List of 2010 MTV Video Music Award winners (AP)

A list of winners at Sunday night's 2010 MTV Video Music Awards in Los Angeles:

Collaboration: Lady Gaga featuring Beyonce, "Telephone"

Female video: Lady Gaga, "Bad Romance"

Male video: Eminem, "Not Afraid"

Hip-hop video: Eminem, "Not Afraid"

New artist: Justin Bieber featuring Ludacris, "Baby"

Pop video: Lady Gaga, "Bad Romance"

Rock video: 30 Seconds to Mars, "Kings and Queens"

Dance music video: Lady Gaga, "Bad Romance"

Art direction: Florence and the Machine, "Dog Days Are Over"

Choreography: Lady Gaga, "Bad Romance"

Cinematography: Jay Z and Alicia Keys, "Empire State of Mind"

Direction: Lady Gaga, "Bad Romance"

Editing: Lady Gaga, "Bad Romance"

Special effects: Muse, "Uprising"

Breakthrough video: The Black Keys, "Tighten Up"

Video of the year: Lady Gaga, "Bad Romance"

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Taylor Swift absolves Kanye in new song (AP)

Lady Gaga swept the MTV Video Music Awards in Los Angeles on Sunday night, winning multiple moonmen trophies, including best video of the year.

The outrageous singer picked up the biggest prize of the night wearing an outfit sure to anger the PETA-crowd: a dress and chapeau that appeared to be made of cuts of meat.

Another larger-than-life diva from another generation presented Gaga with her trophy � Cher.

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Lady Gaga wins early prizes at MTV music awards

Sun Sep 12, 2010 10:15pm EDT

Dean Goodman

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Lady Gaga overshadowed country starlet Taylor Swift to claim the first prize at the MTV Video Music Awards on Sunday, barely managing to get across the stage in her elaborate costume.

The flamboyant pop singer, decked out in a flowing multi-layered dress and towering high heels, took the prize for best female video for her song "Bad Romance," beating a field that included Swift's "Fifteen."

"Tonight, little monsters, we are the cool kids at the party," Lady Gaga said, using her term of affection for her fans.

Lady Gaga, 24, whose real name is Stefani Germanotta, also claimed a pair of awards that were announced before the ceremony began at the Nokia Theater: best dance music video for "Bad Romance," and best collaboration for "Telephone," featuring Beyonce.

The ceremony's second award, best rock video, went to actor Jared Leto's rock band 30 Seconds to Mars and its clip for "Kings and Queens."

Lady Gaga leads the pack with 13 nominations, including a pair of nods for video of the year. Rapper Eminem, who opened the show with a medley of his hits "Not Afraid" and "Love the Way you Lie," picked up eight nominations.

Award presentations at the MTV awards are often little more than distractions from the performances. Canadian teen pop idol Justin Bieber raised the decibel level to ear-splitting as he performed on an outdoor stage for legions of screaming female fans.

Beforehand, host Chelsea Handler got in a few jabs at the 16-year-old's expense. "Imagine how good his music will be when he sees a vagina," she said.

Handler, who also implored winners to be on their worst behavior, wasted little time reminding the audience of last year's big controversy, when rapper Kanye West interrupted Swift's acceptance speech.

She described the issue as "the big black elephant in the room."

Swift will not get a chance to be interrupted. Her sole nomination was the female pop video category. But she was scheduled to perform a new song later in the ceremony, as was West.

MTV, owned by Viacom, will probably be the night's big winner. Last year's ceremony drew 9 million viewers, a 6 percent increase over 2008 and the largest turnout since 2004.

(Editing by Paul Simao)

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Eminem, Rihanna and Chelsea Handler kick off VMAs (AP)

Lindsay Lohan made her first post-jail and rehab TV appearance, host Chelsea Handler got spanked, Eminem and Rihanna got dark with their "Love the Way You Lie," and Lady Gaga thanked "the gays."

Yet it was still a relatively tame beginning for the MTV Video Music Awards, which got underway Sunday in Los Angeles in a ceremony on a futuristic white stage set and a cast that included Justin Bieber, Katy Perry, Kim Kardashian, and the cast of MTV's reality show phenomenon, "Jersey Shore."

