Julien, your french correspondent, here to discuss the César nominations.
OUTRAGE ! Twitter was in uproar this morning when the nominees for the Best Actress César were announced, and the name Adèle Exarchopoulos was nowhere to be seen. While Léa Seydoux made the cut for her arguably supporting role, Adèle’s astounding lead performance in Blue is the Warmest Color was relegated to the Most Promising Actress category.
Before you raise your pitchforks, consider this perfectly logical explanation: since Tahar Rahim won both the Best Actor and Most Promising Actor gongs for A Prophet in 2010, the rules were altered so that a single performance can only be nominated in a single category -the one which collects the most votes. Fair enough César, but when a category which is supposed to promote new talent prevents the year’s most celebrated performance to be nominated in its rightful place, you’re clearly doing something wrong.
All the nominees and a lot of gay drama and political mischief after the jump...
With Blue is the Warmest Color and Stranger by the Lake reaping 8 nominations each -including pic, director and screenplay- it was great year for both challenging work and gay cinema. So it’s kind of a depressing that the nomination leader was actor Guillaume Gallienne’s comedy Me Myself and Mum, the tale of a highly effeminate guy who’s always thought of himself as a girl, only to be confronted with the reassuring fact that he is in fact straight. Hailed in France as a clever comedy tackling the issues of gender and prejudice, Galliene’s autobiographical adaptation of his own stage show is in fact a tale of triumph over homosexuality, in which gays are represented in a pretty terrifying fashion. After a year of vicious debate about gay marriage, its colossal box-office success says something about the way the French like their gays: funny in a Birdcage sort of way, but eventually straight. (For those of you who read French, I’ve written about the film here)
With the exception of actor Albert Dupontel’s loopy comedy 9 mois ferme, the rest of the best picture nominees are of the more traditional sort: Asghar Farhadi’s dreary The Past, Roman Polanski’s inconsequential Venus in Fur and Arnaud Desplechin’s misfire Jimmy P. (which means 4 of the 7 best pic nominees were lazily picked from Cannes’ main competition). And for the first time in years, the best director category exactly mirrors the best picture race.
The retrograde 'you're not really gay' comedy "Me Myself and Mum" is the nomination leader at the Cesars
In the best actress category, Léa Seydoux will be battling legendary divas Catherine Deneuve (as a runaway grandmother in Elle s’en va) and Fanny Ardant (as a recently retired sixty-something falling in love with a younger man in Les Beaux Jours), as well as this year’s Cannes Best Actress Winner Bérénice Bejo (The Past), former Kechiche muse Sara Forestier (Suzanne), drama queen turned comedy star Sandrine Kiberlain (9 mois ferme) and Polanski’s wife Emmanuelle Seigner, whose disastrous, film-destroying performance in Venus in Fur has been incomprehensibly lauded since Cannes.
In Best Actor news, everyone’s favorite Dane Mads Mikkelsen can now call himself a Cesar nominee (for Cannes entry Michael Koohlhas), and will be facing César mainstays Michel Bouquet, Mathieu Amalric, Fabrice Luchini, Albert Dupontel and Gregory Gadebois. But the smart money is on Guillaume Gallienne, who plays both himself and his own mother (hilariously, it has to be said) in Me Myself and Mum.
In the supporting categories, I’m rooting for Geraldine Pailhas, whose whip smart performance as the overwhelmed mother of a teenage prostitute is the main reason to watch François Ozon’s Jeune et Jolie; and Dardenne favorite Olivier Gourmet, who cuts a vigorous, splendidly detailed figure from a working class cliché in Rebecca Zlotowski’s Grand Central.
Scandal!
But the biggest news of the morning -at least according to the French media- was the Best Supporting Actress nomination received by Julie Gayet, right on the heels of the revelation of her relationship with President François Hollande. I haven’t seen Quai d’Orsay, the political comedy for which she was nominated, so I can’t say if the nomination is deserved or if the intense media scrutiny of the past weeks inclined some mischievous voters to nominate her just for the show. In any case, she’s up against Marisa Borini (for A Castle in Italy), who happens to be the mom of former first lady Carla Bruni, which makes her the mother-in-law of former French President Nicolas Sarkozy. Oh, and the name of the character played by Julie Gayet in Quai d’Orsay is Valérie, same as the ex-first lady who’s just been ousted in her favor. Expect plenty of distasteful jokes on César night.
THE NOMINEE LIST
Best Film
9 Month Stretch
Me, Myself and Mum
Stranger at the Lake
Jimmy P.
The Past
Venus in Fur
Blue is the Warmest Color
Best Director
Albert Dupontel for 9 Month Stretch
Guillaume Gallienne for Me, Myself and Mum
Alain Guiraudie for Stranger at the Lake
Arnaud Desplechin for Jimmy P.
