INTERVIEW
The direction of the academy of Caesar, strongly criticized for its management and entangled in the Polanski controversy, announced Thursday evening its collective resignation. And this, just 15 days before the next annual ceremony. "I think it is a very good decision," reacted Michel Hazanavicius on Friday on Europe 1.
>> Watch Matthieu Belliard's morning show in replay and in podcast here
The director is one of 400 personalities who have signed a column denouncing the opaque functioning of the Academy, led by Alain Terzian and published Monday in Le Monde . These personalities demanded an "in-depth reform" of the Academy of the Caesars. Among their grievances, "dysfunctions", an "opacity of the accounts" or the statutes which "have not changed for a very long time" and are still based on "cooptation".
"The ceremony was not the desired showcase for French cinema"
For the director, the resignation of the management of the Academy was the only solution because "the operating mode was obsolete, not at all aligned with the other academies and gave birth every year to a ceremony which was not the desired showcase of French cinema ". By this, Michel Hazanavicius means a ceremony which "looks a little more like people who make cinema", "a little more open", with a "more democratic" mode of operation. "In any case, let the people who make the decisions be democratically elected by the 4,700 members of the Academy," he added.
Regarding the twelve appointments of Polanski, the director admits not knowing what will happen. "People have voted for him, he is appointed, there will be votes and what will happen will happen," he said. And to add: "I believe that the two events do not have much to see in reality."