"They're the reason MTV doesn't play your videos," Handler joked in her opening monologue, which began with her descending from the ceiling in a Gaga-inspired, over-the-top, glittery monstrosity of a dress, with a model house as her helmet.

But the real excitement was promised for later, with an expected Kanye West-Taylor Swift showdown. Both stars were expected to perform, and a person familiar with the show said Swift's song would address the infamous debacle of last year, when West got on stage after her win and said the trophy should have gone to fellow nominee Beyonce.

Handler acknowledged the anticipation for the two stars.

"It's time to address the big black elephant in the room," she said. "Where's Kanye?"

West endured enormous backlash after the incident, despite a later apology, and recently detailed the negative effects on Twitter. For his part, he tweeted early Sunday that he was feeling positive energy, and said he wished his mother was still alive to see his performance.

"It's funny," he wrote on his Twitter account. "I Can't believe it's been a whole year but can't believe all that's happened within this year at the same time."

Even if the anticipated fireworks involving Swift and West don't materialize, there should be other watercooler moments; after all, these are the VMAs. The cast of "Jackass" got rowdy early on, as one of the cast members stripped off his clothes onstage and revealed his underwear � made to look like a chicken, with one suggestive part.

Handler also added to the bawdiness. A pre-taped portion of her opening featured the host getting spanked multiple times by show participants in a backstage hallway before running into the recently freed Lohan, who also gave her a swat.

"Have you been drinking?" Lohan demanded from Handler. "Do you think anyone wants to work with a drunk? Take it from me! They don't!"

Later, on stage, Handler implored the all-star audience to get wild.

"I want to encourage everybody to be on their worst behavior," she said. "I want to turn this mother out. ... Get your tongues ready because I want those tongues shoved in places they're not supposed to be."

In between the zaniness and performances from the likes of Bieber and Usher, some actual awards were given out. Lady Gaga � who set a VMA record with her 13 nominations � was awarded best female video and best dance video for "Bad Romance" and best collaboration for her mini-epic "Telephone," featuring Beyonce.

Upon winning the female video award, she gingerly walked on stage in a spectacular outfit by the late Alexander McQueen: A Victorian-inspired gown and a Mohawk feather headdress atop a long white wig, with monstrous stilettos that made her look as she was on stilts.

Gaga got teary-eyed when she captured the award, shouting out her "little monsters" and more.

"Thank you to all the gays for remaking this video over and over again," she said.

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Entertainment Writer Sandy Cohen contributed to this report.

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'Body Snatchers' actor McCarthy dies in Mass. (AP)

HYANNIS, Mass. � Actor Kevin McCarthy, who played the frantic doctor trying to save his friends and neighbors in the science-fiction movie classic "Invasion of the Body Snatchers," has died at age 96.

McCarthy died Saturday, said Cape Cod Hospital spokesman Dave Riley, who wouldn't reveal the cause of death or any other details.

McCarthy was a prolific actor whose career took off in 1938 with his Broadway debut in "Abe Lincoln in Illinois."

His most lasting fame would came from "Invasion of the Body Snatchers." In the 1956 film he vainly tried to warn residents in his small town of the evil pod people from outer space who were quietly taking over the personalities of everyone on Earth.

His frantic shouting of "You're next" to those in approaching cars became so well known among science fiction fans he was often asked to spoof the role. He more or less did that in the opening minutes of the 1978 remake, which starred Donald Sutherland as the hero menaced by the pod people.

"Body Snatchers" flopped at the box office, considered too bleak for audiences of the time. It was elevated to classic status, and its star to iconic status, after such critics as Francois Truffault hailed it and late-night television programmers embraced it.

McCarthy's other films included "A Gathering of Eagles," "The Best Man," "Mirage," "Hotel," "The Howling," "Twilight Zone � The Movie," "Inner Space," "Dark Tower," "Just Cause," "The Distinguished Gentleman" and "Steal Big, Steal Little."

