He is nominated for the César, but will not attend the Pleyel hall ceremony this Friday evening. With "What have we done to God again?" ", Philippe de Chauveron is cited for the public César, like the other four films which recorded the most admissions in 2019:" We will finish together "by Guillaume Canet," Hors Normes "by Eric Toledano and Olivier Nakache, "In the name of the earth" by Edouard Bergeon and "Les Misérables", by Ladj Ly. But Chauveron, whose comedy sits at the very top of the French box office with 6.7 million spectators (largely ahead of “We will finish together”, which totals 2.8 million admissions), intends to mark its disapproval with the recent change of regulations.
On November 1, the César boss, Alain Terzian - who has since resigned - announced in the magazine "Le Film français" that, unlike in previous years, the César of the public would not be awarded to the feature film having totaled the most tickets sold during the year.
From now on, it is the 4,313 members of the Academy who will decide between the first five films of the annual box office. " What have we done to God again?" has no chance: we have no nomination in the other categories ”, sighs Philippe de Chauveron… Who has already warned the Academy that he would not make the trip to Salle Pleyel.
"All year round, I have been thrilled: You are going to have a Caesar, " smiles the man who recognizes that an award would have pleased him. But beyond his disappointment, the director does not understand the merits of this reform. In "Le Film Français", Terzian explained that by this change of rule, he wanted "to represent both the choice of the public and the vote of cinema professionals". "The ceremony remains the meeting place for professionals," he argued.
"When we learn that at the last moment, we get a little paranoid"
The argument leaves Philippe de Chauveron skeptical. "Does this mean that the public is not intelligent enough, that it doesn't taste good enough?" he quips. This new Caesar is an arm of honor for the public. It is unacceptable not to respect the spectators any more. "The filmmaker also denounces a" lack of equity ":" If they had decided that on January 1 ... When we learn that at the last moment, we become a bit paranoid. "
The director believes that the Caesars are anyway "very unfair to those who work on comedies". Each year, he stresses, the actors, cinematographers and technicians who have worked on this kind of film are the big ones forgotten by the nominations ... and the winners.
It is however precisely to honor the comedy that the public Caesar was created in January 2018. While Dany Boon had threatened in 2009 to no longer come to the ceremony after the zero (nomination) pointed to his "Welcome to the Ch 'tis', the Academy had planned to create a 'Caesar of comedy'. The idea had therefore given birth, nine years later, to the public César, rewarding the number 1 box office. The first winner of this new trophy was… Dany Boon, for his comedy “Crazy Raid”.
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Last year, it was "Les Tuche 3" by Olivier Baroux who brandished the public César. A few months earlier, Baroux had criticized this price and declared that he would not go looking for it… His sidekick Kad Merad having been chosen in the autumn to present the evening, he had finally changed his mind.
Faced with these criticisms, does the public César still have its reason for being? This is in addition to the many questions that the Academy will have to decide after the ceremony on Friday evening.
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