Golden Palm For 'Eternity'

A poet's struggle with memory and death in Eternity and a Day, by Greek director Theo Angelopoulos, won the Golden Palm at the 51st Cannes Film Festival Sunday.

But the wildest applause greeted the festival's runner-up. The Grand Prize went to La Vita e Bella (Life Is Beautiful) by Italy's Roberto Benigni, who directed and starred as a father who uses desperate and hilarious means to shield his son from the horrors of a Nazi death camp.

Eternity tells the tale of the dying Alexander, who befriends a young Albanian refugee before entering a hospital. The boy, with the help of words, helps Alexander bring his wife, Anna, back to life for a day.

Accepting his prize, Angelopoulos referred to the time he complained about only getting a special jury prize for Ulysses' Gaze in 1995.

"If I didn't get the prize, I wouldn't have done the same thing as last time. I am very touched," the 63-year-old director said.

The jury president, director Martin Scorsese, said the 10-member jury had chosen Angelopoulos' film unanimously.

But it was Benigni who stole the awards show, kissing Scorsese's shoes and hugging members of the jury as the crowd rose to its feet.

"I won the Golden Palm!" he quipped. "I want to dedicate this film to all the people who are not here and who left us, who made us understand what is liberty, love, and life."

The award for best director went to Britain's John Boorman for The General, the story of a Robin Hood-style Irish criminal hunted by both police and the Irish Republican Army.

Other awards went to:

• Britain's Peter Mullan, best actor, My Name Is Joe, about a reformed alcoholic who falls in love while struggling to stay sober.
• Elodie Bouchez of France and Natacha Regnier of Belgium, sharing the win for best actress for their roles as two young working-class rebels in the French film La Vie Revee des Anges (The Dream Life of Angels).

• Hal Hartley of the United States, best screenplay, for Henry Fool, about a maladjusted garbage man encouraged to develop his literary skills by a downstairs tenant with a dark past.
• La Classe de Neige, (The Class Trip), by Claude Miller of France; and Festen, (Celebration), by Denma-Thomas Vinterberg, Jury Prize.
• Apparently struggling over how to divvy out awards, the jury granted a rare best artistic contribution award to American director Todd Haynes for the British '70s glam-rock film Velvet Goldmine.
• Rounding out a trio of American winners was Marc Levin. He won The Golden Camera -- a prize for first-time directors -- for the rap-poetry movie Slam. The film also won at this year's Sundance Festival.