He also appeared in one other classic film, although in a much smaller role. He was Marilyn Monroe's estranged husband in her last movie, 1961's "The Misfits."

He originally turned down the role when director John Huston approached him, complaining that it was too small.

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Gaga wins 2 early VMA awards, but Kanye looms (AP)

Lady Gaga, the most nominated artist at Sunday's MTV Video Music Awards with 13, made her usual dramatic arrival and nabbed two early moonman trophies before the ceremony even started. But the real anticipation of the night was not the trophy tally, but an expected Kanye-Taylor showdown.

Gaga � who set a VMA record with her nominations � was awarded best dance video for "Bad Romance" and best collaboration for her mini-epic "Telephone," featuring Beyonce. The outrageous entertainer arrived on MTV's gleaming white carpet with an equally outrageous outfit � a Victorian-inspired gown and a Mohawk feather headdress atop a long white wig. She drew some of the loudest cheers from the gaggle of fans waiting to see their favorite stars.

But even Gaga couldn't compete with what was anticipated to be the evening's main storyline � Kanye West vs. Taylor Swift, the sequel.

Both stars were expected to perform at the show, and a person familiar with the show said Swift's song would address the infamous debacle of last year, when West got on stage after her win and said the trophy should have gone to fellow nominee Beyonce.

West endured enormous backlash after the incident despite a later apology, and recently detailed the negative effects on Twitter. For his part, he tweeted early Sunday that he was feeling positive energy, and said he wished his mother was still alive to see his performance.

"It's funny," he wrote on his Twitter account. "I Can't believe it's been a whole year but can't believe all that's happened within this year at the same time."

Stars arriving at the VMAs also had West and Swift on their minds and were curious to see what might happen between the two.

"I thought it was funny," Ice Cube said of the incident last year.

But Travie McCoy dismissed their exchange as "water under the bridge."

Even if the anticipated fireworks involving Swift and West don't materialize, there should be other watercooler moments; after all, these are the VMAs. The guest list promised acts who usually make headlines, including Eminem, the cast of "Jersey Shore," Kim Kardashian, Cher, and more.

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Entertainment Writer Sandy Cohen contributed to this report.

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Boyle, Franco challenged in survival film "127 Hours"

By Solarina Ho

TORONTO | Sun Sep 12, 2010 6:37pm EDT

TORONTO (Reuters) - How do you make a compelling film when your lead character is trapped by a boulder and unable to move for most of the story?

Director Danny Boyle, coming off the success of the Oscar-winning film "Slumdog Millionaire", rose to the challenge with his fact-based feature, "127 Hours", which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival this week.

"There's something I love about that idea, of that inability (to move) at the center of a film," he told Reuters in an interview.

"It's an extraordinary challenge to a filmmaker and an actor. There's an inertness, which completely contradicts what film is ... it's movement through the camera, everything is moving all the time," Boyle said.

"127 Hours," which opens across North America on November 5, is a harrowing yet uplifting film about the survival of mountaineer Aron Ralston, 34, whose right arm became pinned during a 2003 hiking trip in an isolated Utah canyon.

After days of trying to dislodge himself, Ralston cut off the lower portion of his arm using a dull blade and then hiked until he found help.

The audience spends a good portion of the 94-minute film trapped alongside Ralston, played by James Franco, in a single spot within a narrow crack inside Blue John Canyon.

When Franco first read the script, it was roughly 80 pages of mostly description. He wondered, "How am I going to use that kind of material and make it dramatic, make it tell a story?"

"It's a very tricky thing to be able to turn that into something that's full of energy and ups and downs," Franco said during the interview.

Boyle and screenwriter Simon Beaufoy used monologues with a video camera and visions to draw viewers into Ralston's experience.

The video diaries were based on real video entries Ralston made during his experience and are told from the perspective of someone who thought he would die in the canyon.

Boyle said the video camera was like having another character. Along with a bird that flew above in the mornings, the camera was Ralston's only relationship.

"With the video diary, it was a chance for the character to really just pour his heart out," Franco, adding that some of the entries were fictionalized. "Who's to say he didn't have a message where he broke down or did some crazy things and then went back and erased it?"

