Will "Anatomy of a Fall" sweep the Césars?
Sunday, January 28, 2024 at 2:48PM
NATHANIEL R in All Your Faces, Anatomy of a Fall, Catherine Breillat, César Awards, Four Daughters, Last Summer, Miou-Miou, Romain Duris, Swann Arlaud, The Taste of Things, The Three Musketeers, Virginie Efira

by Nathaniel R

a snapshot from "Anatomy of a Fall"

The nominations for the 49th annual César Awards came out nearly simultaneously to the Oscar nominations so we accidentally missed them. Je suis désolé. As you would surely expect, Justine Triet's Oscar nominated Anatomy of a Fall is also a big deal across the pond. But it didn't top the nominations. That honor went to Thomas Cailley's mutant adventure The Animal Kingdom. Perhaps the biggest surprise / disconnect for those of us viewing from overseas is that France's unfortunately not-nominated Oscar submission The Taste of Things shows up in only two craft categories; if it wasn't well-loved at home, why did they submit it? But also: why didn't they love it? It's exquisite.

The ceremony will be held on February 23rd this year in Paris. The nominations, some trivia, and a few comments are after the jump...

BEST FILM

"Animal Kingdom" leads the nominations

Sadly only Anatomy of a Fall has any US presence though The Animal Kingdom will play at the annual "Rendezvous with French Cinema" here in NYC soon. They were two of the five finalists for France's Oscar submission this year. Sadly, The Taste of Things (the film they submitted) didn't land in either country in terms of big nominations. Strange. The other two finalists for the submission --  On the Wandering Paths and Sons of Ramses --  received zero nominations at the Césars, which only serves to remind us that "timing" is everything with awards seasons all over the world. Films, no matter their quality, only have windows of time when voters are interested in honoring them. Vote in a different month, see different results! 

 

BEST DIRECTOR
(stats from all categories) 

"Last Summer" from director Catherine Breillat

A majority female Best Director list this year. Cailley previously won "Best First Film"

* The ever controversial Breillat, of Fat Girl, Romance, and Anatomy of  Hell fame, scores her very first (and second) nominations at home for writing and directing Last Summer which is about a sexual relationship between a woman and her step-son.  The less famous Cédric Kahn is also a first time nominee that's double-dipping this year. His previous films include The Prayer, Wild Life, and Too Much Happiness.

BEST ACTRESS

"Just the Two of Us" scores Virginie Efira a fourth consecutive Best Actress nomination

Interesting trivia bits in this category: Marion Cotillard's nomination comes from a documentary (!!!) about the French writer and photographer Carole Achache. She plays Achache; This is Virginie Efira's 4th consecutive nomination (she won last year). We're obsessed with her and we wish more people would catch on outside of France; Hafsia Herzi was nominated for "Most Promising Actress" back in 2008, and she finally joins the top category; And of course freshly Oscar nominated actress Sandra Hüller is the sole first time nominee. Which makes sense she's a German movie star. At home in Germany, Hüller is an awards season regular with 7 nominations / 3 wins at the German Film Awards. 

 

BEST ACTOR

"Yannick" scored nominations for both Pio Marmaï (left) and Raphaël Quenard (right)

Exciting category since none of them have ever won and the first three are major stars in France. You might remember Worthalter as the kind father in the Belgian trans drama Girl (2018).

* Raphaël Quenard is double nominated this year since he also shows up in "Most Promising Actor" for a different film. 

 

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Miou-Miou and Leîla Bekthi in "All Your Faces"

All Your Faces just shot to the top of our "Must-See" list if it's worthy of 80% of the Supporting Actress category. Also Miou-Miou is here! She was Isabelle Huppert's other half in the Oscar nominated Entre Nous (1984), and she took the César for Best Actress for  Memoirs of a French Whore (1979) 

 

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

Swann Arlaud in "Anatomy of a Fall"

Arlaud & Reinartz are enemies in the courtroom in Anatomy of a Fall. If the prosecutor (Antoine Reinartz) looked familiar to you, it might be because he was part of the brilliant ensemble of the masterful AIDS/Act Up drama 120 BPM (2017).

