Le Palmarès des César et des Oscar (1ère partie)

Le Palmarès des César et des Oscar

luh pahl-mah-ress day say-ZAA ray day zuss-KAAR. Click below to hear this. 

The list of award-winners at the Césars and the Oscars.

If you’re in the US, there’s a good chance you watched the Oscars–that is, the Academy Awards. If you’re in France, you’re more likely to have watched the César award ceremonies.

The big winner in the US was Argo, a gripping film about a 1980s CIA operation to rescue six American hostages in Iran. It took three Oscars: best picture, best adapted screenplay, and best film editing. It also won awards in several other venues. Here’s a trailer of the movie: 

The French film Amour took the Oscar for the best foreign film. Period.

In the meantime (almost literally: The César awards ceremony took place the night before the Oscars), Amour swept away more Césars than you can shake a stick at: best film, best director, best screenplay, best actor, and best actress. And Argo? Best foreign film. Period.

I should mention that Amour has a very small cast. The main characters, a husband and wife, are played by the beloved French actors Emanuelle Riva and Jean-Louis Trintignant, both in their 80s. They are extraordinary, beautiful people, incredible actors, and they carry the film. Isabelle Huppert, another well-known actress, plays their daughter. Here’s a trailer for Amour:

I’m sure you have noticed that I have a bias regarding these films. I liked Argo a lot, and was entertained well, but I loved Amour and couldn’t shake the movie for days. It made me think about living and dying, aging, living well, about beauty, about right and wrong, and above all about the nature of love, the title of the movie.

Next time, I’ll write about the curious coincidence in the pattern of awards for these films. Or is it coincidence?

Alternate audio file link: le-palmares-des-cesar-et-des-oscar