CANNES, France (Reuters) – Critics lauded the Cannes film festival jury on Monday for awarding director Michael Haneke’s “Love” (Amour) the coveted Palme d’Or for best picture, justifying its status as favorite going into Sunday night’s awards ceremony.

The Austrian has now won the top prize at the world’s biggest cinema showcase twice, joining a small elite of multiple winners and cementing his place as a master of film making.

Slow and understated, Love’s portrayal of an elderly French couple facing the last stages of life had audiences in tears and critics rushing off to write five-star reviews virtually across the board.

Its victory was particularly welcome in France, with the stars of the movie, both in their 80s, highly respected names in French cinema.

“The names of Emmanuelle Riva and Jean-Louis Trintignant … will play in the public eye like a French victory,” said Le Parisien newspaper.

Conspicuous in their absence from the awards ceremony that wrapped up the 12-day festival on the French Riviera were U.S. productions, five of which made it into the main competition of 22 entries.

Not even the acting talent of A-listers Nicole Kidman and Brad Pitt, alongside hot emerging Hollywood names like Jessica Chastain, Tom Hardy and Zac Efron, was enough to win over the judges led by Italian director Nanni Moretti.

CANNES, France, May 27 (Reuters) – Austrian director Michael Haneke won the Cannes film festival’s top honour, the Palme d’Or, on Sunday with “Love” (Amour), his acclaimed tale of an elderly couple facing the inescapable, yet no less tragic march of death.

Haneke joins an elite group of two-time winners at the world’s biggest film festival after his “The White Ribbon” won in 2009.

The simple yet moving tale set almost entirely inside a Paris apartment left audiences in tears in Cannes, and it will prove a popular winner for a director considered one of the greatest working in Europe today.

Love also won plaudits for its two main actors, Jean-Louis Trintignant and Emmanuelle Riva, who are both in their 80s.

“A very, very big thanks to my actors who have made this film. It’s their film. They are the essence of this film,” Haneke told a packed audience at the closing ceremony after being applauded and cheered.

Critics were almost unanimous in their praise for Love.

“Whatever his message, the spell of this incandescent film will be an elevating memory,” Mary Corliss wrote in Time Magazine. “In the history of movies about love, Amour lasts forever.”

CANNES, France, May 27 (Reuters) – The 2012 Cannes film festival ends on Sunday evening with the award of the Palme d’Or for best picture at a red carpet gala ceremony, the climax of a 12-day blur of screenings, photo shoots, parties and deal making.

As thousands of journalists, critics, executives and stars head home and luxury yachts weigh anchor for their next port of call, the big question is who will walk away with one of the most coveted film prizes after the Oscars.

Two previous winning directors are favourites, although up to half of the 22 entries in the main competition in Cannes this year have been named as potential victors.

Austria’s Michael Haneke wowed Cannes yet again this year with “Amour” (Love), a stately tale of death and what it means for an elderly couple living in a Parisian apartment.

Set almost entirely in a single building, Haneke is typically unflinching in his film making, and the result had audiences in Cannes moved to tears.

“Whatever his message, the spell of this incandescent film will be an elevating memory,” wrote Mary Corliss in Time Magazine. “In the history of movies about love, Amour lasts forever.”

The two leading actors, Jean-Louis Trintignant and Emmanuelle Riva, are both in their 80s, and their memorable performances underlined a year in which the actors, particularly male, have universally impressed.

CANNES, France, May 26 (Reuters) – “Mud”, a touching coming-of-age tale set on the Mississippi River and starring Matthew McConaughey and Reese Witherspoon, brought the Cannes film festival competition to a close on Saturday, earning warm applause at a press screening.

The film, which echoes Mark Twain and his novel “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn”, centres on Ellis – played by up-and-coming actor Tye Sheridan, who was 14 at the time.

Along with best friend Neckbone, he comes across the mysterious Mud (McConaughey) who is living alone on an island.

The boys discover he is on the run for a serious crime, but has come back to the area to find the love of his life Juniper, played by Witherspoon, whom he dreams of whisking away to Mexico by sea.

They help him to rebuild a boat stuck up in a tree in the floods, and are drawn into an dangerous race against time as the family of Mud’s victim shows up to get revenge.

Director and scriptwriter Jeff Nichols admitted he borrowed freely from the novels of Twain.

“If you’re going to steal stuff from somebody you should steal stuff from somebody really intelligent and I stole things from Mark Twain,” he told reporters ahead of the film’s world premiere later on Saturday.

CANNES, France (Reuters) – The Cannes film festival enjoyed cheers and jeers in equal measure this year, leaving its famously passionate and picky audiences with plenty to love, loathe and laugh about.

With two days to go before the close of the 12-day movie marathon, it also pulled off a balancing act between championing independent films from around the world and luring enough stars to the red carpet to satisfy a thirst for glamour and celebrity.

And unlike some recent festivals, the A-listers kept coming to the end — “Twilight” heartthrob Robert Pattinson was sure to attract large crowds later on Friday for the world premiere of his financial crisis film “Cosmopolis”.

The world’s biggest cinema showcase ends with an awards ceremony on Sunday where the coveted Palme d’Or for best picture will be announced.

As many of the 4,000 bleary-eyed reporters and critics pack their bags for home, the conversation has turned to which of 22 movies in the main competition lineup is most likely to win.

Austria’s Michael Haneke, who is gaining a reputation as arguably Europe’s greatest director, moved audiences to tears with “Amour” (Love), an elegiac and restrained portrayal of an elderly woman’s illness and death and how her husband copes.

The performances from lead actors Jean-Louis Trintagnant and Emmanuelle Riva, both in their 80s, were singled out, although Cannes tends not to award a single movie multiple awards.