Asghar Farhadi for The Past
Roman Polanski for Venus in Fur
Abdellatif Kechiche for Blue is the Warmest Color
Blancanieves, Spain's Oscar submission from 2012 still pops up in award age now and then
Best Foreign Film
Alabama Monroe, director Felix Van Groeningen
Blancanieves, director Pablo Berger
Blue Jasmine, director Woody Allen
Dead Man Talking, director Patrick Ridremont
Django Unchained, director Quentin Tarantino
La Grande Bellezza, director Paolo Sorrentino
Gravity, director Alfonso Cuaron
Deneuve is a César mainstay: 12 nominations and 2 wins in their 39 year history
Best Actress
Fanny Ardant for Les Beaux Jours
Berenice Bejo for The Past
Catherine Deneuve for Elle S'En Va
Sara Forestier for Suzanne
Sandrine Kiberlain for 9 Month Stretch
Emmanuelle Seigner for Venus in Fur
Lea Seydoux for Blue is the Warmest Color
Best Actor
Mathieu Amalric for Venus in Fur
Michel Bouquet for Renoir
Albert Dupontel for 9 Month Stretch
Gergory Gadebois for Mon Ame Par Toi Guerie
Guillaume Gallienne for Me, Myself and Mum
Fabrice Luchini for Alceste a Bicyclette
Mads Mikkelsen for Michael Kohlhaas
Best Supporting Actress
Marisa Borini for A Castle in Italy
Francoise Fabian for Me, Myself and Mum
Julie Gayet for Quai d'Orsay
Adele Haenel for Suzanne
Geraldine Pailhas for Young & Beautiful
Best Supporting Actor
Neils Arestrup for Quai d'Orsay
Patrick Chesnais for Les Beaux Jours
Patrick d'Assumcao for Stranger at the Lake
Olivier Gourmet for Grand Central
Francois Damiens for Suzanne
Most Promising Actress (Newcomer)
Lou de Laage for Jappeloup
Pauline Etienne for La Religieuse
Adele Exarchopoulos for Blue is the Warmest Color
Goshifteh Farahni for Syngue Sabour - Pierre de Patience
Marine Vacth for Young & Beautiful
Pierre is nominated for "Most Promising"
Most Promising Actor (Newcomer)
Paul Bartel for Les Petits Princes
Pierre Deladonchamps for Stranger at the Lake
Paul Hamy for Suzanne
Vincent Macaigne for La Fille du 14 Juillet
Nemo Schiffman for Elle S'En Va
Best Original Screenplay
Albert Dupontel for 9 Month Stretch
Philippe Le Guay for Alceste a Bicyclette
Alain Guiraudie for Stranger at the Lake
Asghar Farhadi for The Past
Katelle Quillevere and Mariette Desert for Suzanne
Best Adapted Screenplay
Guillaume Gallienne for Me, Myself and Mum
Arnaud Desplechin for Jimmy P.
Antonin Baudry, Christophe Blain and Bertrand Tavernier for Quai d'Orsay
David Ives and Roman Polanski for Venus in Fur
Abdellatif Kechiche and Ghalya Lacroix for Blue is the Warmest Color
Best Original Music
Jorge Arriagada for Alceste a Bicyclette
Loik Dury and Christophe "Disco" Minck for Chinese Puzzle
Etienne Charry for L'Ecume des Jours
Martin Wheeler for Michael Kohlhaas
Alexandre Desplat for Venus in Fur
Best Sound
Marc-Antoine Beldent, Loic Prian and Olivier Do Huu for Me, Myself and Mum
Philippe Grivel and Nathalie Vidal for Stranger at the Lake
Jean-Pierre Duret, Jean Mallet and Melissa Petitjean for Michael Kohlhaas
Lucien Balibar, Nadine Muse, Cyril Holtz for Venus in Fur
Jerome Chenevoy, Fabien Pochet and Jean-Paul Hurier for Blue is the Warmest Color
France's Oscar submission "Renoir" won craft nominations but little attention in the major categories
Best Cinematography
Thomas Hardmeier for The Young and Prodigious T.S. Spivet
Claire Mathon for Stranger at the Lake
Jeanne Lapoirie for Michael Kohlhaas
Mark Ping Bing Lee for Renoir
Sofian el Fani for Blue is the Warmest Color
Best Editing
Christophe Pinel for9 Month Stretch
Valerie Deseine for Me, Myself and Mum
Jean-Christophe Hym for Stranger at the Lake
Juliette Welfling for The Past
Camille Toubkis, Albertine Lastera and Jean-Marie Langelle for Blue is the Warmest Color
Best Costume
Florence Fontaine for L'Ecume des Jours
Madeline Fontaine for The Young and Prodigious T.S. Spivet
Olivier Beriot for Me, Myself and Mum
Anina Diener for Michael Kohlhaas
Pascaline Chavanne for Renoir
Best Production Design (Décor)
Stephane Rozenbaum for L'Ecume des Jours
Aline Bonetto for The Young and Prodigious T.S. Spivet
Sylive Olive for Me, Myself and Mum
Yan Arlaud for Michael Kohlhaas
Benoit Barouh for Renoir
Best Documentary
Comment J'ai Deteste les Maths, director Olivier Peyon
Le Dernier des Injustes, director Claude Lanzmann
Il Etait une Foret, director Luc Jacquet
La Maison de la Raido, director Nicolas Philibert
Sur le Chemin de l'Ecole, director Pascal Plisson
Best First Film
La Bataille de Solferino, director Justine Triet
La Cage Doree, director Ruben Alves
En Solitaire, director Christophe Offenstein
La Fille du 14 Julliet, director Antonin Peretjatko
Me, Myself and Mum, director Guillaume Gallienne
Best Short Film
Avant Que de Tout Perdre, director Xavier Legrand
Bambi, director Sebastien Lifshitz
La Fugue, director Jean-Bernard Marlin
Les Lezards, director Vincent Mariette
Marseille la Nuit, director Marie Monge
Best Animated Feature Film
Ayay de Yopougon, directors Marguerite AbouteandClement Oubrerie
Loulou l'Incroyable Secret, director Eric Omond
My Mommy is in America and She Met Buffalo Bill, directors Marc Boreal and Thibaut Chatel
[Note: Ernest & Celestine, currently Oscar nominated as Best Animated Feature won this prize last year at the Césars]
Best Animated Short Film
Lettres de Femmes, director Augusto Zanovello
Mademoiselle Kiki et les Montparnos, director Amelie Harraul