The first movie to win the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival
The Palme d’Or is the highest prize awarded at the annual Cannes Film Festival, making it one of the most prestigious accolades in the film industry. Many culturally significant titles have taken the award home in previous years, including the likes of Taxi Driver, Apocalypse Now, Wild at Heart and Pulp Fiction, with the most recent winner being Ruben Östlund’s 2022 satire Triangle of Sadness. As this year’s edition is presently underway, fans are eagerly waiting for the latest Palme d’Or winner to be announced, with a host of exciting titles in the running from across the globe.
Although the Cannes Film Festival has been running in various formats since 1938, the Palme d’Or wasn’t introduced until 1955 by the organising committee. Before this, from 1939 to 1954, the festival’s most gilded prize was the Grand Prix du Festival International du Film, with its title shortened to Grand Prix in 1947. The Palme d’Or enjoyed a nearly decade-long run before the ‘Grand Prix’ was brought back in 1964 until 1974. However, the organisers couldn’t stay away, and the Palme d’Or was introduced in 1975. It has stayed on top since.
Delbert Mann’s 1955 romantic drama Marty was the first film to win Palme d’Or. Remarkably, it was Mann’s directorial debut, with the screenplay written by Paddy Chayefsky expanding on his hit 1953 teleplay of the same name. Whilst the teleplay starred Rod Steiger in the title role of the decent Bronx butcher pining for love, the movie cast the popular Ernest Borgnine with Cheshire Cat grin as the protagonist, opposite Betsy Blair as Clara, the object of his affection.
The story follows the 34-year-old bachelor, Marty, who is pressured by his family and friends to settle down. One night, he meets the plain Clara outside a venue crying after being stood up by her blind date. They then dance, walk the streets, talk at a diner, get to know each other and develop feelings. However, Marty encounters barriers from his friends and family, particularly his mother, and must choose what is right for him and not what others dictate.
The most famous line in the movie comes towards the end, when the under-pressure Marty bursts out to a friend: “You don’t like her, my mother don’t like her, she’s a dog and I’m a fat, ugly man! Well, all I know is I had a good time last night! I’m gonna have a good time tonight! If we have enough good times together, I’m gonna get down on my knees and I’m gonna beg that girl to marry me! If we make a party on New Year’s, I got a date for that party. You don’t like her? That’s too bad!” Despite the outdated language, Marty’s sentiment was incredibly forward-thinking for the time.
As well as becoming the fourth American film to win the Palme d’Or, Marty made history by winning that year’s Academy Award for ‘Best Picture’. Only two films have won both organisations’ grand prizes, with the other being 2019’s Parasite.
