Top 10 Movies Booed at Cannes

Earlier today, the Ryan Gosling-starring, Nicolas Winding Refn-directed Only God Forgives screened at the Cannes Film Festival and was swiftly met with critical revulsion. Immediate reports indicated that the film closed with many boos and cackles from those in attendance.

For me, this is as significant as it is insignificant. First, I’m excited about Only God Forgives. Its neon-noir trailer appears to be a worthy follow-up to Drive, Gosling and Refn’s last film together. So, while the Cannes boos give me trepidation, I know by now not to let them phase me too much. Don’t let boos and early criticism throw you off, the 10 flicks below braved the taunts and came out on top.

10. Pulp Fiction (1994)

The only reason I’m placing Pulp Fiction so low on this list is because it technically didn’t get booed after its screening, but rather, after it won the festival’s highest honor, the Palme d’Or. Apparently, people were pissed that Krzysztof Kieślowski’s final film, Red, didn’t nab the prize. Quentin Tarantino’s reaction is exactly what you’d expect from him.

9. The Voice of the Moon (1990)

I’m not the biggest fan of Federico Fellini’s final film, The Voice of the Moon, but whether or not you find the film boring (as a few booing audience members did at Cannes) you simply don’t boo Fellini.

8. Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me (1992)

Usually Cannes attendees are polite enough to wait until a movie finishes before greeting it with boos. Fire Walk With Me was not so lucky. As reported at the time, David Lynch’s follow up film to his wildly popular television series was met with constant boos during the screening. Walkouts were common as well, perhaps most notably by Quentin Tarantino himself, who later said, “David Lynch has disappeared so far up his own ass that I have no desire to see another David Lynch movie until I hear something different.”

7. Antichrist (2009)

While I know many people don’t consider this movie great, I certainly do appreciate it. So believe me, I can see why this Lars von Trier-directed vision of hell was not well received upon initial viewing. But as it turns out, boos were the least of its problems at Cannes. A handful of people fainted at the premiere, and the film’s closing dedication to Russian filmmaker Andrei Tarkovsky actually drew laughs from the audience. Ouch.

6. Crash (1996)

Just to reiterate: I’m certainly not surprised that many of the films on this list were booed, I’m just drawing attention to the fact that they were booed. Case in point is David Cronenberg’s sex-and-car-crashes thriller, Crash. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if Cronenberg himself sat in the back of the Cannes theater with a little smirk on his face, silently musing, “Well, my work here is done.”

5. Gertrud (1964)

Much like The Voice of the Moon, after Carl Theodor Dreyer’s final film, Gertrud, screened at the festival, it was met with an immediate negative vocal reaction. The difference between the two? Dreyer reportedly had the stones to flip the audience off as they were booing. Might as well go down swinging.

4. L’Argent (1983)

Maybe it’s because he was already 82-years-old, maybe it’s because he had run out of creative steam, or maybe it’s because his remarkable L’Argent was booed at Cannes, but for whatever reason, L’Argent proved to be Robert Bresson’s final film. Damn shame.

3. The Tree of Life (2011)

After news broke that Terrence Malick’s visual poem The Tree of Life was booed at Cannes, I became nervous about he film. Then it won the Palme d’Or. Then I saw it. Then I loved it.

2. L’Avventura (1960)

One of the themes of this list is calling out the naysayers who got it wrong. According to legend, after Michelangelo Antonioini’s landmark picture screened at Cannes, the director and his star had to rush out of the theater due to the crowd’s divisive reaction. Today, L’Avventura is considered one of the finest films ever made, so, you know, fair trade.

1. Taxi Driver (1976)

Yep, my favorite film of all time was booed at the Cannes Film Festival. But considering an actual bomb went off in the festival’s main theater the year before, I suppose it’s understandable that audiences didn’t want to see a PTSD-stricken badass take matters into his own hands for no apparent reason. Either way, Taxi Driver won the Palme d’Or and will spend a lifetime living at the center of my movie-freaked world.

Ten more notable films booed at Cannes

Eclipse by Michelangelo Antonioini (1962)

Mademoiselle by Tony Richardson (1966)

Seconds by John Frankenheimer (1966)

The Mother and the Whore by Jean Eustache (1973)

Under the Sun of Satan by Maurice Pialat (1987)

Wild at Heart by David Lynch (1990)

The Idiots by Lars von Trier (1998)

The Brown Bunny by Vincent Gallo (2003)

Marie Antoinette by Sofia Coppola (2006)

We Own the Night by James Gray (2007)

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