“The only thing that survives an era is the art form it created for itself.” Spoken in voiceover by Jean-Luc Godard (1930-2022) in his print picture book, which earned him a special Palme d’or at the 2018 Cannes Film Festival, this sentence will remain the loudest sentence heard on Friday evening during the 48th Cesar Ceremony. But if the director ofBreathless (1960) was entitled, like Jean-Louis Trintignant (1930-2022) and Jacques Perrin (1941-2022), to a dedicated montage, we can regret that its capital importance in the history of cinema n has not been longer celebrated.
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American filmmaker David Fincher was entitled to a much longer tribute when he came to receive an honorary Cesar. It was first Virginie Efira who gave her laudatio, before giving way to Brad Pitt, a surprise guest who came to greet the man who directed it three times, in Se7en (1995), Fight Club (1999) et The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008). The Hollywood star has long underlined the talent and rigor of Fincher, evoking in a spirited and humorous speech why he is rightly described as a perfectionist: “A rumor has it that he once did 90 takes for a single plan… It’s not true, it was 92!”
Less than 3 hours
This Honorary César will have been the occasion to hear echoing in the Olympia the Where Is My Mind? Pixies, an alternative rock classic heard in the end credits of Fight Club. A little earlier in the evening, Charlotte Gainsbourg and rapper Dinos had come to perform a beautiful modernized version of like a boomerang, a title once written by the great Serge for Dani (1944-2022). A beautiful musical interlude for a ceremony which will have lasted barely less than 3 hours, which was the goal following editions sometimes stretching over 3:45. With declining audiences, and following fairly calamitous 2020 and 2021 editions, punctuated by vulgar sketches close to level zero, Antoine de Caunes had been called back to the helm last year, and had done quite well.
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This year, Canal +, longtime producer of the event, opted for “a collegial presentation”. It was thus Jamel Debbouze who started the presentation, with a speech punctuated by a few effective small gags, before other masters of ceremonies took turns throughout the evening, with a special mention for Jérôme Commandeur, very ease in this exercise, while Léa Drucker and Ahmed Sylla will have been interrupted by a climate activist from the Last Renovation collective, quickly evacuated during a trailer break.
Six César for ten nominations
This desire for conciseness (we might have saved even more time by deleting two pre-recorded sketches that were not very funny, where the recording of Golshifteh Farahani in homage to the Iranian people was very strong), coupled with a good mastery of the music interrupting the speeches of the recipients following a minute of speech, will have made it possible to give the rewards to the center of the evening, since it is all the same what counts. And on this level, with a positive assessment of six César for ten nominations, it is Dominik Moll’s film The Night of 12, selected last year out of competition at Cannes, which turns out to be the big winner, with in particular the coveted double best film and best direction. Added to this are the Césars for best actor in a supporting role (for the brilliant Bouli Lanners, finally awarded and the first to be surprised, confessing in passing his syndrome of permanent imposture), best male hope (Bastien Bouillon) , better adaptation and better sound.
A deserved triumph for a dark and hyper-realistic detective film, telling the true story of one of the many unresolved investigations that the police face each year, in this case that of a young woman doused in gasoline and burned alive. Like her compatriot Bouli Lanners, Virginie Efira received her first César, that of the best actress for See Paris once more, a very beautiful film by Alice Winocour inspired by the attacks of November 13, 2015 in Paris and evoking post-traumatic syndromes. Now an essential face of French cinema, the Belgian actress, capable of a lot of interiority and preferring restraint to great outbursts, more than fully deserves her compression.
“Thank you girls!”
On the other hand, Benoît Magimel surprised by being crowned for the second consecutive year. twelve months later In his lifetimehe was crowned best actor for Pacifiction, a long, demanding and fascinating film by the Spaniard Albert Serra, also awarded for his cinematography. “I didn’t think you might have so much freedom as an actor,” greeted the Parisian, alluding to the system put in place by Serra for this film, namely three cameras continuously filming the actors in order to push to get as close as possible, sometimes improvising, to a certain form of truth.
In the category best actress in a supporting role, we can just as well be delighted with the victory of Noémie Merlant for her highly jubilant performance in L’Innocent, which also earned its director, Louis Garrel, the César for best screenplay, which he shared with his accomplices Tanguy Viel and Naïla Guiguet, had until then always worked with the late Jean-Claude Carrière. But with only two Césars for a record of eleven nominations, this spirited detective comedy is the big loser of the evening, even if In body by Cédric Klapisch (zero out of nine) and November by Cédric Jimenez (zero out of seven) do even worse. Simone – The Journey of the century, on the other hand, achieved a full box (two out of two), but in additional categories – best costumes and sets.
Finally, without much surprise, it was Alice Diop who received the César for best first film for Saint-Omer, an arid and theoretical feature film recounting the trial of a mother for infanticide. The filmmaker took the opportunity to salute the still minority but increased presence of female directors: “We are neither passing through, nor a fad. Thank you girls!”
The full list
Best film: The Night of 12by Dominik Moll
Best Achievement: Dominik Moll for The Night of 12
Best Actress: Virginie Efira in See Paris once mored’Alice Winocour
Best actor: Benoit Magimel in Pacifictionby Albert Serra
Best Supporting Actress: Noémie Merlant in L’Innocentby Louis Garrel
Best Supporting Actor: Bouli Lanners dance The Night of 12
Most promising Actress: Nadia Tereszkiewicz dans The Almond Treesby Valeria Bruni Tedeschi
Best Male Hope: Bastien Bouillon in The Night of 12
Best first film: Saint-Omerd’Alice Diop
Best Documentary: Return to Reims (Fragments)by Jean-Gabriel Périot
Best Animated Film: my afghan familyby Michael Pavlatov
Best Original Screenplay: Louis Garrel, Tanguy Viel and Naïla Guiguet for L’Innocent
Best Adaptation: Gilles Marchand and Dominik Moll for The Night of 12
Best Original Music: Irene Dresel for A plein tempsd’Eric Gravel
Best Sound: François Maurel, Olivier Mortier and Luc Thomas for The Night of 12
Best Picture: Artur Tort for Pacifiction
Best Editing: Mathilde van de Moortel pour A plein temps
Best costumes: Gigi Lepage for Simone – The Journey of the Centuryd’Olivier Dahan
Best sets: Christian Marti pour Simone – The Journey of the Century
Best visual effects: Laurens Ehrmann pour Notre Dame is burningby Jean-Jacques Annaud
Best Short Fiction Film: leave one dayby Amélie Bonnin
Best Animated Short Film: Granny’s Sex Lifeby Urska Djukic and Emilie Pigeard
Best Documentary Short: Maria Schneider, 1983d’Elisabeth Subrin
Best Foreign Film: the beastsby Rodrigo Sorogoyen
Honorary Caesar: David Fincher
