Adèle Haenel Declares Her Love At The Césars - Translated

The Césars (French Film Awards) ceremony was a disaster last night. An overlong, painfully unfunny ceremony (poor host Cécile de France lumbered with terrible jokes), whose awards seemed to have been picked at random (the only logical explanation). 2013 has been one of the most interesting years for French cinema in a while, and the rest of the world was baffled as to why both Blue Is The Warmest Colour and Stranger By The Lake went home nearly empty-handed.

Among all this, one sweet moment emerged. Adèle Haenel won Best Supporting Actress for Suzanne, she was visibly shaken once on stage (her body language said it all), and offered a heartfelt and moving speech, which ended on an unusual note. So rather to comment on the ceremony, which has been done elsewhere and better than I could have, I have decided to focus on this particular moment, and translate it.


The video is below this translation, and by the way, I love the way there was an impromptu kiss with Beth Ditto on her way to the stage! So there it is:

"Good evening! Mmh well thanks a lot, I don't know what to say, I am quite... well, erm, actually I wanted to prepare something to say but I didn't have enough faith... But now that you have voted for me, well, I have faith...

I am very moved, I accept this César on behalf of the whole cast & crew of the film, and especially Katell Quillévéré who I couldn't thank enough...

There are a few more people I would like to thank. So the person I would like to thank, with whom it has all began is Christelle Barras, my agent Elisabeth Simpson, for her daily and continuous support, somebody you can laugh with too...

But above all... above all... (long pause) I would like to thank Céline... because... (long pause)... because I love her!"

The Céline she is declaring her love for is partner Céline Sciamma, director of Water Lillies (in which Adèle starred) and Tomboy.

Just like Ellen Page coming out recently, there is something particularly moving about actors/actresses having the gut to talk about their love, publicly and yet still discretely like Adèle just did. It may has to do with the fact that, despite advances for the LGB causes, there is still a sense of jeopardy to be able to live your love in the open, especially when you are in the public eye, and especially in France, given all the unexpected furore and conservative backlash that followed the Marriage Pour Tous legislation last year. And I can only imagine that this jeopardy makes the feeling even stronger. It is not sold and splashed all over the tabloids, it is said quietly and sincerely.