"I think he wanted to leave a dignified last message for his parents if he could," Boyle added.

Interspersed with the diaries and Ralston's attempts to extricate himself are visions that he has of his friends and family, past memories, and his future son, who Ralston said during a press conference on Sunday was ultimately what motivated him to make that final, desperate push to escape.

Franco, who has been perpetually busy with film and TV projects and recently started a Ph.D. in English and film studies at Yale University, won the role after giving a very moving reading of one of the video diaries, Boyle said.

"As soon as I heard him read it, I thought, that's him."

(Editing by Paul Simao)

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Steve Harvey takes over as new 'Family Feud' host (AP)

LOS ANGELES � Steve Harvey says he's bringing change to "Family Feud" and viewers better get ready to laugh.

Harvey, who debuts as the game show's new host Monday, is calling on his decades in comedy to take the program in a new direction. He's already taped 100 episodes.

"I bet you there's not a funnier game show on TV. We've done some pretty incredible stuff so far," said Harvey, who continues to tour with his standup act and host a nationally syndicated radio program.

He hasn't been at a loss for inspiration, he said. Turns out that playing a game show in the studio, distracted by the audience, lights and noise, can be tougher than the competing families anticipated.

"You're not the genius you were at home on the couch. Some of these non-genius answers I get to comment on, and they give me plenty of material," Harvey said. Contestants try to guess the most popular answers to survey questions.

He's keeping the humor strictly G-rated for the syndicated show, the comic said.

"After 26 years of being a standup, I know how to work clean. I know how to keep it in the boundaries," said Harvey.

Would he bring his own family on to compete?

"No, I cannot expose my family on national TV. There's some ignorance that would come out of the mouths of my family that I might never recover from. My kids could go on 'Family Feud,' but my brothers, sisters, cousins � no," he said.

Harvey's TV credits include "Me and the Boys" and "The Steve Harvey Show," and he was part of "The Original Kings of Comedy" standup tour and DVD.

He replaces actor John O'Hurley, host of "Family Feud" for four seasons, who left to focus on stage work and a variety of business ventures.

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Ke$ha, Deadmau5 celebrate at pre-VMA festivities (AP)

WEST HOLLYWOOD, Calif. � The MTV Video Music Awards were saluted by the likes of party girl Ke$ha, daring rapper B.o.B, hip-hop cat Deadmau5 and a "Jersey Shore" duo at a series of soirees held along the Sunset Strip on the eve of Sunday's big show downtown at the Nokia Theatre, where Lady Gaga and Eminem are poised to win multiple moonman trophies.

Partygoers kicked off Saturday evening with rounds of pingpong at Spin magazine's pre-VMA party inside the chic Mondrian Hotel. Dan Black, the lanky British musician nominated for two moonman trophies for his video for "Symphonies," served as guest DJ while wayward pingpong balls sporadically tapped across the hotel floor between attendees' legs.

Next door at the House of Blues, Ke$ha started the party with a raucous concert benefiting Lifebeat, the music industry organization promoting HIV and AIDS awareness. She strutted across the stage in glittery hot pants and gold face paint, later donning long fuzzy animal hats with her band and back-up singers for "Your Love is My Drug."

"I'm going to the VMAs for the first ... time!" she said using language that would get her bleeped at the ceremony.

Ke$ha ended her performance with her hit "Tik Tok" as she attempted to smash a pinata while confetti rained down on the crowd. Afterward, as stagehands prepared for a performance from B.o.B., concertgoers watched � and some played � "Dance Central," an upcoming groovy Xbox 360 choreography game that uses a camera to detect players' hip-hop moves.

Farther away at a sleek mansion in the Hollywood Hills overlooking a cloud-covered Los Angeles, hundreds of revelers crowded around Deadmau5 inside the transformed V-Moda Fortress. The showy DJ, who will be performing with the likes of Jason Derulo and Robyn at Sunday's show, only occasionally donned his iconic mouse headgear at the packed party.

