At the end of January, Internet users deplored the absence of female filmmakers among the nominees for the Best Achievement category of the Césars.
A month later, several laureates and the presenter Eye Haïdara, did not fail to pay tribute to the great forgotten of the ceremony within the framework of feminist pleas, this Friday, February 24.
Starting with Noémie Merlant, crowned with the trophy for best actress in a supporting role for her performance in
The Innocent
.
“I think of all the directors who should have been celebrated tonight, she said.
Well, I miss them."
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In video, behind the scenes of the César Revelations shoot
"We will not be passing through, nor a fashion effect"
A speech supported by Alice Diop, awarded in the best first film category for
Saint Omer.
Aware that she had a brief moment to get her message across, the latter said with humor: "Are you still not going to dare to cut a black woman in the middle of a speech?"
The filmmaker thus greeted her “magnificent team”, then celebrated “the new generation of French filmmakers”.
“This year, I saw filmmakers who made me think about the possibilities of cinema, and I would like to mention here films that completely inspired me: those of Claire Denis, Rebecca Zlotowski, Mia Hansen-Løve, Alice Winocour , Céline Devaux, and Blandine Lenoir.”
And Alice Diop to say: “Thank you!
We will not be passing through, nor a fad, we are called upon to renew ourselves and, year after year, to grow.
Virginie Efira, winner of the César for best actress for her performance in
Revoir Paris
, by Alice Winocour, also deplored the latter's absence in the best director category.
“Where are you, Alice Winocour?
she launched.
Where are the directors?
Alice, this prize is for you.”
"For all the women who have not been heard"
Composer Irène Drésel, who won the trophy for best original music for
À plein temps
, underlined the historic aspect of this victory.
"The Cesars of cinema have existed for 48 years," she said.
For these long years, five women have previously been nominated, but none of them have ever been rewarded.
So this César, I dedicate it above all to all women composers of music.”
In the same vein, Elisabeth Subrin, director of the short documentary film
Maria Schneider, 1983
, rewarded during the evening, declared: "This prize is for Maria and all the women who have not been heard."
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“I would have paid you like actors”
The actress Eye Haïdara, who was one of the nine presenters of the evening, gave a committed speech in favor of parity in the world of cinema.
“For the next César, five women, five magnificent actresses in supporting roles, she began.
Allow me to address each of them.
Noémie, in
L'Innocent
, you are so surprising.
You ignite us, you upset us, you make us laugh alongside Anouk whose madness, audacity, freedom, offer us moments of cinema every time.
Before continuing: “Judith, both frail and wild in
The Sixth Child
, sweet and rebellious.
At home, there is something for all tastes and colors.
Lyna, beautiful Lyna, elegant Lyna.
You always defend big roles, strong stories.
Anaïs, your sparkling and stubborn acting delights us.
You girls are masterful in
November
.”
And the actress ironically: “Really, these five women, if I had been a producer, I would have paid you like a male actor.
Well, we're not there yet."
“There is something wrong between women and men”
And
last but not least
, Caroline Benjo, the producer of
La Nuit du 12
, who won the ultimate César, that of the best film, spoke about violence against women in her speech of thanks.
"In the film, two characters share this observation: there is something wrong between women and men," she said.
Remarks which she described as “understatement”.
“The morbid count of violence against women can be summed up in one sentence: one death every three days and in bad years, every two days.
Only women know in their flesh what the violence inflicted on them is.”
The producer explained that when Dominik Moll, the director of the film, and the screenwriter Gilles Marchand, had called on her, it seemed to her "obvious that the gaze of men was important", that it was necessary "to give them the floor », and that the scenario writers « absolutely had to seize this narrative ».
She later quoted the philosopher Geneviève Fraisse: “She said that Me Too had freed up speech, but that it was now a question of freeing up listening”.
Tears of Judith Chemla
"But in Dominik's film, the men listen," she said.
They listen to other men, spout a flood of deeply misogynistic remarks without realizing anything, but above all they listen to women, and women who hold up a mirror to them without concessions.
The producer continues: “And I think that's why the film upsets us, but also soothes us deeply, and why we all need it.
So I would say long live the women, and long live the men who join their fight, because this fight we must fight it together.
A speech that brought tears to Judith Chemla, alleged victim of domestic violence.
For her part, actress Golshifteh Farahani gave a speech of support for the Iranian people, embellished with this motto: "Woman, life, freedom."