  Austrian director Michael Haneke poses with the Palme d'Or award he received for the film 'The White Ribbon', at a photo call following the awards ceremony, during the 62nd International film festival in Cannes, southern France, Sunday, May 24, 2009. (AP Photo/Francois Mori)
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CANNES -- Despite jokes from the host and a cheeky-monkey skit from former Monty Pythoner Terry Gilliam, the 62nd Cannes Film Festival ended with an austere dispensation of awards last night.
Almost all went to traditional arthouse cinema films, most from Europe or Asia. That includes the Palme d'Or winner as best film, Austrian director Michael Haneke's The White Ribbon (Das Weisse Band). He earned the prize for a meticulously crafted, slow-paced, but terrifying film about a village awaiting its fate. The results mean that popular American and English fare such as Ang Lee's Taking Woodstock and Ken Loach's Searching for Eric were shut out.
There were a couple of notable exceptions to the austere rule. The most notable was the best actor prize handed to German actor Christoph Waltz. With scenery-chewing panache, Waltz plays the arrogant and totally psychotic SS officer Landa in Quentin Tarantino's film, Inglourious Basterds. Waltz conjures his nutty Nazi with such zeal that Landa becomes the most interesting and compelling character in Basterds -- yet he never lets audiences sympathize with this devil or his heinous crimes against humanity.
Waltz called Tarantino's Second World War fantasy "an unbelievable movie, an unbelievable experience." Nearing tears and hugging the presenter, Chinese actress Zhang Ziyi, Waltz spread his gratitude around: "Thank you everybody involved in making this movie. Thank you Brad for meeting me on eye level and making me your partner."
For Tarantino, Waltz reserved special mention because of his inspirational quality: "You gave me my vocation back!" During the festival, Tarantino had praised Waltz as essential and said he would not have made Inglourious Basterds if he had not found him for the role.
With Haneke winning the top prize, that left the Grand Prix du Jury for acclaimed French director Jacques Audiard. His prison film, The Prophet (Un Prophete) was considered a front-runner because it addresses deep-rooted racial, economic and political issues in general society, using prison is an incubator for big ideas. But, despite falling short, Audiard was enthusiastic in his thanks for the Grand Prix, which is second place.
The third-place prize was a controversial tie. The Prix du Jury went to both Briton Andrea Arnold for Fish Tank -- earning applause among critics -- and to Korean Park Chan-wook for Thirst (Bak-Jwi) -- generating media boos.
Meanwhile, bringing a particularly sombre tone to the evening, 87-year-old French legend Alain Resnais received a Prix Exceptionnel. In other words, the jury made it up to suit the occasion. While Resnais' latest opus, Wild Grass (Les Herbes Folles) played in competition and was rumoured as a Palme d'Or candidate, he actually won what Isabelle Huppert's Cannes jury called a Lifetime Achievement Award "for his work and his exceptional contribution to the history of cinema."
Among many celebrated films, Renais presented Hiroshima mon Amour at Cannes 50 years ago. Yesterday, he received a standing ovation while perched on stage in a black suit, red shirt, sunglasses and white sneakers.
The most controversial prize was the best director award given to Filipino Brilliante Mendoza for Kinatay, a film many find disgusting for its depiction of the rape, murder and dismemberment of a drug-dealing whore by crooked cops. Media jeered wildly as Mendoza went up on stage.
That soured Gilliam's antics. He was the presenter of the directing prize. As he went to the mic, before Mendoza was announced, Gilliam pretended he had won. "You don't receive, you give!" Gilliam was told, as he broke down in fake tears. "If you don't make a scandal," the host purred, "next year you get something."
Winning as best actress was English-born actress Charlotte Gainsbourg, who co-starred in Danish filmmaker Lars von Trier's ultra-violent film Antichrist. In the movie, she is seen cutting her clitoris with a pair of rusty scissors. But some people, including the Cannes jury, think this is art.
The best screenplay prize went to Chinese writer Mei Fung for Spring Fever, a controversial film by director Lou Ye.
The Camera d'Or went to Australian Warwick Thornton for Samson and Delilah, which played in the Un Certain Regard section. An honourable mention went to co-directors Mark Albiston and Louis Sutherland, whose film The Six Dollar Fifty Man, was not even on the official list of eligible films.
These results meant that 20-year-old Xavier Dolan, the wunderkind from Quebec, lost at his chance to make history by copping the Camera d'Or. His film, I Killed My Mother (Je Tue ma Mere) sent shock waves through Cannes with his uncannily mature command of writing and directing. He is also terrific in the lead role of a gay teen coming of age while he love-hates his mother. Earlier, Dolan did win three minor prizes in the Directors Fortnight section.