Dancers clad in itty-bitty black bikinis swayed their hips atop a nearby pool table while chefs cooked crepes in the kitchen. Paul "DJ Pauly D" Del Vecchio and Vinny Guadagnino from "Jersey Shore" held court outside the party. At one point during the evening, Del Vecchio chatted up DJ Paul Oakenfold, proving anything is possible when the VMAs are in town.

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MTV awards revive Taylor Swift, Kanye West rivalry

LOS ANGELES | Sun Sep 12, 2010 3:51pm EDT

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Taylor Swift vs. Kanye West: the rematch.

A year after West earned widespread opprobrium when he stormed the stage at the MTV Video Music Awards to grab a statuette from the country starlet's tender hands, the twosome will find themselves in uncomfortably close confines at this year's event in Los Angeles on Sunday.

Both are expected to perform -- separately -- during the all-star ceremony at the Nokia Theater, but an on-screen reunion is another matter. The event kicks off at 9 p.m. EDT (0100 GMT Monday).

West, who largely disappeared from the public gaze after his outburst, reached out to Swift a week ago through a series of Twitter messages. The hip-hop star apologized (yet again), and said he had written a song for Swift which he would perform if she would not take it.

Swift has not replied, publicly at least. Both have new albums due in the fall, within three weeks of each other, so the rivalry will extend to the charts as well.

The fuss began when Swift won the award for female video, a rarity for a country singer. As she was giving her acceptance speech, West bounded up on stage, took away her statuette and declared that it should have gone to Beyonce. Swift stood frozen as the drama played out to a chorus of boos. In the ensuing backlash, even President Obama criticized West.

Paradoxically, neither Swift nor West features highly among the nominees this year. Swift will defend her female video title and West, who has not released an album since 2008, was not nominated at all.

Flanboyant pop star Lady Gaga leads the pack with 13 nominations, including a pair of nods for video of the year. Rapper Eminem, who will open the show, picked up eight nominations. But award presentations at the MTV Awards are often little more than distractions from the performances.

Lady Gaga is likely to set tongues wagging with her latest sartorial extravaganzas. Other performers include Mary J. Blige, Drake, Bruno Mars, Linkin Park, Usher, Justin Bieber, Paramore, B.o.B and Florence + The Machine.

MTV, owned by Viacom will probably be the night's big winner. Last year's ceremony drew 9 million viewers, a six percent increase over 2008 and the largest turnout since 2004. The latest installment of the Swift-West soap opera can only be good for business.

(Reporting by Dean Goodman; editing by Todd Eastham)

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New "Resident Evil" sequel leads quiet box office

LOS ANGELES | Sun Sep 12, 2010 12:56pm EDT

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - "Resident Evil: Afterlife," the fourth film in a zombie franchise starring Milla Jovovich, easily topped the weekend box office in North America on Sunday, earning more than the next six films combined as overall sales hit their lowest level in two years.

The new champ, the only major new release during the traditionally slow weekend following the Labor Day holiday, sold $27.7 million worth of tickets across the United States and Canada, a record for the series.

The old mark was held by its predecessor, "Resident Evil: Extinction," which opened to $23.7 million in September 2007 and finished with $51 million. Its final tally was in line with that of 2004's "Resident Evil: Apocalypse" and bigger than the $40 million haul of 2002's "Resident Evil."

"Resident Evil: Afterlife" was released in 3D, which boosted its sales by about $1 million, according to rough industry estimates.

Internationally, the film earned $45.5 million from 29 markets, led by No. 1 openings in Japan ($15.5 million) and Russia ($9.5 million).

The films were released by Screen Gems, the mid-budget arm of Sony Corp, which collaborated on the development with German producer Constantin Film.

Screen Gems also claimed the No. 2 movie in North America as the heist thriller "Takers" earned $6.1 million, rising one place; its total stands at $48.1 million after three weekends.

Last weekend's top film, Focus Features' George Clooney assassin drama "The American," dropped to No. 3 with $5.9 million, for a 12-day haul of $28.3 million.

Rounding out the top five were the violent exploitation homage "Machete" with $4.2 million, and Drew Barrymore's latest romantic comedy bomb "Going the Distance" with $3.8 million. Their respective 10-day totals rose to $20.8 million and $14 million.

