Recently, the César Awards announced its 2020 nominations. And there has been a bit of controversy since the announcement, after it was shown that Roman Polanski’s film “An Officer and a Spy” earned 12 nominations (the most of any film), including Best Director and Best Film. Considering the César Awards are the French equivalent to the Oscars, there was outrage from people upset that the organization was giving a convicted sexual abuser such recognition. Joining in that outrage is French actress Adèle Haenel.
In a new interview with the New York Times, one of the stars of “Portrait of a Lady on Fire” and a 2020 César nominee herself explained why she feels that the awards ceremony shouldn’t recognize Polanski and his film, especially in light of the recent #MeToo movement.
“Distinguishing Polanski is spitting in the face of all victims. It means raping women isn’t that bad,” said the actress.
The recent César nominations aren’t the first acclaim that Polanski’s film has received. You’ll probably recall that “An Officer and a Spy” had its world premiere at last year’s Venice International Film Festival, where it won the Grand Jury Prize. Even at the time of the film’s announcement in the lineup, critics claimed that Polanski’s inclusion in the festival was a bad look for Venice. Defenders of the director and his film claimed that trying to force Venice to remove the film is tantamount to censorship.
READ MORE: Noémie Merlant Discusses The Feminist Utopia In ‘Portrait Of A Lady On Fire’ [Interview]
Haenel clearly doesn’t agree with that.
“When ‘An Officer and a Spy’ was released, we heard outcries about censorship,” said Haenel. “It isn’t censorship—it’s about choosing who one wants to watch. And old rich white men, rest assured: You own all of the communication channels.”
She continued, “No, real censorship in French film is how some people suffer from invisibility. Where are the people of color in film? The directors of color? There are exceptions, like Ladj Ly [director of ‘Les Miserables’], whose film has had enormous success, or Mati Diop [director of ‘Atlantics’], but that doesn’t reflect the reality of the film world at all. They remain a minority. For now, most stories take the classic white, male, heterosexual point of view.”
Adding to the context of Haenel’s comments is the fact that she is currently involved in a legal situation where she claimed that director Christophe Ruggia, who worked with the actress when she was underage, was sexually inappropriate with her. That case is still ongoing.
The 2020 César Awards will be handed out on February 28.
