The official list of nominees for the 47th Cesar ceremony, which will take place on February 25 at L’Olympia, was unveiled on Wednesday. The leading trio includes an adaptation of a Balzac masterpiece, a musical drama, and a biopic loosely based on the life of Celine Dion.
“Lost Illusions” by Xavier Giannoli
Adaptation of the great novel by Honoré de Balzac, the film “Lost Illusions”, by Xavier Giannoli is in the lead with 15 nominations, including Best Film, the queen category, Best Direction and Best Adaptation.
In love with literature, the ambitious Lucien de Rubempré leaves his province and his beautiful Louise de Bargeton whom he loves in secret to go to Paris in the hope of a career in journalism. Guided by Etienne Lousteau, his mentor, and crossing paths with the formidable Raoul Nathan, this passionate young man will know glory and disenchantment in a world where pretense, betrayal and lies cohabit with the demands of the press, politics and a spectacle. Xavier Giannoli freely adapted this work on the emergence of the press, focusing on the second part of the novel, Un Grand Homme de Province à Paris. “Balzac understood that money would be the new code. He described the matrix of the modern world in which we always find ourselves,” explained the director at the Venice Film Festival. A costume film masterfully performed by Benjamin Voisin (nominated for the César for his performance in Summer 85 by François Ozon), Vincent Lacoste, Cécile de France, Xavier Dolan and Gérard Depardieu.
Annette by Leos Carax
Screened at the opening of the Cannes festival last July, the film “Annette”, by Leos Carax, which received the prize for directing, the highest distinction in Cannes, has accumulated 11 nominations, including Best film, Best director, and Best Original Screenplay.
On the bill of this abundant and virtuoso rock opera, we find the French actress Marion Cotillard, who slips into the skin of a world-famous singer, and the American Adam Driver, nominated for the César 2022 in the Best Actor category, who plays his companion, Henry, a stand-up pro. Based in Los Angeles (United States), the couple saw their lives turned upside down by the birth of their daughter Annette, with an extraordinary destiny. In this crazy show about love, glory and falling, co-written and set to music by the American group Sparks, there is hardly a sentence that is not sung. “There are two types of singing: one rather pop rock, the other operatic”, explained to Canal + Marion Cotillard, who took lessons with an opera singer to arrive “at the visual physicality of a opera singer.
“Aline”, by Valerie Lemercier
With 10 nominations, “Aline”, a biopic by and starring Valérie Lemercier devoted to Quebec star Celine Dion, completes this top three. The film is notably present in the Best Film, Best Director and Best Actress (Valérie Lemercier) categories.
This blockbuster is the story of Aline Dieu, the youngest of 14 siblings who, despite not having the physique of a model, can count on an extraordinary voice. His parents Sylvette and Anglomard are his first fans. Before Guy-Claude, a music producer, also succumbs to this “rough diamond” and falls in love with this young woman.
A feeling shared by Aline who will make Guy-Claude her manager and the great love of her life, despite the age difference and the fears of some of those close to her. The singer who we follow from her childhood to her 50s – thanks to incredible special effects and make-up – will become a world-famous pop star who will never forget where she comes from. An extraordinary destiny which is therefore reminiscent of that of Celine Dion … and her love story with her René, her mentor who died in 2016.