All eyesmay have been on George Miller and his six Academy Awards this week, but the 41st French Césars delivered a big Australian prize at Théâtre du Châtelet. Warren Ellis took out the César for best original music for Mustang, France’s Oscar nominee, which won four Césars in all.
The Paris-based musician who was born in Ballarat in 1965 and has lived in the French capital since 1998, kissed his French wife Delphine Ciampi before heading to the stage where he thanked her “for helping me believe in myself”, before thanking his Bad Seeds collaborator of 20 years, Nick Cave “who probably believed in me as much as my wife”. The shaggy bearded Australian noted how “after a year with a lot of sadness it’s been one of the greatest experiences of my life to watch Mustang”.
Satisfying the diversity issue on both gender and ethnic fronts, Mustang, directed by French-Turkish Deniz Gamze Ergüven, tells the story of five sisters in rural Turkey forced into arranged marriages. Even if Ergüven did not win the directing prize she won for best first film, shared for best original screenplay with Alice Winocour, while Mathilde Van De Moortel won the editing prize for the film.
In her speech, Ergüven thanked her producer Charles Gillibert who came to her rescue after her previous producer, a woman, bailed at the last moment when Ergüven suddenly became pregnant and the financing looked difficult. So I guess it’s Gillibert who’s laughing. “We’re very proud to represent France at the Oscars and to have the eyes of the world on the film,” he said.
Mustang spoke of the diversity of this year’s Césars where three women directors were nominated and two women-centric films focusing on Muslim cultures were the big winners.
After refugee stories had won in both Cannes (Jacques Audiard’s Dheepan) and Berlin (Fuocoammare, Fire at Sea) the Césars in a sense followed suit in choosing Fatima as best film, even if it was a surprise selection. Focusing onan immigrant Moroccan woman struggling to raise her daughters in France - she barely speaks French and they struggle with Arabic - the film highlights the difficulties of integration.
“I didn't recover from the first two prizes,” said Fatima’s Morocco-born director, Philippe Faucon, who had earlier won for best adapted screenplay, while Zita Hanrot won for best actress newcomer. He thanked “the three magnificent women in the film” while standing alongside his producer wife, Yasmina Nini-Faucon.
After taking out the best actor award in Cannes, Vincent Lindon finally won his first best actor César for the unemployment drama La Loi Du Marché (The Measure of a Man).
“I’m extremely touched,” said the burly actor, almost brought to tears. “I want to especially thank Stéphane Brizé for making a magnificent film.”
Interestingly despite garnering nine nominations Dheepan went away empty handed, while Xavier Giannoli’s Marguerite and Arnaud Desplechin’s Trois souvenirs de ma jeunesse (My Golden Days), which both scored 11 nominations, won less awards than expected.
Few would contest that Catherine Frot deserved to win for her portrayal of a wildly untalented socialite opera singer, loosely based on Florence Foster Jenkins (who Meryl Streep portrays in Stephen Frears’ upcoming film).
“Twenty years ago I was here for Un air de famille, today it’s for un air d'opéra,” Frot told the crowd.“Yes, Marquerite sings badly, but she’s an artist to me.” Marguerite also won three other Césars, for best costumes, set decoration and sound.
French critics were big fans of Desplechin’s film, the story of an anthropologist in Tajikistan, so that his best director win was widely applauded, especially since it was his first César after three previous nominations.
Denmark’s Sidse Babett Knudsen was hilarious, even ditzy, and nothing like her Borgen PM when she jumped up and down clenching her fists in a flaming red dress as she accepted the supporting actress César for L’Hermine (Courted) alongside Fabrice Luchini. First she stumbled onto the stage and failing to retrieve her speech from her glittery little bag, she steamed away in very basic French, and well that international language. “Wow! Merci! Wow! Vraiment merci!”
The whole show though was mostly stolen by Michael Douglas, who proved himself to be far more eloquent than Sean Penn last year. The fluent French speaker is so good at being, well, Michael Douglas, that this was his second lifetime achievement award at the Césars. And let’s face it, he deserves a second one after surviving cancer and doing it before the eyes of the world’s media - andalongside an equally hilariously camp Matt Damon in what must be one of the best performances of his career.
Looking immaculately coiffed and healthy the old pro showed he has not lost his sense of humour. After being presented with the award from French director Claude Lelouch, 78, he explained how his father Kirk, who had instilled in him a huge love and appreciation for French cinema, had at one time been talking to the French director about acting for him.
“If you think I’m too old, take my son - he’s got more talent than me!” Douglas Jr. recalled with a chuckle. Between them he says they’ve made 150 films. Bravo! At 71 we hope Douglas Jr. has a long way to go.
