Festivals: The Ninth Prize

Sophia Loren is delightfully visible everywhere these days. She is playing lowdown adventure in Arabesque, high comedy in Lady L., has just finished A Countess from Hong Kong for Charlie Chaplin, and the Museum of Modern Art in Manhattan is showing a galleryful of still pictures of the lovely Loren face. "It has been a marvelous year for me," she chirped last week. "And I've gotten married. What more could I ask for?"

French film officials had the answer: they asked her to be chief judge of the Cannes Festival. "I hesitated at first," recalled Sophia. "It wouldn't be easy running a group of well-known writers and thinkers like Marcel Achard, André Maurois, Marcel Pagnol and Peter Ustinov. But then I said to myself, 'Why not be a judge instead of an actress for once? After all, I do know something about the movies, don't I?' So I said yes."

As it turned out, Sophia's yes was one of the few worthwhile affirmations at the festival. Vanessa Redgrave was voted best actress for her performance in Morgan! (see following story). But then, most of the critics agreed with only half of the judges' first-prize choice —Un Homme et Une Femme, a love story with a car-racing background (TIME, May 20.) What disturbed the critics was that the judges decided to split the top award with another film, Signore e Signori, yet another view of middle-class Italian mores by Pietro Germi (Divorce—Italian Style); nor did many viewers agree with the selection of the British Alfie, starring Michael Caine, for the judges' "Special Prize."

In all, the 14 judges awarded eight prizes—each more unpopular than the next. Several critics suggested that a ninth prize be awarded to the "worst judges in the history of the Cannes Film Festival." Others posted a petition denouncing the judges for "selecting the two most vulgar films, Alfie and Signore e Signori." Shrugged Judge Loren: "You can't please everybody." Agreed departing Judge Ustinov, relieved to be relieved of his assignment: "I am going to take a sabbatical and go back to being a crook."