What if the “scandal” of the year had arisen from a point of settlement? Since 2016, to diversify the winners, it is no longer possible to combine the Cesar for the best film and that of the best achievement, as had happened 27 times in forty editions. If a filmmaker leads the votes in both categories, he wins the first, the second reward being awarded to the second of the votes. This is the assumption that ran yesterday: Roman Polanski (I accuse) would have received the César Award for Best Director, his fifth staff, because Ladj Ly (Wretched) was already sacred for the film!
Invited by the JDD to publish the count of the ballot, the Academy of the Cesars takes refuge behind its old statutes: “It is impossible. Apart from the participation rate (81%), the ushers keep all the figures confidential, no one “We don’t know them ourselves,” says a spokesperson. “This may be one of the points that will be changed by the future board of directors.” “With all these cleavages within the profession, the site is colossal, Alain Terzian will have put the mess up to the end,” observes a director. With the scent of controversy, the ceremony on Friday obtained the best audience since 2015: 2.16 million viewers until 12:27.
In the smoking room, Céline Sciamma does not take off
The evening turned into psychodrama a quarter of an hour earlier. By announcing the name of Roman Polanski (absent, like all the team of I accuse), Emmanuelle Bercot stuns part of the Pleyel hall. Adèle Haenel gets up and leaves, screaming “shame!”, Followed by her director Céline Sciamma and the whole team of Portrait of the girl on fire. “Long live pedophilia, well done!” She hums in the hall, refusing any comment when she had planned a fight speech on stage. In the adjoining smoking room, Céline Sciamma does not take heart: “Not him!” “She suspected that she would not have the price but she would have preferred that French Ozon or Arnaud Desplechin be rewarded rather than Polanski,” said an accompanying.
In the hall, the mistress of ceremony, Florence Foresti, refuses to join the stage to present the last Caesar, awarded to Misérables of Ladj Ly and his gang of boys. After attacking Polanski with varying degrees of appropriateness (which she nicknamed “Atchoum” or “Popol”) and her film (“I accuse, pedophilia in the 1970s “), the comedian disappears in turn. At 1 am, she says she is” disgusted “on her Instagram account. The winners, themselves, slalom between questions. Anaïs Demoustier (best actress for Alice and the mayor) answers “only on the cinema”.
His elder Fanny Ardant (best supporting role for The good times) hesitates less: “I have always loved Roman, so I am not judgmental. You cannot question morality when my heart is invaded by the affection I feel for him. People in your family, even against you defend them. And when a man is alone against everyone, I always take his side … “
The Caesar for Polanski, sideration at the Perchoir
Arrives Swann Arlaud, Cesar of the supporting role for Thanks to God, by François Ozon, who denounces pedophilia in the Church. “I understand Adèle’s departure. She spoke about what she went through [des abus sexuels perpétrés par un réalisateur quand elle avait 12 ans] with a thought built, moving and strong. Her story shocked us all. So it was very violent, what happened. “The actor is also very disappointed that Thanks to God did not reap as many awards as expected:” This film defends the victims, but I see that nothing has really changed. The word is free, but … As Barbarin was released after twenty years of not reporting crimes, Polanski’s victory demonstrates the power of certain institutions that are difficult to bring down. “
Around 1:30 am, the winners join the official dinner at Fouquet’s, surrounded by a double cordon of feminist activists and CRS. “The atmosphere is sealed, morbid,” says a regular. Adèle Haenel, who has swapped her sequined dress for jeans, arrives with Céline Sciamma at Perchoir. Crowded, this trendy bar in the 11th arrondissement is home to the Collectif 50/50, which fights for more equality in cinema. In the audience who came to watch the retransmission of the Césars, anonymous people but also actors and directors: Anna Mouglalis, Félix Moati, Rebecca Zlotowski, Michel Leclerc or even Jean-Paul Salomé, who says: “When the price was announced In Polanski, the crowd, rather young, was in a state of amazement. For my part, I interpret this choice as a provocation. ” Saturday afternoon, on the Mediapart site, Adèle Haenel summed up her feeling about French cinema: “They wanted to separate man from artist, today they separate artists from the world.”
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