Director Parker lands French award

British film director Alan Parker was today made officer in the Order of Arts and Letters, one of France’s top culture awards.

“You have explored the possibilities of film with an immense talent,” Culture Minister Renaud Donnedieu de Vabres said as he presented the award at a ceremony in Paris.

Parker, aged 61, in turn praised France as “the flag carrier for cinema throughout the world”.

His films include Pink Floyd the Wall (1982), The Commitments (1991) and Angela’s Ashes (1999).

The minister noted Parker's 1978 film Midnight Express drew six million French fans.

He also praised Parker's “veritable artistic commitment against the death sentence” as shown in his last film – The Life of David Gale.

Parker said: “I am privileged and honoured to be thus distinguished by France, the flag carrier of cinema throughout the world.”

He said that France alone respects cinema as an art form.

“Hollywood, which created modern cinema, uses it only as a commodity,” he added.