My Night With César

Hi everyone, it's Arnaud, live from Paris: 
I'm ready to share with you the 37th César ceremony !

The Silence of the French
This year is quite special: for the first time, a silent film is nominated for Best Picture. This very same film may also become the first French production to win the big prize at the Oscars, we'll see that on Sunday night...

But tonight is not all about "The Artist" though: 2011 offered us a lot of great films, many of whom hit big at the box-office and that's enough a reason to celebrate. The major one is of course "Untouchable" ("Intouchables"), the touching friendship between a rich man and his caretaker. Based on a true story, the film grossed more than 19 million tickets: it's the 3rd biggest success at the French B-O (only behind "Titanic" and "Welcome to the Sticks"), and consequently the most successful Best Picture nominee ever. It also earned nominations for Best Director(s) (the film is co-directed by Eric Toledano and Olivier Nakache - if they win, they would be the first duet to do so), Best Screenplay and two noms for its main actors.

Leading the noms with 13 is "Poliss", the 3rd film by Maiwenn. It describes the daily routine of a special police section taking care of youngsters. The film won the Jury Prize in Cannes and is led by an impressive ensemble, that earned a staggering total of 7 nominations. Finally, the remaining Best Pic nominees are the political drama "The Minister" ("L'Exercice de l'Etat"), "Declaration of War" (my personal favourite of 2011) and the Cannes selections "Le Havre" and "Pater".

About 2010 winners
Last year's ceremony spread the wealth between 4 films: Roman Polanski's "The Ghost Writer" took 4 (Director, Adapted Screenplay, Editing & Score) but Best Pic went to Cannes Grand Prix and box-office hit "Of Gods and Men", who also won Best Supporting Actor and Best Cinematography. It was quite suspenseful actually to wait for Jodie Foster to open the final envelope and reveal the Best Pic winner, given that "Ghost" had already won 4 at that point of the ceremony and seemed like a potential spoiler for "Gods".
The two other big winners were "Gainsbourg: A Heroic Life" that won Actor, Sound & Directorial Debut, and the wonderful "The Names of Love" who got well-deserved wins for Best Actress & Best Original Screenplay.

About the show
This year's host is Antoine de Caunes, a famous TV presenter who also directed films. He's been there a couple of times, so I'm sure he'll manage to generate a few laughs from the audience. It's true that the show in itself can sometimes reveal boring: awards are not a big part of our cultural DNA, and I wish the César Academy learned a few tricks from the Oscars. Let's update the stage decoration, bring musicians and dancers, and give more "razzle dazzle" ! It's a party, after all, and some guests seem just not happy to be here. Like the "Moneyball" song would say, "just enjoy the show" !

On the other hand, the fact that the show is not that much staged brings a delicious feeling of "unpredictability", meaning that anything can happen: like when de Caunes brought a walrus as a gift to Tarantino, or when Sean Penn went to kiss the presenter Florence Foresti.


OK, let's get the party started !

9PM: Actor/director Guillaume Canet (president of this year's Ceremony) comes on stage. He delivers a heartfelt and serious speech about the international appeal of French cinema and the need for changes. I'm glad Canet also mentioned the fate of film laboratories: the Duran-Duboi  technical facility where I worked in 2007 has been recently shut down. It really shows the importance of adaptation to the new digital techniques.

9.06 PM: Ceremony is now opened ! Presenter Antoine de Caunes appears in a short film where he spoofs many scenes of the nominated film (like Billy Crystal did at the Oscars in 2004). That scene from "Poliss" is hilarious. De Caunes then comes dancing on stage with "Poliss" nominated actor JoeyStarr, to the sound of Keedz' "Stand on the word". The evening starts in a great way !

9.15 PM: De Caunes: "It's the biggest year for French box-office since 1966... I was already presenting the ceremony back then." First laughs from the audience. 
Tahar Rahim ("A Prophet") presents Promising Actress... and it's a tie ! Between Naidra Ayadi ("Poliss") and Clotilde Hesme ("Angèle and Tony"). First time I ever see a tie in the acting categories. Congrats to both of them.

9.23 PM: Best Supporting Actor is Michel Blanc ("The Minister"). Glad to see him win: he was famous for his comic performances in the 70's, but then showed through the years that he could also deliver dramatic performances. This is Blanc's first win in 8 nominations. Many thought JoeyStarr would win this one... including presenter Mathilde Seigner, who even pulled a Kanye West by inviting him on stage (he fortunately didn't accept).

9.30 PM: Best Costume Design: "House of Tolerance".
Best Art Direction: "The Artist".
The recent category of Best Animated Feature awards "The Rabbi's Cat" (director Joann Sfar won Best Directorial Debut last year for "Gainsbourg").

9.45 PM: Promising Actor is Grégory Gadebois for "Angèle & Tony". So this film just won both Promising Actor & Actress. Nice !
Best Directorial Debut: "When Pigs Have Wings" ("Le Cochon de Gaza"). The English translation of the title is quite funny :)
Best Documentary: "Tous au Larzac"
Best Score: "The Artist". Well-deserved !

10.14 PM: Every year, a honorary César awards a foreign personnality and this year, the recipient is the wonderful British actress Kate Winslet. Presenter is writer/director Michel Gondry who directed Winslet to an Academy-Award nominated performance in "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind". Kate is gorgeous, as always, and also seems honored and humble. Congratulations ! (VIDEO)

10.31 PM: Introducing the "In Memoriam" montage, Antoine de Caunes wants to pay tribute to "a giant of cinema who recently disappeared: Megaupload."
Best Supporting Actress: Surprise ! The winner is Spanish actress Carmen Maura ("The Women on the 6th Floor").
Best Short Film: "L'Accordeur".
The Best Original Screenplay is for "The Minister", it's the second award for the film.

10.50 PM: Mathieu Kassovitz, that nobody expected to be here tonight given its recent Twitter fight with the César academy, is actually on stage presenting the Best Cinematography award to Guillaume Schiffman, for "The Artist".
Roman Polanski wins Best Adapted Screenplay for the second time in a row ! (for "Carnage"). Kate Winslet (who starred in the film) comes back on stage and scoops the award on Polanski's behalf.

11.04 PM: Best Editing is for "Poliss" and Best Sound is for "The Minister". César voters have spreaded the wealth so far.
Best Foreign Film: "A Separation". The Iranian film won the Globe, Critic's Choice and now the César, and it's the frontrunner for the Oscar, even it missed on the BAFTA.

11.23 PM: Best Director is... Michel Hazanavicius ! 
He thanks his cast & crew, the whole American team, and gives a special shout-out to his wife Bérénice Bejo... who then wins Best Actress !! I'm so glad the Academy awarded her amazing performance.

11.35 PM: Best Actor is Omar Sy for "Untouchable". The audience is cheering. Jean Dujardin was a big contender for the prize, of course, but Sy has won two of the most important precursors in France: the Lumière Award (our Golden Globe) and the Globe de Cristal (given by journalists). He is also the best thing in the most popular film of the year. It's a really nice way to award the film in itself, and the 19 million people who went to see it.

11.43 PM: And the winner is ... "The Artist" !! History has been made, as for the first time, a black & white film wins Best Picture. With 6 awards, "The Artist" is the 12th most awarded film since the creation of the César, in 1975.
This year's TV ratings are exceptional: 4.6 million viewers (18% of audience share) when last year there were 3 million viewers (14,5% audience share).

Thanks for reading this coverage. Many excerpts of the ceremony are on YouTube, or on Canal+ website: http://cesar.canalplus.fr/ See you next year !