The life of sculptor César Baldaccini, the man behind the Césars

JC Piot, edited by Alexis Patri 6:00 p.m., February 21, 2023

We are on April 3, 1976, at the Palais des Congrès in Paris.

In front of all the gratin of French cinema, the greatest French actor Jean Gabin opens the first edition of a ceremony which will celebrate its 48th anniversary on Friday evening: the Cesar ceremony.

By ear, it's obvious, the César is a transparent allusion to its American elder, the Oscars, but not only.

From its birth, the award, which has become the most prestigious in French cinema, bears the name of the famous sculptor who created it at the request of Georges Cravennes, the initiator of the evening: César Baldaccini.

>> Find all the programs of Matthieu Noël and Stéphane Bern every day from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. on Europe 1 as well as in replay and podcast here

But that evening, when Romy Schneider, Philippe Noiret or Jean Rochefort come forward to receive the first Césars in the history of cinema, the trophy does not look like the one we know today.

It is quite banal, almost wise, representing a male silhouette surrounded by a reel of film.

With this trophy, César is not at his first attempt.

He has been sculpting his works for more than 30 years, even if his long path as an artist began far from Parisian evenings.

César Baldaccini, a child of the Belle de Mai

César Baldaccini was born in 1921 in one of the most popular areas of Marseille, la Belle de Mai.

It is then the district of the Manufacture des Tabacs.

It is also a part of Marseille where you hear a lot of Italian spoken, the native language of a good part of the inhabitants.

Caesar's parents are among them: coming from Tuscany, they settled there to work hard, first in the manufacture of barrels, then by opening a café.

César is a curious but dreamy kid who is rather bored by school.

His thing is drawing and DIY.

Everything that comes to hand ends up turning into something else, like those tin cans that he uses to tinker with more or less rickety carts for his little brother.

>> READ ALSO - 

On the occasion of the 48th Cesar ceremony, Europe 1 devotes a special day to French cinema

But he has talent and it shows.

So much so that his mother ended up enrolling him in the evening classes at the Beaux-arts de Marseille where he enjoyed firing on all cylinders.

Wood, stone, clay or plaster, it doesn't matter.

Everything that kneads, everything that works, everything that twists and takes shape under his hands, fascinates him!

War broke out, the Occupation with it and, in 1943, when Germany invaded the southern zone, César had to suddenly change his habits to escape the Compulsory Labor Service, the STO, a nightmare for many young French people who had no not the slightest intention of going to work in the German factories. 

World success after the war

Like others, César then left Marseille hoping that we would lose track of him.

Here he is at 22, in Paris, where he turns to metal.

First, because it was marked by the work of the Spaniard Pablo Gargallo, who made it a specialty.

But also because metal is one of the rare materials to be found almost everywhere, at a time when César did not have a penny in his pocket.

Under his blowtorch, the iron rods and twisted metal parts, which he recovers from scrap dealers or dumps, change their appearance.

The game of fire and the artist's alchemy make them strange creatures, a strange and disturbing bestiary, with their weathered shells, their twisted wings, their sharp hooks.

>> READ ALSO -

 48th Cesar ceremony: what are the two films at the top of the nominations?

In 1954, his fantastic and disturbing bat, with its rough and holey wings, marked the spirits.

His career is launched.

His works can be found in prestigious places and appointments, the Salon de Mai, the Rive Droite gallery, the Venice Biennale, Brussels, the Hanover Gallery in London... Wherever he exhibits, he sells to collectors, museums and to institutions.

Everyone wants their Caesar.

Prices are soaring and magazine covers are multiplying.

But the doubts are still there.

Behind César's big beard, ease and good nature, there are a few cracks and a creeping fear: that of going around in circles.

He needs a new idea, a new playground: it will be the car junkyard in front of which he passes by chance, or almost, near Gennevilliers.

A thumb, a breast, a Caesar

César is seized by the power of a press that compacts car wrecks in a few moments.

In the blink of an eye, they are transformed into cubes of colored metal, compressed by the power of the machine.

It's a revelation: César begins to compress everything that comes his way and, he too, cars!

Even in perfect condition, like that of a figure in the world of arts and patronage, Marie-Laure de Noailles.

And not just any of his cars: the Zim, this luxurious car built during the Khrushchev era to compete with the Cadillac.

The publicity is enormous, the scandal also when he exposes, in 1960, a compression of three cars.

Three tons that revive the old debate on what is art and what is not.

César pretends not to care and continues to explore new desires and new materials.

The logical opposite of compressions, his expansions work on the opposite principle and occupy him for a good part of the 1960s and 1970s. Even if the sculptor always allows himself sidesteps.

>> READ ALSO - 

The true story of 'The prayer to the stars', Marcel Pagnol's missing trilogy

His enormous Thumb, a carbon copy of his, is a famous example.

César first draws a 45 centimeter red plastic molding from it, before making huge bronzes, more than six meters for the one who ended his journey on a roundabout in Marseille, after being exposed to the world. whole, especially in South Korea in the early 1990s. The thumb that passers-by encounter every day in the La Défense district culminates at 12 meters. 

And since playing with proportions fascinates him, César sometimes puts a bit of mischief into it.

Like when he has fun molding the right breast of a Crazy Horse dancer, Victoria Von Krupp.

He draws one of his most famous sculptures from it: a two meter fifty long breast which he then declines in all sizes and all materials, from resin to bronze via plastic and polyester.

But, as beautiful as it is, Madame Krupp's breast does not mark the spirits as much as another sculpture that has become legendary: the Caesar. 

A first Caesar that disappoints his audience

The first trophy has little to do with the one we know today.

And some, among the first winners as well as in the public, do not hesitate to say so.

They have the feeling that Caesar didn't rack his brains very hard!

And it is true that we expected something more original, more surprising from such a daring sculptor.

They will not be disappointed.

Perhaps stung, César goes back to work.

From the following year, for the second Nuit des César held in 1977 at the Salle Pleyel, the reward was completely different!

The Caesar this time has the shape it has always kept since, that of a golden ingot which is the result of one of the famous compressions of the artist, who recovered the metal parts, the ornaments and the handles of an old chest of drawers to make the first mould, the original mould, which has been adapted every year since.

>> SEE ALSO - 

César 2023: actor Tahar Rahim will preside over the 48th ceremony

Obviously, the trophy has its detractors and some nasty tongues immediately hasten to describe it as a golden Yule log.

But this time, their critics are lost in the void: Caesar has made Caesar.

This time, with an unparalleled sculpture, far removed from the American Oscars and closer to Art Nouveau.

Since 1977, the famous ingot has not moved.

Each year, all the winners receive a strictly identical version of a trophy which is not gold, as is still sometimes believed, but which weighs its weight: 3.6 kilos all the same.

The sculpture is 29 centimeters high, the base is invariably the same size, 8 by 8 centimeters of carefully polished metal, then patinated, to avoid the reflection of the spotlights.

Only one thing can distinguish two trophies from each other, a small detail that varies at the very last moment: behind the scenes, an engraver stands ready to inscribe the name of each new winner as the ceremony advances.

The sequel belongs to the actresses, actors, filmmakers and all film professionals, who take with them, happy, a small piece of the career of an immense sculptor.

Bibliography

• Jean-Charles Hachet, 

  César or the metamorphoses of a great art

  , Éditions Varia, 1990  

• Otto Hahn, 

  The Seven Lives of Caesar

  , Favre Editions, 1988