Two films with a broad scope and full of meditations on the purpose of life are in the spotlight at this year's Cannes Film Festival - for very different reasons.

Earlier this week, American director Terrence Malick's hotly anticipated film "The Tree of Life" had its debut - a year after it was originally slated to be shown at the festival.

The film follows the journey of a young Texan (whose stern father is played by Brad Pitt) but criss-crosses in time to tell its story, drawing on the Biblical story of creation and even the age of dinosaurs. Known for taking his time with production, "The Tree of Life" is the 67-year-old director's fifth film.

Despite going into the festival as a favorite for winning its highest award, Malick's sweeping narrative drew mixed reviews after its Cannes premiere, with some attendees reporting that it elicited boos from the crowd.

It's "visionary cinema on an unabashedly huge scale," wrote Peter Bradshaw in a five-star review in the Guardian, while Stephanie Zacharek of the entertainment blog Movieline called it a "gargantuan work of pretension and cleverly concealed self-absorption."



'Okay, I'm a Nazi'

Danish director Lars von Trier also presented an epic film on Wednesday at Cannes called "Melancholia," which traces the lives of two sisters after news breaks that a planet called Melancholia may strike Earth.

Von Trier entered the festival as a favorite, partly in light of the numerous honors he's already received. In 2000, he won the festival's top prize, the Palme d'Or, for "Dancer in the Dark," which starred Icelandic singer Björk.

This year, though, the star director has hurt his chances for a win after a rambling, offensive rant at a press conference, in which he said with a smirk, "Okay, I'm a Nazi."

The filmmaker had been asked about his heritage when he began talking about his family's roots in Germany.

"I'm just saying that I think I understand [Hitler]. He's not what you would call a good guy, but, yeah, I understand much about him, and I sympathize with him a little bit, yes," he said.

Von Trier later issued an apology in which he stated he's neither anti-Semitic nor a Nazi.

A new record?

Rounding out this year's favorites in Cannes are the Dardenne brothers - a directing duo from Belgium - with their smaller-scale flick titled "Le gamin au velo" ("The Kid with the Bike"). The drama tells the story of an 11-year-old boy whose father has abandoned him.

If the brothers win, they would become the first to receive top honors at Cannes on three separate occasions. The pair won in 1999 for "Rosetta" and in 2005 for "L'enfant" ("The Child").

But they'll have to beat out competition from the lesser known Finnish director Aki Kaurismaki with a comic tale about a shoe-shiner who tries to help out a young African refugee in a small Normandy town.

Since its premiere, Kaurismaki's tender look at the divisive topic of immigration has become a surprise favorite at the festival. There are whispers that it just may win the Palme d'Or, with or without the big philosophical narrative that is more prevalent in the competitors' films.

Author: Greg Wiser (dpa, AFP)
Editor: Kate Bowen