‘Barton Fink’ Cannes Win Draws Flak

The jury of the Cannes Film Festival, which awarded top honors to an American movie for the third straight year, was castigated in print on Tuesday by a leading French newspaper and a losing Danish director.

“Barton Fink,” a sardonic comedy about Hollywood by brothers Joel and Ethan Coen, won awards for best film, best actor and best director Monday night at the 44th annual film festival in Cannes.

It was the third top prize in a row for American films. David Lynch’s “Wild at Heart” won the Golden Palm last year, while Steven Soderbergh’s “sex, lies, and videotape” won in 1989.

The 10-member jury, headed by director Roman Polanski, unanimously selected “Barton Fink” as best film.

Le Monde, considered France’s most authoritative newspaper, took the jury to task for bestowing three top awards on a single film. “Why not all the other prizes?” it asked sarcastically.

“It’s a provocation--the incomprehensible, unjustified, dictatorial way in which the jury let it be known that the festival had one film flying high above the others,” the newspaper said.

Le Monde said the “unbalanced, imperialist” awards failed to reflect the diversity and quality of the other entrants.

After this year’s decision, one losing director, Lars von Trier of Denmark, was so angry he hurled a lesser award away after a post-ceremony news conference.

Von Trier was furious that his political thriller “Europa” won only a runner-up prize and a citation for technical achievement.

A Copenhagen newspaper, BT, reported that Von Trier insulted Polanski when called on stage to receive the technical prize, referring to him as a “dwarf.”

Von Trier threw the prize away after a news conference, though it was retrieved by his producer, Peter Aalbaeck, Danish correspondents reported.

“Lars has seen the other films and thinks that ‘Europa’ is the best,” Aalbaeck told the newspaper Ekstra Bladet. “That’s why he’s so disappointed and obnoxious now. . . . It’s not enough for him to get the bronze when he was going for gold.”