Place au cinéma français aujourd’hui (Today, it’s time to talk about French Film)!

Qui ne connait pas de nos jours les Oscars et les Golden Globes (Who doesn’t nowadays know the Oscars and the Golden Globes)…

In France, the equivalent of these two awards of le septième art (“Seventh Art”, referring to Film, according to the Hegelian ranking of arts) are, respectivement (respectively), les Césars, and le Prix Lumière.

L’affiche de la cérémonie des “Lumières” de l’année dernière (the poster of last year’s “Lumière” Awards ceremony)

It is la presse étrangère (the foreign press) based in the French capital that designates the les gagnants de cette année (the winners of this year), who can either be French or des francophones.

This year, le plus grand gagnant (the biggest winner) is Xavier Beauvois, with his “Des Hommes et des dieux” (“Of Gods and Men”), which deals with an incident that belongs to Algeria‘s “décennie noire” (“Black Decade”), ranging roughly from 1990 to 2000. Despite a rather neat performance of a number of its lead actors, and the honors subsequently bestowed on it, this movie -which has already earned the Grand Prix at last year’s Festival de Cannes– doesn’t unfortunately come even close to identifying “les tenants et aboutissants” (“the ins and outs”) of the context within which this tragic incident took place. Comme cela est souvent le cas (As it is often the case), it seems that some “lignes rouges“(“red lines”, that is) are never meant to be crossed when French movies deal with “le dossier algérien” (“the Algerian File.”)

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Other than that, le prix du meilleur acteur (the Award of the Best Actor) went to “veteran” French actor Michael Lonsdale. Remember him? He embodied le villain in the “Moonraker” James Bond:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HGo748GqS9g
French actor Michael Lonsdale, winner of a 2011 Prix Lumière,  embodying  the role of le méchant (the villain) “Hugo Drax” in the 1979 “Moonraker” James Bond. A billionaire who supposedly counted la Tour Eiffel as one of his many treasured possessions, his petit discours (little speech) seems to come straight from the “inspirators” of the Raëlien “Clone-court” winner, Michel Houellebecq!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L5nsX3BSXQI

The Belgian film “Illégal” is the winner of the special 2011 TV5 Monde Prix Lumière du public mondial.