* Harari is an Oscar nominee this year for co-writing Anatomy of a Fall with his life partner Justine Triet (also a writer/director of course). He has 5 other César nominations and 1 win (writing/director categories). 

 

MOST PROMISING ACTRESS

Ella Rumpf in "Marguerite's Theorem"

The youngest competitor here is Brunnquell who is a tv/stage/film actress. She's just 21. (Her co-star in No Love Lost is the wonderful multilingual international actor Nahuel Pérez Biscayart who plays her young father). You might remember Ella Rumpf for the cannibalism drama Raw (2016) which made small waves. Rebecca Marder's nominations lead us to ask "when do people age out of this category?" She's 28. Made her feature debut at 6 years old and has been working regularly on TV since 2010 and regularly in feature films since 2018.

 

MOST PROMISING ACTOR

This category skews a bit newer/younger than the parallel actress category but not by much. Frison is a 30 year old Belgian and has been a professional actor since he was 14. Paul (age 22) and Samuel Kircher (age 19), nominated for different movies, are the sons of 90s movie star  Irène Jacob (of Three Colors: Red, The Double Life of Veronica fame) and actor Jérôme Kircher. And of course you know 15 year old Milo Machado Graner, the youngest in the category, from his riveting performance as the blind son in the international hit Anatomy of a Fall.

 

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

It's the Best Film list in its entirety

 

 BEST ADAPTATION


All three of these films are about inappropriate relationships; France is going through something!   Consent is about a relationship between a teenage girl and a writer in his 50s. Last Summer is about a woman in a relationship with her step-son. Just the Two of Us, is a thriller about a toxic relationship.

BEST FIRST FEATURE FILM


Bernadette is about the former First Lady of France and stars Catherine Deneuve. Vincent Must Die sounds fun. It's a dark comedy about a man everyone suddenly wants to kill for inexplicable reasons. The Rapture is a drama about a midwife who passes off someone else's baby as her own. And Vermin is a horror film about spiders infesting an apartment building. 

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY

Eva Green in "The Three Musketeers - Part II: Milady"

César apparently allows two films to compete as one film. Two installments of a new Three Musketeers trilogy are nominated in multiple crafts category as one film. So what do they do when the third part arrives? Does it count as its own film? This kind of complication will eventually affect the Oscars, too, since so many movies try to be franchises now.


The Three Musketeers is filled with Francophone stars if you're into that: François Civil (D'Artagnan), Vincent Cassel (Athos), Romain Duris (Aramis), Pio Marmaï (Porthos) are the four Musketeers. Then there's Eva Green (Milady), Louis Garrel (Louis XIII), Vicky Krieps (Anne d'Autriche), Lyna Khoudri (Constance), Jacob Fortune Lloyd (Duke of Buckingham), Eric Ruf (Cardinal of Richelieu), Julien Frison (Gaston) and more...

BEST EDITING

BEST COSTUME DESIGN

BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN

"Jeanne Du Barry"

You may recall Jeanne Du Barry briefly made headlines around Cannes time since Johnny Depp co-stars with the director Maiwenn. Now it has two César nominations.

BEST SOUND

BEST ORIGINAL MUSIC


Disco Boy, which opens in the US next week, stars ubiquitous German actor Franz Rogowski (Passages, Great Freedom, etc). Since his breakout film (In Transit) a handful of years ago he's made 14 movies. 

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS

BEST FOREIGN FILM

"Oppenheimer"

Considering they're giving the Honorary César to Chris Nolan this year, this category is probably easy to predict. 

BEST DOCUMENTARY FILM

This category has existed since 2007 at the Césars. Four Daughters does not mark the first time that a documentary has been nominated for both the César and the Oscar but it's still a fun and not that regular occurence over the past 17 years. Only five films have done it so far: The Salt of the Earth, Fire At Sea, I Am Not Your Negro, Faces Places, and now Four Daughters. 

BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE FILM

BEST ANIMATED SHORT

BEST SHORT

HONORARY CÉSAR

Chris Nolan? When it comes to awards season, when it's your year, it's your year. 

Article originally appeared on The Film Experience (http://thefilmexperience.net/).
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