The top 12 films earned about $68 million, according to the box office analysis division of Hollywood.com. This ranks as the lowest total since the September 5-7 weekend of 2008, when the top 12 pulled in just $50 million.

Focus Features is a unit of General Electric Co's NBC Universal. "Machete" was released by 20th Century Fox, a unit of News Corp. "Going the Distance" was released by Warner Bros. Pictures, a unit of Time Warner Inc.

(Reporting by Dean Goodman; editing by Mohammad Zargham)

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'Resident Evil' movie capitalizes on slow weekend (AP)

NEW YORK � On a weekend that Hollywood was largely content to cede to football and late-summer barbecues, Sony-Screen Gems' "Resident Evil: Afterlife 3D" led the box office.

According to studio estimates, the horror film earned $27.7 million over the weekend, a total that exceeded expectations. It's the fourth "Resident Evil" film, all of which have starred Milla Jovovich. This installment opened better than the three previous movies.

"Resident Evil" was the only film in new release on the historically slow moviegoing weekend following Labor Day.

Screen Gems' "Takers," in its third week of release, came in second with $6.1 million. Last weekend's top film, the George Clooney thriller "The American," took in $5.9 million for Focus Features.

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Redford digs into Lincoln assassination plot

TORONTO | Sun Sep 12, 2010 11:46am EDT

TORONTO (Reuters) - In his new film "The Conspirator," director Robert Redford digs into a little-known angle of one of the best-known moments in American history: the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln.

Instead of dealing with the shooting in the Ford's Theater in Washington, already a movie subject, Redford takes aim at a back story to the 1865 assassination of the U.S. president -- a complex plot that resulted in seven men and one woman being arrested and charged with conspiring to kill the president, the vice president, and the secretary of state.

Redford's independent film centers around that woman, Mary Surratt, played by Robin Wright, and the defense mounted by young lawyer Frederick Aiken, played by James McAvoy.

Surratt owned a boarding house where assassin John Wilkes Booth and others planned the multiple attacks. She was the first woman executed by the U.S. government.

It "is a story that very few, if any, know," Redford, whose film awards include an Oscar for directing "Ordinary People," told a news conference ahead of Saturday's gala screening of "The Conspirator" at the Toronto International Film Festival.

He said he was drawn to the "story that sits inside of a story that everybody knows -- the Lincoln assassination."

The nation wanted justice, and while the young lawyer Aiken realizes his client may be innocent, he understands that she is being used as bait to capture the only conspirator to have escaped a massive manhunt -- her own son, John.

Lincoln's assassination, as the U.S. Civil War was drawing to an end, threw the nation into disarray. Redford said present day America is not much different, in that it is a nation that is deeply divided on its opinions of its president, and of the president that went before.

Speaking on the anniversary of the September 11 attacks, he added: "History is a series of loops. We keep repeating ourselves. Now we're living in a condition of confusion and anxiety and fear and that was the same thing 150 years ago."

The period drama's cast also includes Kevin Kline, Tom Wilkinson, Justin Long, Evan Rachel Wood, and Alexis Bledel. The film arrived at the Toronto festival without a distributor.

(Reporting by Ka Yan Ng; editing by Mohammad Zargham)

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Gaga leads VMA nominees with 13, but Kanye looms (AP)

Music's wildest party � on television at least � convenes Sunday night at the MTV Video Music Awards in Los Angeles and the guest list couldn't be any more outrageous.

There's Lady Gaga, who will compete for top honors. She's nominated for 13 moonman trophies, setting a VMA record, and her nominations include two for video of the year � "Telephone," featuring Beyonce, and "Bad Romance."

Also on the invite list is Eminem, who is nominated eight times and is also up for video of the year for "Not Afraid." Then there's the ever-rowdy "Jersey Shore" gang, the ever-sassy Katy Perry, party girl Ke$ha, the cast of "Jackass" and Kim Kardashian.

And bad-girl comedian Chelsea Handler is the show's host.

But they might all be upstaged by Kanye West and Taylor Swift.