LONDON, May 25 (Reuters) – Britain’s Queen Elizabeth will celebrate 60 years on the throne next month along with huge crowds expected for a pop concert at Buckingham Palace, a grand procession through the streets of London and a 1,000-strong flotilla along the River Thames.

The Diamond Jubilee comes just over a year after the royal wedding of Prince William, the queen’s grandson, to Kate Middleton, a spectacular display of pomp and pageantry which has boosted the monarchy’s popularity at home and abroad.

While international media attention has focused on the young Duke and Duchess of Cambridge since their marriage, in early June it is the queen who will be in the limelight as she becomes only the second British monarch to mark the milestone.

Queen Victoria also made it to 60 years in 1897, although the vast British Empire she reigned over at that time has all but vanished and royalty has become a largely symbolic institution with few real powers.

The queen has less than four years to go to become the longest serving British monarch, but she trails Thailand’s King Bhumibol Adulyadej as the longest-serving living head of state.

Despite her age, courtiers and many commentators believe that 86-year-old Elizabeth remains an important figurehead in Britain and beyond, a symbol of stability and service that has taken on added weight during straitened economic times.

A poll published in Britain’s Guardian newspaper on Friday showed public support for the queen was at a record high in spite of harsh economic times and growing cyncism towards politicians following a number of high-profile scandals.

ANTIBES, France (Reuters) – At a time of economic uncertainty, the glitziest charity gala at the Cannes film festival got personal.

Each year at the luxurious Hotel Du Cap-Eden-Roc in Antibes, just along the coast from Cannes, amfAR, the Foundation for AIDS Research, invites the famous and fabulously wealthy for a night of fine food, fine wine, dancing and giving.

This year Kylie Minogue, Janet Jackson, Kirsten Dunst and Adrien Brody were among the stars to grace the black tie event late on Thursday and into the early hours of Friday.

The celebrity auction held during dinner got off to a slow start, prompting those with the microphone to cajole, abuse and name and shame to ramp up the prices.

“We’re talking austerity prices, and I’m disappointed quite frankly,” said the auctioneer when offers for a Cartier watch were not forthcoming.

Eventually co-host and model Heidi Klum threw in a free massage to the winning bidder. The add-on appeared to do the trick, and the time piece went for 65,000 euros ($82,000).

“Come on you tight bastards!” shouted U.S. comedian Chris Tucker, who was on stage to sell a collection of 1911 Moet & Chandon vintage champagne. The final price was 150,000 euros.

CANNES, France, May 24 (Reuters) – Nicole Kidman plays an “oversexed Barbie doll” in the hard-hitting murder drama “The Paperboy”, premiering at the Cannes film festival on Thursday and notable for arresting scenes of sex, violence and urination.

In the adaptation of a Pete Dexter novel, the Australian Oscar winner plays trailer-trash bombshell Charlotte Bless, who is obsessed with a man on death row with whom she exchanges letters.

She is drawn into a newspaper investigation into the prisoner, who may have been wrongfully convicted, triggering a frantic series of sexual encounters, humorous exchanges and a dangerous game of violence and death in the Florida swamps.

Two scenes in particular had critics and reporters chattering in Cannes after a press screening.

In one Bless urinates on Zac Efron’s character Jack after he is badly stung by jellyfish in the sea, while the second is a bizarre and unflinching portrayal of a sex scene set in a prison visiting room that involves no physical contact at all.

Kidman, in a figure-hugging vermilion dress for her Cannes photo call, was asked at a press conference whether she found shooting the scenes embarrassing:

“Strangely no, because I think I had to step into a place to play the character where I didn’t step out of it and look at myself, so it wasn’t hard to shoot.

CANNES, France (Reuters) – Brad Pitt, in Cannes to promote his latest movie “Killing Them Softly”, has no intention of following fiancee Angelina Jolie into directing, he told Reuters on Wednesday.

The 48-year-old, one of Hollywood’s biggest stars, hit the red carpet at the film’s world premiere on Tuesday, drawing noisy crowds and the world’s media to the glitzy ceremony.

As well as playing mob enforcer Jackie Cogan in the violent but darkly comic gangster movie, Pitt was one of its main producers, a side of the business he has become increasingly involved in over the last six years.

Asked whether he might add directing to his career in movies, he replied: “No, not a chance.

“It makes sense on some level, but I really enjoy being a creative producer and I enjoy my day job,” he said at the Carlton Hotel on the main Cannes waterfront overlooking the beach and luxury yachts moored offshore.

“It’s enough for me. I want to also be a dad, first and foremost. After two days it gets itchy, I miss them. I just know how I’d be, I see how much time it takes to mount the thing and put it together. It wouldn’t be a good match.”

Last year Jolie, with whom Pitt has six children, directed her first feature “In the Land of Blood and Honey”, a hard-hitting drama set in the Bosnian war.

CANNES, France (Reuters) – Cars talk, a man is married to a monkey and Kylie Minogue contemplates suicide in “Holy Motors”, easily the oddest movie in competition at the Cannes film festival screened so far this year.

Directed by French film maker Leos Carax, the story follows Mr. Oscar, a man who spends each day living 10 different lives, each mapped out for him in a dossier left in the back seat of the stretch white limousine he travels in.

In the morning he is a rich businessman leaving his luxury home for work. Next he dresses up as an old woman beggar on the streets of Paris.

Each hurried change involves elaborate costume changes and make up in the back of the limousine, and leave Oscar, played with superhuman energy by Denis Lavant, increasingly exhausted as the day wears on.

As to its meaning, critics and journalists struggled to agree.

“What the heck does it all mean?” wrote Guardian critic Peter Bradshaw in his five-star review, before proceeding to seek to unravel the enigma of Holy Motors.

Carax, whose last full-length feature was “Pola X” in 1999, declined to answer when asked at a press conference what the movie meant, and merely shook his finger.