Paris (AFP)

The "taboo" Polanski, the discourse for diversity in French cinema by Aïssa Maïga, the furious release of Adèle Haenel after the award of the César for best director to the director of "J'accuse" and the generous speech of Ladj Ly marked the 45th Cesar Awards on Friday.

- The Polanski "taboo" -

"Good evening, welcome to the prisoner ceremony! ... Uh Caesar. It seems that there are large predators ... Uh producers in the room. That's good, I'm well equipped" ... By opening the ceremony, Florence Foresti did not mince words against the director Roman Polanski, who collected 12 nominations.

"We have to settle a case or we will have a problem during the ceremony. There are twelve moments when we will have a problem. We must solve the problem otherwise it will spoil the evening. "What do we do with Roro? What do we do with Popol? Do not do like him, do not do the innocent you know who I am talking about. What do we do with Sneeze? "Insisted the actress. "I decided that Atchoum was not big enough to overshadow French cinema and the rest of the selection," added Florence Foresti.

Responsible for announcing the winner of the César Award for Best Adaptation, attributed to the novel Polanski and Robert Harris "for" J'accuse ", the actor Jean-Pierre Darroussin could not help flaying the names of the winners.

- An effort for diversity -

Responsible for presenting the César award for best female hope, Aïssa Maïga called for more diversity in French cinema. "As soon as I find myself in a big trade meeting, I can't help but count the number of blacks and non-whites in the room," she said.

"I have always been able to count on the fingers of one hand the number of non-whites," she lamented.

"We survived whitewashing, blackface, the tons of dealer roles, housekeepers with a Bwana accent, we survived the roles of terrorists, all the roles of hypersexualized girls ... And in fact, we would like to tell you, we are not going to leave French cinema alone (...) The good news is that inclusion cannot be done without you ", insisted the actress, president of the collectives" 50/50 "and" Black is not my job ".

- Adèle Haenel's release -

The Cesar for best director at Roman Polanski was unbearable for the actress Adèle Haenel who left the Pleyel room furious immediately after the announcement of the prize.

She was quickly followed by the director of "Portrait of the young girl on fire, Céline Sciamma who received only one technical Cesar.

"To distinguish Polanski is to spit in the face of all the victims. It means," it's not so bad to rape women, "" the actress told the New York Times this week.

"Shame", launched when leaving the actress, symbol of a new momentum of #MeToo in France since she accused director Christophe Ruggia in November of "repeated touching" when she was a teenager.

- Ladj Ly's war on misery -

"Poverty does not only affect the inhabitants of the suburbs. It affects everyone. France is a wounded country but it is our country. Let us make it a big country. The only enemy is not the other is misery, "said the director awarded the César for best film for" Les Misérables ".

The director's generous speech was one of the only moments of grace in a tense ceremony.

With four statuettes including the public César, "Les Misérables" is the big winner of this 45th edition of the César.

© 2020 AFP