West is due to perform, but people aren't as interested in his performance as his potential antics. The rapper-producer has still not recovered from his actions at last year's VMAs in New York, when he took to the stage as Swift won the award for female video and declared it should have gone to Beyonce.

West endured intense backlash after that, despite an apology, and stepped away from the spotlight. He recounted it all last weekend in a Twitter rant, again apologizing to Swift and detailing the pain he endured.

West also said he has a song for her to sing, but Swift has other ideas: A person close to the singer says Swift will perform her own song about last year's incident on Sunday night's show, virtually assuring a continuation of the VMAs' trademark craziness.

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French New Wave film director Chabrol dies aged 80

By Daniel Flynn

PARIS | Sun Sep 12, 2010 10:24am EDT

PARIS (Reuters) - Claude Chabrol, one of France's most eminent film directors and a pioneer of the influential New Wave style that revolutionized French cinema, died on Sunday at the age of 80.

Chabrol, a close friend of legendary New Wave directors Francois Truffaut and Jean-Luc Godard who broke with French cinematic tradition, was a prolific film-maker with some 60 movies to his name, including "Hell" and "The Butcher."

News of Chabrol's death, just a year after he released his last feature film "Bellamy" with actor Gerard Depardieu, was greeted with outpourings of sorrow from France's cultural and political elite.

"The whole of French cinema and France has lost one of its giants," said Martine Aubry, leader of the opposition Socialist party. "Claude Chabrol's cinema was one of the works which constructed our society's vision of itself."

French President Nicolas Sarkozy, describing Chabrol as a "great author and great film-maker," said: "I am sure that we are all going to miss him."

Born on 24 June 1930 in Paris where his parents owned a prosperous pharmacy, Chabrol enjoyed a comfortable middle-class childhood. He studied a bachelors of art at the Sorbonne and spent time discussing film with the young Godard and Truffaut.

The three young men later became film critics for the hugely influential Cahiers du Cinema in the 1950s, before launching careers as directors. They broke with French cinema's focus on historical costume dramas to introduce contemporary themes, ordinary protagonists and fragmented narrative structures.

INFLUENCED HOLLYWOOD

Le Beau Serge, Chabrol's 1959 breakthrough film produced with his wife's inheritance, is often cited as the first feature film of the New Wave. The film tackled existential themes including the isolation and absurdity of modern life and the middle-class obsession with appearances.

"We have too often the tendency to emphasize the tragic side of life, but I look at the funny side. I believe strongly in human nature," Chabrol said in a 2005 interview.

New Wave films, which met with major international critical and commercial success in the late 1950s and early 1960s, exerted a major influence on Hollywood works, such as Arthur Penn's taboo-busting "Bonnie and Clyde" in 1967.

The New Hollywood directors -- including Robert Altman, Martin Scorsese and Brian de Palma -- were inspired by Chabrol and his contemporaries, while Oscar-winner Quentin Tarantino dedicated his 1992 movie "Reservoir Dogs" to Godard.

In the second half of the 1960s, Chabrol turned to a more conventional style of film-making, producing commercially successful films in France, many of them detective thrillers.

"I have at last come to appreciate that the public is always right .... Henceforth, my sole ambition is to satisfy the public," he said in an interview at this time.

However, throughout his career Chabrol's best films -- often working with well-known actresses like Emmanuelle Beart and Isabelle Huppert -- often peered behind the veneer of bourgeois respectability to discuss themes of jealousy, passion and betrayal with corruscating dark humor.

In 2005, he was awarded the Rene Clair prize for his body of work by the Academie Francaise.

"Each time that a director disappears, a particular way of looking at the world and an expression of our humanity is lost forever," France's Association of Film Directors said in a statement on Chabrol's passing.

(Additional reporting by Thierry Leveque; Editing by Mark Heinrich)

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French filmmaker Claude Chabrol dies at 80 (AP)

PARIS � French director Claude Chabrol, one of the founders of the New Wave movement that revolutionized filmmaking in the late 1950s and '60s, died Sunday. He was 80.

