The films that received the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival to see without fail

The Golden Palms of Cannes have become cult

• Apocalypse Now: Palme d’Or at the 1979 Cannes Film Festival

It’s about quintessential epic war movie. The feature film of Francis Ford Coppola, follows the fate of Captain Willard, a soldier who leaves Vietnam at war to join Cambodia as part of a secret mission: to assassinate an American colonel with very questionable methods, Kurtz. In the cast we find Charlie Sheen in the skin of Willard and Marlon Brando in that of Colonel Kurtz. Among the cult scenes that will remain forever etched in the history of cinema: the helicopter attack scene in the air to the rhythm of Wagner’s Ride of the Valkyries.

• La Dolce Vita: Palme d’Or at the 1962 Cannes Film Festival

La Dolce Vita is all the magic of the exceptional artistic universe of Federico Fellini. The film follows the journey of a somewhat depressed journalist who searches in vain for crisp stories to tell in the columns of his newspaper during a fashionable Roman week. In the cast of this masterpiece, we find Marcello Mastroianni, Anouk Aimée but also Anita Ekberg, a glamorous icon who had nothing to envy to Marilyn Monroe. Among the cult scenes of cinema, the unforgettable Sylvia dancing in the Trevi Fountain in an evening dress in the early morning.

• Taxi Driver: Palme d’Or at the 1976 Cannes Film Festival

A film both highly contemplative and deeply critical of the state of corruption in society, Taxi Driver is one of Martin Scorsese’s masterpieces. The film follows the fate of Travis Bickle, a former marine who became a night taxi driver in New York on his return from Vietnam. A succession of events will lead him into illegality and practically lead to his death. In the casting, we find Robert De Niro but also Jodie Foster.

The great Palme d’or love stories in Cannes

• The Piano Lesson: Palme d’Or at the 1993 Cannes Film Festival

With The Piano Lesson, Jane Campion became, and remains to this day the only, the first director to win the Palme d’Or at Cannes. The film follows the fate of a young mute widow and her precocious daughter. The young woman is sent to New Zealand to marry a settler. But there, she agrees to give piano lessons to a handyman with whom she falls in love. His fate and that of his daughter change. In the cast we find Holly Hunter, Anna Paquin (future star of True Blood) and Harvey Keitel.

• La Vie d’Adèle: Palme d’Or at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival

La Vie d’Adèle, a love drama in two parts by Abdellatif Kechiche, has also entered the history of Cannes. For the first time in the history of the Festival, the Palme d’or is awarded to the director and his two main actresses: Adèle Exarchopoulos and Léa Seydoux. The Life of Adele is theadaptation of the graphic novel Blue is a hot color by Julie Maroh. The film follows the meeting and then the passion between Adèle and Emma, ​​two young women who seem to be opposites.

The true Palme d’or stories at Cannes

• Elephant: Palme d’Or at the 2003 Cannes Film Festival

Elephant is one of Gus Van Sant’s punchy films. the feature film is inspired by a news item that shook America a few years earlier: the Columbine High School shootings in 1999. The film follows the tragic fate of two students, Alex, the whipping boy, and Eric, who feels deeply misunderstood, and their classmates. class on that nightmarish day.

• The Pianist: Palme d’Or at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival

Roman Polanski’s film is based on a true story. The Pianist is adapted from the autobiographical novel by Wladyslaw Szpilman. The film follows the fate of a well-known Polish-Jewish pianist Wladyslaw Szpilman, also known as Wladek. After the German invasion and as Warsaw turns into a ghetto, Wladeck manages to escape the concentration camps and survive in the ruins. He owes his survival in particular to a music-loving German officer.

The surprises of the Cannes Palme d’Or

• Titanium: Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival in 2021

Titane made history at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival. Julia Ducournau became the second woman to be awarded this prize, the first to receive it alone. Titanium follows the fate of a very unstable firefighter who finds his son ten years after his mysterious disappearance. In the cast we find a bodybuilder Vincent Lindon, Agathe Rousselle, and Garance Marillier.

• Parasite: Palme d’Or at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival

pest of Bong Joon-howent down in history for several reasons. It is the first South Korean film to win the Palme d’Or at Cannes. Then a few months later: it is the first foreign language film to win theAcademy Award for Best Picture. It was the first time since Marty in 1955 that a film won back-to-back these two of the most prestigious awards in cinema. Parasite follows the fate of the Kim family, who come from the most popular class. Through several successive manipulations, they invade the tidy life of the wealthy Park family.

• Paris, Texas: Palme d’Or at the 1984 Cannes Film Festival

It’s not one of the best-known films in our selection, yet it’s a real gem. Paris, Texas, by Win Wenders is a road movie as we like it, majestic, melancholy and rhythmic all at the same time. The film follows the fate of Travis Henderson, who is found dying after an endless walk in the Texas desert. Contacted by the police, his brother Walt comes to pick up the one he hasn’t heard from for 4 years. He then finds a son who is almost unknown to him, and a woman of whom he no longer knows anything. In the casting, we find Harry Dean Stanton, Dean Stockwell and the sublime Nastassja Kinski.

• Pulp Fiction: Palme d’Or at the 1994 Cannes Film Festival

If there was only one Quentin Tarantino movie to watch, it would probably be this one. Pulp Fiction follows the intertwined destinies of several colorful characters belonging directly or indirectly to the Los Angeles underworld. In the casting, we find in particular the grease star John Travolta, Samuel L. Jackson, Bruce Willis and Uma Thurman. The film includes many cult scenes including the wild dance of John Travolta and Uma Thurman, but also the monologue of Samuel L. Jackson.