"Not even in my wildest dreams would I have imagined being here." Penelope Cruz received this Friday with tears in her eyes the César de Honor from the French Film Academy at a gala marked, like the American Golden Globes or the British Bafta, for the fight against S- violence that the attendees made visible with a white ribbon and a campaign to collect funds for associations that help victims.
"I propose to act from tonight, get up, show your white ties because, indeed, now we act", assured the host of the ceremony, the actor Manu Payet, addressing the 1,700 guests.
Accompanied by the French Marion Cotillard, Pedro Almodóvar, awarded the César de Honor in 1999, has taken the stage of the Pleyel room to present the award to the Madrid actress, who has praised her magnetism and her authenticity on the screen.
"You know that you are the reason why I decided to make movies. Your talent, and your inspiration, have enlightened me. You are very important. Thank you for the tribute you pay to women with your cinema and thank you for letting me participate in it," he told her. Penelope Cruz told the Manchego director after receiving a standing ovation from the public. The interpreter has dedicated the award to her mother, present in Paris like Javier Bardem, the actress's partner.
The 43rd César ceremony has made the great winner of the night Robert Campillo's film 120 battements per minute (120 beats per minute), awarded at the last Cannes Film Festival with the grand jury prize, started as one of the favorites with 13 nominations. In the end, it won six statuettes, including best film and best original screenplay.
Campillo narrates the fight against AIDS waged in France by the Act Up association, of which he was a member. When picking up the César, he recalled that the AIDS epidemic continues to affect drug addicts, prostitutes, and immigrants. "It is time to listen to them because now, like 25 years ago, silence equals death", he said.
The other favorite film was Au Revoir là-haut (See you up there), an adaptation of the work of the writer and 2013 Goncourt Prize winner Pierre Lemettre, who has also had words of appreciation for those who are "on the margins of society and sometimes on the borders of exclusion", such as refugees.
The film has achieved five of the thirteen Césars to which he aspired. Directed by Albert Dupontel, it is a historical farce set against the backdrop of the Great War that takes place in Paris in the 1920s and narrates the disappointments of two friends who saved each other's lives in the trenches.
The novelty of this edition has been to include the audience award for the first time in the list of winners, to reduce the elitist tone that the French Academy is often reproached for, and to reward the most watched film at the box office in 2017, an award that went to in Dany Boon's comedy Raid Dingue.