Christophe Girard, who is responsible for cultural matters at Paris City Hall, announced the death on his blog. Other City Hall officials confirmed that Chabrol passed away, but declined to provide any details, including the cause of death.

A prolific director, Chabrol made more than 70 films and TV productions during his more than 50-year career. His first movie, 1958's "Le Beau Serge" won him considerable critical acclaim and was widely considered a sort of manifesto for the New Wave, or "Nouvelle Vague" movement, which also included directors like Francois Truffaut and Jean-Luc Godard.

His movies looked critically at the French bourgeoisie, focusing on the foibles and hypocrisy of human nature. Often suspenseful, his work drew comparisons with that of Alfred Hitchcock.

His top films included "Les Biches," or "Bad Girls," from 1968 and 1970's "The Breach," as well as the 2000 mystery "Merci pour le chocolat."

Chabrol's last feature film, "Bellamy," came out last year.

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Favoritism charges follow Tarantino Venice awards

By Mike Collett-White and Silvia Aloisi

VENICE | Sun Sep 12, 2010 6:29am EDT

VENICE (Reuters) - Jury president Quentin Tarantino faced charges of favoritism Sunday after he handed out two major awards at Venice film festival to his friends, including best picture to his ex partner Sofia Coppola's "Somewhere."

Another friend and mentor Monte Hellman landed a special career award, and Spanish entry "Balada Triste de Trompeta," which picked up the director and screenplay prizes for Alex de la Iglesia, was widely panned by critics on the Lido waterfront.

Add to that a best actor award for Vincent Gallo in "Essential Killing," during which he uttered not a single word, and no prizes for Italian films, and Saturday's closing ceremony was one of the most unpredictable in years.

"The (jury) presidency of Quentin Tarantino runs the risk of being the most obvious conflict of interest, given that Somewhere and (Hellman's) Road to Nowhere seemed charming and intriguing but nothing more," wrote Paolo Mereghetti, veteran film critic for Italian daily Corriere della Sera, Sunday.

Tarantino was quick to reject suggestions of favoritism.

"I wasn't going to let anything like that affect me at all," he told reporters after the awards were announced at the end of the September 1-11 festival. "I was just going to literally respond to the film. There was no me steering any direction."

Somewhere, which won the prestigious Golden Lion best picture award, is an insider's look at the life of a Hollywood actor who becomes numb to life through drink, drugs and a string of one-night stands, and stars Stephen Dorff as Johnny Marco.

His days are divided between five-stars hotels, Ferraris and blonde pin-ups, but also loneliness, tiresome media attention and boredom, and he is finally faced with the question of where a life so enviable on the surface is ultimately heading.

The daughter of director Francis Ford Coppola partly based the film on her own experiences as a young girl following her famous father from one hotel to another.

Coppola's victory at least guarantees a high-profile end to a festival which many experts feel has been overshadowed this year by up-and-coming rival Toronto, which overlaps with Venice and is attracting many of the industry's biggest names.

VANISHING VINCENT

Balada Triste de Trompeta (The Last Circus) was ranked 17th out of 24 competition films in an informal critics' poll published for journalists in Venice.

The ultra-violent horror movie, which doubles as a metaphor for fascist Spain, was described in reviews as "the demented Spanish circus movie" and "loud, tedious and unattractive in every sense," although it had a handful of avid supporters.

A prize for Gallo's speechless turn as a suspected Taliban fighter on the run from U.S. troops came as less of a surprise, although it highlighted his bizarre behavior at the festival.

The actor and director shunned all publicity, arriving in Venice in a balaclava and refusing to hold a press conference for his own competition movie "Promises Written in Water." He did not take the stage to accept his award.

Some of the competition's best liked films and performances were overlooked, including that of Natalie Portman, who won praise for her powerful turn as a disturbed dancer in "Black Swan."

Also popular with critics were "Venus Noire," the true story of a woman brought from South Africa to Europe in 1810 and turned into a freak show, and Chile's "Post Mortem," which looks at the 1973 military coup through the eyes of a morgue employee.

"Potiche," a 1970s comedy starring Catherine Deneuve and Gerard Depardieu, left empty-handed as well.

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