The very first winner of the Palme d’Or in 1955 was future Best Picture Oscar winner Marty which starred Ernest Borgnine and Betsy Blair as two lonely middle aged adults beginning a tentative relationship in search of love.
Before it was called the Palme d’Or, the top Cannes prize known then as the Grand Prix went in 1946 at the festival’s beginning to David Lean’s Brief Encounter, also the story of two adults who meet by chance and get together.
Both of those Cannes Classics have something inherently in common with Aki Kaurismaki’s wonderful, wryly funny, and poignant new film, Fallen Leaves (Kuolleet Lehdet) which premiered today at Cannes, the latest Competition entry for the master Finnish filmmaker who was last in the run for the Palme d’Or with 2011’s equally great Le Havre.
Despite several Eumenical prizes at the fest over the years, Kaurismaki only came close to the Palme with 2002’s The Man Without A Past which also put him- and Finland – in the running for the Foreign Language Oscar.
Read more on deadline.com