The decision to include horrormeister David Cronenberg's new film, Crash, in competition at the 49th Cannes Film Festival was so controversial that crowds booed the selector, Gilles Jacob, as he entered the Palais Des Festivals for its screening.
Borderline pornographic and destined for an X-rating in America - if it even gets a release - Crash also polarised the Cannes jury, headed this year by Francis Ford Coppola.
Crash was awarded an unusual Special Jury Prize for its 'originality, daring and audacity, even though it may have offended audiences', said Coppola at the awards ceremony on Monday night. 'And at the request of the jury, it should be noted that some members abstained passionately from this decision.' The 10-member jury included actress Greta Scaachi, Vietnamese director Tran Anh Hung and Canada's Atom Egoyan.
As the rest of the 49th Cannes Film Festival went according to predictions - a sweep for England's Mike Leigh and his new movie Secrets and Lies, which took the top prize, the Palme D'Or, and Best Actress for little-known British stage thespian Brenda Blethyn - audiences were left to ponder the significance of Canadian director Cronenberg's auto-erotic Crash.
Based on a cult 1973 novel by J G Ballard (who also wrote Empire of the Sun), Crash stars James Spader, Holly Hunter and Rosanna Arquette and is focused on car crash victims - both mentally and physically scarred - who can only attain sexual satisfaction through near-death experiences in automobiles.
Crash features just about every sexual variation possible, most of which are graphically depicted. With an uncomfortable sexual focus on scar tissue, it is not easy viewing.