The 45th Caesar ceremony was unlike any other, nor was the traditional Fouquet's dinner that followed. First, because to get inside the Champs-Élysées restaurant, which welcomes film crews and the cinema community every year from midnight thirty, it was necessary on Friday evening not to slip between onlookers who ask for selfies, but face the demonstration of feminist associations that had started their rally at 6 p.m. Place des Ternes. Then massed in front of Fouquet's, the activists, who brandished "Violanski" banners, kept singing this heady refrain throughout the dinner: "We are there, we are there, if Polanski does not come we are there. "
However, the filmmaker crowned, to the amazement of some, with the prize for best director, was ... in all conversations. Between the tables, which were much more sparse than in previous years, we did not laugh a lot and we only talked about that, and not the menu prepared by chef Pierre Gagnaire - haddock tartare and smoked salmon, roasted saithe, crunchy chestnuts. Several winning teams had made the trip - those of "Grâce à Dieu", "Papicha", "Roubaix, une lumière", "La Belle Epoque" - with their laureates. Present, Nicolas Bedos, Roschdy Zem and François Ozon applauded the late arrival of the big winners of the day, Ladj Ly and his team of "Les Misérables".
Adèle Haenel: “Well done pedophiles!
But it was almost the only joyful manifestation of the dinner for the guests, who evoked, between reserve and amazement, the prize awarded to Polanski and the reaction of Adèle Haenel who had left the ceremony shouting "bravo pedophiles!" ". No member of the “Portrait of the young girl on fire” team was present at the dinner, which included other notable absentees such as Florence Foresti. The resigning president of the Caesars, Alain Terzian, was there, adding a little discomfort to the atmosphere of this meal which for once did not drag on, the guests quickly leaving the restaurant.
"What happened can only make you angry"
A leaden atmosphere, which summed up well the declaration of Swann Arlaud, César of the best second male role for "Thanks to God", just before going to Fouquet's: "I find that quite incomprehensible (that Roman Polanski takes down the César of the best realizer , Editor's note) . We were all shaken by Adèle Haenel's speech, past, brilliant and very strong. I understand his reaction, what happened can only get angry ”…