the story of a wealthy Italian artist,
a 'default-Marxist and atheist', who suddenly discovers that the
Vatican is proposing to make his detested mother a saint.
In 1991 he won the Silver Bear - Special Jury Prize at the 41st
Berlin International Film Festival for his film The Conviction.
In 1995 he directed a documentary about the Red Brigades and the
kidnapping of Aldo Moro, entitled Broken Dreams. In 2003, he
directed a feature film on the same theme, Good Morning, Night.
In 2006 his film The Wedding Director was screened in the Un
Certain Regard section at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival.
In 2009 he directed Vincere (Win), which was in the main
competition at the Cannes Film Festival. He finished Sorelle
Mai, an experimental film that was shot over ten years with the
students of six separate workshops playing themselves. He was
awarded the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at the 68th
Venice International Film Festival in 2011.
His 2012 film Dormant Beauty was selected to compete for the
Golden Lion at the 69th Venice International Film Festival.
Bellocchio condemned the Catholic Church's interference in
politics after the premiere of his latest controversial film,
which was about a high-profile euthanasia and right-to-die case,
involving Eluana Englaro.
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