| The Inhabitant of Montmartre was awarded the Cesars for Best Film and Best Director No one doubted that justice would prevail. The universal favorite “Amélie,” which was insultingly passed over for an invitation to the Cannes Film Festival, opened the Moscow Festival, was nominated for five Oscars, and revived faith in the French bel esprit, was named the best film of the year by the French Film Academy, and director Jean-Pierre Jeunet (“Delicacies,” “City of Lost Children”, “Alien 4”) received a Cesar for Best Director. The winner of the statuette for best music was the favorite of the Moscow public, Yann Tiersen, and the best production designer was named Aline Bonnetto, who created an absolutely fabulous Paris for Genet’s film, where the sun always shines.
Many tend to underestimate the success of “Amelie” and even see some kind of conspiracy in the fact that the film, nominated in thirteen categories, received only four statuettes. Of course, “Amelie” did not break the record of “The Last Metro” by Francois Truffaut (ten awards). But this is not explained by a conspiracy, but by the unusually high level of films competing for the Cesars this year. Let us recall that the nominations included “Under the Sand” by Francois Ozon (the non-award for this perfect psychological study was perhaps the only obvious injustice of Saturday’s ceremony), “The Pianist” by Michael Haneke (Annie Girardot was deservedly awarded for best supporting actress), “Intimacy” by Patrice Chéreau, "You Will Know" by Jacques Rivette. And Claire Denis’s “Every Day, There’s Trouble” and Laurent Cantet’s “Work Schedule” didn’t even make it into the nominations! But the strongest competitor to “Amelie” unexpectedly turned out to be Jacques Audiard’s painting “Read My Lips.” She was awarded three statuettes: for best actress (Emmanuelle Devaux), best screenplay (Jacques Audiard and Tonino Benaquista) and best sound design.
Although Audiard is far from new to directing (“See Men Fall,” “A Very Humble Hero”), his new film is rightly called sensational. This dark tale of the love of a colorless, hearing-impaired secretary (Deveaux) for a released apache (Vincent Cassel) initially masquerades as a social parable about violence and repression as the dominant feature of modern society - be it in the criminal underground, in prison or in a sterile office environment. . But then, completely unpredictably, it turns into an inventive and breathtaking thriller.
Professionally made, but uninspired and clearly over-praised by French critics, “The Chamber of Officers”, nominated in nine nominations, was content with two “Cesars” - for best work by an actor in a supporting role (Andre Dussollier) and best cinematography (Tetsuo Nagata). Veteran Michel Bouquet, who played the lead role in Anne Fontaine's drama How I Killed My Father, was named best actor. The best foreign film was awarded to Mulholland Drive by David Lynch, who had already received a similar honor exactly twenty years ago for his masterpiece The Elephant Man. Honorary Cesars were awarded to Jeremy Irons, Claude Riche and Anouk Aimée.
The best debut was predictably named the French-Belgian-British-Italian-Slovenian production of Danis Tanovic “No Man's Land”. This thoroughly opportunistic work, filmed with Western money especially for Western festivals, tells about the civil war in Yugoslavia in the language of black comedy, delighting people with undemanding taste with its unpretentious humor. And since undemanding taste and the desire to laugh at serious things are quite common phenomena, “No Man’s Land” has already received a Cannes prize for its screenplay, a Golden Globe as best foreign film, and is now seriously contending for an Oscar. (It’s interesting that the list of Oscar nominees for “No Man’s Land” brazenly lists Bosnia and Herzegovina as a country of origin!) We sincerely wish failure to this cynical creation.
Meanwhile, overseas, all they can think about is the Oscar, which will be awarded in three weeks. Last Saturday, Robert Altman's Gosford Park and Ron Howard's A Beautiful Mind scored extra points in the pre-Oscar race. The Writers Guild of America presented its awards to debut screenwriter Julian Fellowes (“Gosford Park”) for Best Original Screenplay and Akiva Goldsman (“A Beautiful Mind”) for Best Adaptation. Alexey MEDVEDEV |
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