Marina Hands in Lady Chatterley by Pascale Ferran
Perhaps there's hope for this evening's Oscar ceremony.
On Saturday, I watched (most of) the French Academy of Film Arts and Sciences' 32nd César du cinéma ceremony held last night (late morning/early afternoon Los Angeles time) at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris.
The event, hosted by actress Valérie Lemercier and dedicated to recently deceased French film icon Philippe Noiret, was apparently directed by former U.S. vice president Al Gore, who made sure that winners and presenters attended a class or two at the Greer Garson School of Speech Making. (For those who don't know: At the 1943 Academy Awards ceremony, best actress winner Garson supposedly gave the most long-winded acceptance speech in Oscar history.)
In other words, apart from a few spontaneous moments and despite Lemercier's professionalism, the César ceremony felt embarrassingly stiff (hence the Al Gore directorial touch). Even naturalistic performers like Juliette Binoche and Claude Brasseur looked stilted despite (or perhaps because of) much too obvious attempts to act casually onstage.
Additionally, the evening was filled with speeches — introductions, homages, thank-yous, calls for political action — that went on for considerably longer than necessary. Sabine Azéma, for instance, became so enamored of her overwrought intro to the best actor award — "there's the light of the projector; there's the light of the sun …"; in addition to reciting a line from Pierre Corneille's poem Le Cid — that she forgot to give out the names of the nominees. (The same almost happened to best film presenter Nathalie Baye.)
But why then do I say there's hope for the Oscars?
First, because there was no clear-cut sweep this year — you never knew who was going to win the next award. Second, because unexpected winners made frequent trips to the stage to thank producers, directors, relatives, neighbors, pets, et al.
François Cluzet, Kristin Scott Thomas in Tell No One
Instead of Rachid Bouchareb's socially conscious (and disappointingly pedestrian) war drama Indigènes / Days of Glory — The Film That Changed the Laws of France and a sizable box-office hit to boot (3.2 million admissions) — or Guillaume Canet's well-respected and popular thriller Ne le dis à personne / Tell No One (2.8 million admissions), the best French film winner was Pascale Ferran's new take on D. H. Lawrence's scandalous novel Lady Chatterley's Lover, the story of a married woman who has a hot-and-heavy affair with the hunky gamekeeper of her landowner husband, who happens to be a war invalid.
Marina Hands in Lady Chatterley
Renamed Lady Chatterley, the 168-minute period drama did only moderate business on French screens (200,000 admissions) but was quite well liked by the French Academy, winning a total of five Césars. In addition to the best film prize, Lady Chatterley received top honors for adapted screenplay (Ferran, Roger Bohbot, and Pierre Trividic), cinematography (Julien Hirsch), costume design (Marie-Claude Altot), and, surprisingly, actress (stage-trained Marina Hands, who beat favorite Cécile De France for both Fauteuils d'orchestre / Avenue Montaigne and Quand j'étais chanteur / The Singer).
Lady Chatterley is Pascale Ferran's third feature film in 14 years. Her first, Petits arrangements avec les morts / Coming to Terms with the Dead, won the Caméra d'Or at the 1994 Cannes Film Festival. With her Lady Chatterley victory, Ferran has become only the fourth woman to direct a best film César winner. (For the record: The other three are Coline Serreau for 3 hommes et un couffin / Three Men and a Cradle [1985], Tonie Marshall for Vénus beauté (institut) / Venus Beauty Institute [1999], and Agnès Jaoui for Le Goût des autres / The Taste of Others [2000].)
After accepting the adapted screenplay award, Ferran read an overlong — even if beautifully written — document pleading for France's low-paid show business workers, who have been fighting against reforms to their pension system in addition to other measures proposed by the business-oriented organization MEDEF. The workers have previously caused interruptions to the César ceremony, but this year they reportedly vowed to let the event proceed as long as their cause was heard.
Ferran, who wrote the piece herself, pointed out the growing gap between the financing of "rich" (commercial) films and "poor" (art) films as the result of a system "that betrays the heritage of the greatest French filmmakers." After six minutes, she wrapped things up with a call to arms, reminding audience members and TV viewers that "before the presidential elections there remain 55 days to dare mention the word 'culture.'" Long and enthusiastic applause followed. Shortly thereafter, Juliette Binoche appeared onstage thanking Ferran for her "special" speech, and later in the evening, 79-year-old, raspy-voiced screen legend Jeanne Moreau remarked on the director's "magnificent" eloquence.
The evening's other major winner was Ne le dis à personne / Tell No One. The thriller, based on a novel by Harlan Coben, won a total of four awards: Best director for 33-year-old actor-turned-filmmaker Guillaume Canet (right), who became the youngest César recipient in the best director category (and who grabbed the lectern as if he were holding on to dear life); best actor François Cluzet, for his performance as a doctor who discovers that his long-dead wife may not be all that dead after all; best music for Mathieu Chedid (aka "M"), who claimed he "improvised [the film's score] on the violin during one afternoon"; and best editing for Hervé de Luze, who was competing against himself for his work on Alain Resnais' Coeurs / Private Fears in Public Places.
I haven't seen Ne le dis à personne, but I was disappointed that 84-year-old veteran Resnais didn't get the best director award for his haunting Coeurs — which in fact failed to win a single César out of its 8 nominations. No one can accuse French Academy voters of being sentimental.
(In all fairness, the director of Hiroshima, mon amour and Last Year in Marienbad has already won two best director Césars — for Providence [1977] and for Smoking/No Smoking [1993]. Both films also received the César for best film. Besides, Resnais' On connaît la chanson / Same Old Song was voted best film of 1997, though that year the best director award went to Luc Besson for The Fifth Element.)