“Anatomy of a Fall” won the César for best film on Friday February 23, dominating the ceremony with five other trophies, including best direction to Justine Triet.
Additional momentum for the film, Palme d'Or in May 2023 in Cannes, for the Oscars ceremony on March 10, where it is nominated five times.
Another favorite with 12 nominations, “The Animal Kingdom” by Thomas Cailley won five Césars (best costumes, best sound, best visual effects, best original music and best photography).
But, for once, the main thing was not the awards or the tributes, eclipsed by the speech of Judith Godrèche, who has become a leading figure in French #MeToo.
It was a standing ovation from the representatives of a 7th art accused of having for years covered the violence that the actress made her entrance on the stage of the Olympia, in Paris, to denounce the "level of impunity , denial and privilege" of the environment.
“Why accept that this art that we love so much, this art that binds us, is used as a cover for illicit trafficking in young girls?” she said.
"You have to be wary of little girls. They touch the bottom of the pool, they bump into each other, they hurt themselves but they bounce back," continued the actress, who filed a complaint against directors Benoît Jacquot and Jacques Doillon for violence sexual and physical during his adolescence, which the latter deny.
Also readAt the César, Judith Godrèche denounces “illicit trafficking in young girls” covered by the cinema
The contrast is striking with the cataclysmic 2020 edition of the Césars.
Roman Polanski, accused of rape, received the award for best director for "J'accuse", prompting the departure of actress Adèle Haenel.
The latter, who has since left the cinema, reposted, without comment, a photo from this evening on her social networks on Friday.
The question of sexual violence arose from the introductory remarks of the president of the ceremony, Valérie Lemercier: "I will not leave this stage without praising those who are shaking up the habits and customs of a very old world where the bodies of some were implicitly at the disposal of the bodies of others.”
Adèle Exarchopoulos, best supporting actress
Actress Adèle Exarchopoulos receives the César for best supporting actress on February 23, 2024 at the Olympia theater in Paris © STEPHANE DE SAKUTIN / AFP
Just as symbolic, the Academy awarded its very first prize, the César for best actress in a supporting role, to Adèle Exarchopoulos, for “I will always see your faces”, where she plays a victim of incest.
Before the ceremony, around a hundred people demonstrated in front of the Olympia, at the call of the CGT, to support the words of the victims.
“All together, we can really help things change, a truly better world can open up,” said actress Anna Mouglalis, who accused directors Philippe Garrel and Jacques Doillon of having sexually assaulted her. .
Beyond these speeches, the subject has not finished haunting French cinema, several representatives of which are targeted by legal proceedings, such as Gérard Depardieu, indicted for rape and sexual assault and of which President Emmanuel Macron said the end 2023 that he made “France proud”.
The president of the National Cinematography Center (CNC), Dominique Boutonnat, is also implicated in a case of alleged sexual assault on his 21-year-old godson.
New calls to denounce violence have been launched, in particular by the actor Aurélien Wiik to free the voices of the boys who would have been victims, and beyond the cinema, Judith Godrèche said she had received more than 2,000 testimonies in four days on the email address she opened for this purpose.
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