Flop of audience, torrent of criticism: a week later, the criticisms on the 46th evening of the César continue to flow.
Often severe.
Often justified.
This is to say on this evening was not convinced of its ability to renew itself.
And to fail entirely to reconcile glamor and reality.
Between the health crisis and the cinemas closed since the end of October, "
it could hardly be a success
", analyzes Frédéric Sojcher, professor of cinema at the Sorbonne and author of
French Cinema, the drifts of a system
.
It was almost “
mission impossible
”.
The ceremony, which was to be that of renewal, with a new direction at its helm, had its worst audience in 10 years: 1.6 million viewers.
The evening was supposed to turn the page on opacity and interpersonal skills, a year after the Polanski affair, accused of rape and awarded the César for best director for his film
J'accuse
.
To read also: César 2021: triumph of Albert Dupontel at the end of a depressing ceremony
Two black actors, Jean-Pascal Zadi and Fathia Youssouf, were crowned as top prospects.
Sufficient guarantees of change?
Rarely, a general public comedy,
Adieu les Cons
, by Albert Dupontel, received the César for best film.
"
Between oneself
" and "
navel-gazing
"
But, in the midst of a pandemic, the ceremony left a bitter taste, starting with the middle.
Isabelle Adjani lamented, Friday in a forum, an evening leaving
"floating the feeling of a group
where one spoke only to his own, without really talking to others
" when Gérard Jugnot, present for a tribute at the Splendid, lamented the navel-gazing of the evening.
The brilliance of the actress Corinne Masiero, who was completely naked in support of intermittent workers, also deeply divided.
Read also: Corinne Masiero, the poverty of French cinema exposed
Unusually, the Minister of Culture Roselyne Bachelot, present backstage, went there with her flight of green wood after the ceremony, punctuated by the schoolboy interventions of Marina Foïs, mistress of ceremonies: evening "
not useful to French cinema
", "
Rupture with the public
", "
antipathy
" ... In his viewfinder, the supposed ingratitude of the world of cinema towards the State, which keeps the sector under financial drip in the midst of a crisis.
"
Loss of sacredness
"
“
That a minister is questioned, it is almost in the protocol!
It is healthy that once a year, claims are expressed, in a more or less subtle way
”, relativizes Frédéric Sojcher.
But with these Caesars, "
we are no longer in the dream, but in the return to reality
", observes for his part the semiologist François Jost.
From the cinephilia of the beginnings, with presidents like Orson Welles or Jean Gabin in the 1970s, the Césars were then entrusted to comedians like Gad Elmaleh or Valérie Lemercier to “
make it less rigid, less boring
” but “
lost a lot of sacredness
”, recalls this audiovisual specialist.
They become "
a political place
", with the conflict of intermittents.
The Academy of Caesar comes out weakened.
How will she bounce back?
This raises the question of the ceremony.
Won't we have to rethink it completely?
And who will dare to present it next year?
To read also: César 2021: triumph of Albert Dupontel at the end of a depressing ceremony
The gap between the Caesar and reality was perhaps even greater this year between the rhinestones and the anxiety-provoking context of the pandemic
Frédéric Sojcher, professor of cinema at the Sorbonne and author of French Cinema, the drifts of a system
"
What we experienced goes exactly in this direction, with an exaggeration, and a public which is restricted
", he judges.
Because the audience of the awards evenings is running out of steam everywhere.
Even collapsed, as in the United States, with the Golden Globes, or on the music side, the Grammys.
But not enough to bury them, according to François Jost: "
Even if the balance is difficult to find between the funny things for the televiewer and the sacred ritual of the handing-over of the prizes
,
for the profession, it remains something very legitimizing
" .
"
The Caesars have always been criticized
", agrees Frédéric Sojcher, who agrees that "
the phase difference was perhaps even greater this year between the rhinestones and the anxiety-provoking context of the pandemic
".