FILM OF THE WEEK
INTERVIEW | 'Lady Chatterley' and 'Ne le dis à personne' (Tell No One) dominate French Césars |
|
|
|
| Written by the editor | |
| Sunday, 25 February 2007 | |
|
Lady Chatterley, which was part of the Panorama section at the recent Berlin Film Festival, was not only named Best Film, but also won Marina Hands -- who plays the titular protagonist -- a Best Actress César. Further wins included Best Adapted Screenplay for Pascale Ferran, Roger Bohbot and Pierre Trividic; Best Costumes for Marie-Claude Altot (somewhat ironic since they don't stay on for long in the film about a woman's exploration of her own sexuality) and Best Cinematography for Julien Hirsch. Earlier this year, Lady Chatterley already won the prestigious Louis Delluc prize for Best Artistic Production of the year. Though only Guillaume Canet's second film as a director, Ne le dis à personne (Tell No One) won the actor-turned-director (best known abroad for his role in the The Beach alongside Leonardo DiCaprio) the prestigious Best Director César. The taut character thriller with one of the most amazing chase sequences in recent memory also won everyman protagonist François Cluzet a Best Actor César, while Mathieu Chedid won the Best Score category and Hervé de Luze's razor-sharp precision work won him the Best Editing César. Valérie Lemercier, who also presented the awards ceremony, was awarded the Best Supporting Actress César for her role as a soap actress trying to make it big in France's Foreign Language Oscar submission Fauteuils d'orchestre (Avenue Montaigne), while Kad Merad was named Best Supporting Actor for his work in Je vais bien, ne t'en fais pas (Don't Worry, I'm Fine), in which he plays a father of two who is pestered by his daughter (played by Best Female Newcomer winner Mélanie Laurent) when her twin brother goes missing after having quarelled with his father. Malik Zidi was named Best Male Newcomer for his role in the student drama Les amitiés maléfiques (Poison Friends); it was a record fourth time he had been nominated in this category, after Ozon's Gouttes d'eau sur pierres brûlantes (Water Drops on Burning Rocks) in 2001, Antoine Santana's Un moment de bonheur in 2003 and André Téchiné's Les temps qui changent (Changing Times) in 2005. The awards ceremony at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris was dedicated to the memory of prolific and beloved French actor Philippe Noiret, who died last November. 2007 Césars winners (links are to reviews on european-films.net where available):
|
Adaptations of English-language novels dominated the 2007 Césars, the French national film prizes that were handed out yesterday (Saturday) in Paris. Pascale Ferran's Lady Chatterley, a retelling of the second version of D.H. Lawrence's erotic classic Lady Chatterley's Lover, and actor-turned-director Guillaume Canet's Ne le dis à personne (Tell No One), based on the novel by US writer Harlan Coben, won Best Film and Best Director respectively, with Chatterley picking up a total of five awards and Ne le dis à personne going home with four. The suprise box office hit of 2006, Philippe Lioret's Je vais bien, ne t'en fais pas (Don't Worry, I'm Fine) won two Césars including Best Female Newcomer for its star Mélanie Laurent. Little Miss Sunshine was named the Best Foreign Film, while UK actor Jude Law and Algerian-born actress Marlène Jobert were awarded honorary Césars. | < Prev | Next > |
|---|
