Chereau’s ‘Intimacy’ Takes Berlin Honors

BERLIN — “Intimacy,” French director Patrice Chereau’s drama of love and obsession set in London, won the Berlin Film Festival’s Golden Bear award Sunday and landed the best actress award for Kerry Fox.

The nine-member jury largely overlooked Hollywood’s offerings. It gave runner-up Silver Bear awards to Chinese director Wang Xiaoshuai’s “Beijing Bicycle” and to Lone Scherfig’s “Italian for Beginners.”

Among the four U.S. entries in the 23-movie competition, Steven Soderbergh’s “Traffic” picked up the best actor accolade for Benicio Del Toro in the role of a weary Tijuana police officer. But Gus Van Sant’s “Finding Forrester,” Spike Lee’s “Bamboozled” and Mike Nichols’ “Wit” came away empty-handed.

Chereau is best known for 1994’s “Queen Margot,” a story of Catholic persecution of Protestants in France during the 16th century. “Intimacy” is his first movie in English.