仏版アカデミー賞、ポランスキー氏に監督賞　波乱の授賞式に

【パリＡＦＰ＝時事】フランス版アカデミー賞と呼ばれる映画賞「セザール賞」の授賞式が週末、首都パリで行われた。最優秀監督賞に『私は弾劾する』のロマン・ポランスキー監督（86）が選ばれると、退席者が続出し、反発が広がった。（写真はセザール賞授賞式会場前で抗議デモを行う活動家ら）
　ポランスキー氏は、１９７７年の１３歳の少女に対する法定強姦（ごうかん）により米国で訴追されており、先月にはポランスキー監督が同賞にノミネートされたことを受けて、主催する仏映画芸術技術アカデミーの理事全員が辞職に追い込まれていた。
　授賞式の開催中も、抗議者らが「ポランスキーを拘束しろ！」と叫びながら会場内への突入を試み、警察が催涙ガスを使用して制止する騒ぎが起きていた。
　これに先立ちフランク・リーステール文化相は、ポランスキー氏に賞を授与すれば、「性暴力や性差別的暴力に対してわれわれが取らなければならない立場を考慮すると、象徴的に悪い意味を持つ」と警告していた。
　それでもポランスキー氏は今回、脚本賞と最優秀監督賞をダブル受賞。監督賞の受賞が発表された際には、最優秀女優賞候補の一人で、フランスのセクハラ告発運動「＃ＭｅＴｏｏ（私も）」で中心的な役割を果たしたアデル・エネルさんが「恥だ！」と叫んで会場を後にした。
　ポランスキー氏の作品は、衣装デザイン賞も獲得した。
　ポランスキー氏と同作品の制作チームは全員、「公共の場での私刑（リンチ）」を危惧するとして、授賞式をボイコットした。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2020/03/03-12:52）

Roman Polanski won best director for An Officer and a Spy at a fractious ceremony for the French Oscars, the Cesars, that ended in walkouts and recrimination in Paris early Saturday.
The entire French academy had been forced to resign earlier this month amid fury that the veteran -- wanted in the US for the statutory rape of a 13-year-old girl in 1977 -- had topped the list of nominations.
Protesters chanting Lock up Polanski! tried to storm the theatre where the ceremony was being held before being pushed back by police firing tear gas.
And France's Culture Minister Franck Riester had warned that giving the maker of Rosemary's Baby a Cesar would be symbolically bad given the stance we must take against sexual and sexist violence.
But Polanski won two awards, best adapted screenplay and best director -- with the latter prompting Adele Haenel, who was nominated for best actress for Portrait of a Lady on Fire, to storm out, crying Shame!
Haenel has become a hero of the #MeToo movement in France after accusing the director of her first film, Christophe Ruggia, of sexually harassing her when she was only 12.
Polanski's film also picked up best costume design.
- 'Public lynching' -
Distinguishing Polanski is spitting in the face of all victims, Haenel had said in the run-up to the Cesars.
It means raping women isn't that bad.
Polanski, 86, and the entire team of his historical drama had boycotted the ceremony, fearing a public lynching.
An Officer and a Spy is based on the Dreyfus affair which divided France in the late 19th century when a Jewish army officer was wrongly prosecuted for spying.
What place can there be in such deplorable conditions for a film about the defence of truth, the fight for justice, (against) blind hate and anti-Semitism? the director told AFP.
Polanski's epic, which won two top prizes at the Venice film festival last year, was in the running in 12 categories at the Cesars.
But the big winner on the night was the Oscar-nominated Les Miserables, set in one of France's deprived and restive suburbs.
It took best film and three other prizes including the audience award.
It's Mali-born director Ladj Ly made an appeal for unity on a highly fraught night, saying our enemy is not the other, but poverty.
- Poisonous atmosphere -
Papicha, a touching story of Algerian women fighting for their freedom by Mounia Meddour, also fared well, winning both best first film and best female newcomer for actress Lyna Khoudri.
With the French film industry at war with itself over Polanski, Hollywood star Brad Pitt also snubbed the event having reportedly been offered an honorary award.
The French press had dubbed the event The Cesars of Anguish, with Le Parisien daily mocking up a movie poster of Hitchcock's Vertigo.
And the ceremony lived up to its billing.
The poisonous atmosphere had already worsened on the eve of the awards when 30 film figures from minority backgrounds lashed the lip service they claimed the industry plays to inclusion.
- Casual racism -
In blistering open letter they said black, North African and Asian-origin performers are mostly confined to stereotypical bit parts in French films.
On the night, one of the signatories of the letter, actress Aissa Maiga, delivering a scathing critique of casual racism in the industry as she presented the prize for best newcomer, including skewering presenter Florence Foresti for once donning blackface.
But it was the absent figure of Polanski which caused most unease, with a presenter only daring to mumble his name when he opened the envelope for his first win.
The publicity campaign for Polanski's movie was halted last year after another woman, photographer Valentine Monnier, claimed that she had also been raped by the director in 1975.
But that did not stop it becoming a box office hit in France.
Polanski had told AFP that he had decided to stay away from the ceremony to protect his family and his team from abuse.
The activists brandish the figure of 12 women who I am supposed to have molested half a century ago, he said.
These fantasies of sick minds are treated as established fact, he complained.