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- PEOPLE, Page 88American Cannes Do
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- By Emily Mitchell/Reported by Jeannie Park
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- Well, I guess it's all downhill from here," cracked STEVEN
- SODERBERGH, whose film had just won the biggest prize at the
- Cannes Film Festival, the Palme d'Or. The triumph for the
- Georgia-born director's movie sex, lies and videotape was part
- of a virtual sweep of the festival's top awards last week by
- high-flying young Americans. Director JAMES JARMUSCH'S quirky
- Mystery Train received a special prize for Best Artistic
- Contribution. JAMES SPADER, who co-stars in Soderbergh's
- comedy-drama, was named Best Actor. And MERYL STREEP won Best
- Actress for her portrayal of a grieving Australian mother in A
- Cry in the Dark.
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- Soderbergh, 26, who never went to film school, spent just
- $1.2 million to make his prizewinning feature about nimble
- verbal foreplay and veiled motivations. The movie was a surprise
- hit, outpacing the early favorite, Do the Right Thing, by
- director SPIKE LEE. "We were the best-received film by the
- critics, and we were shut out," said the disappointed Lee, after
- the jury snubbed his tale of superheated racial tensions in
- Brooklyn. Film critic ROGER EBERT had called the controversial
- drama, which opens in the U.S. next month, a "great" film and
- vowed he would not return to Cannes if it failed to win. Sure
- thing. Roger and out.
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