Guillaume Canet: President of Césars, it is an honor

With films as do not say it to anybody and the Small Handkerchiefs, Guillaume Canet incarnates the new wave of the French cinema. Maintenance. It will chair the ceremony of Césars this Friday 

Were you surprised when Alain Terzian, the owner of Césars, proposed to you to be the president of this edition?
GUILLAUME CANET. Yes! Because it is nevertheless rather rare that he addresses himself to somebody of also young person.

It is true also that I was among the youngest realizers to receive César for do not say it to anybody, in 2007. President, it is an honor. But I am not inevitably a large fan of this kind of ceremony. And not somebody of very at ease in this kind of exercise.

Five years ago, do not say it to anybody had taken down four Césars, including one for François Cluzet
Better actor! It was one evening formidable. There had been much evil, with my producer Alain Attal, to impose it in the main role of film. The people who financed the project did not want any, they did not judge it enough bankable. One was obliged to fight until the end. And the revoilà in race for César of the best actor with Untouchable

These Césars mark the arrival of a new generation of realizers, actors and producers
Initially, it should be stressed that there really were very good films. Moreover, the public went to see in mass The Artist, Untouchable, Polishes, the war is declared, the Exercise of the State, inter alia. Then, I think that there is inevitably a renewal of generation. One unfortunately lost these last years of the extraordinary directors like Claude Berri, Alain Corneau, Claude Chabrol. In same time, people of talent arrived. With the example of Michel Hazanavicius, Maïwenn, Pierre Schoeller, Valerie Donzelli One combined cinema of author and popular cinema, with films of quality and general public.

It is the case of Polishes, on the daily newspaper of the juvenile bureau. A subject not easy and a success on arrival
Yes. And yet, the film of Maïwenn, in spite of its casting, was not easy to go up for Alain Attal because the subject could appear difficult. But the history knew to convince the financial ones, then the public.

Does the new generation of actors, with Omar Sy, JoeyStarr, Leïla Bekhti, Valerie Donzelli, astonish you?
That confirms that all depends on the roles. It is a question of meetings with realizers. For JoeyStarr, that made very a long time that it is known that it has an incredible presence. It is besides the same thing for Omar Sy.

What do you think of The Artist and its international success?
I am super to trust of Jean Dujardin because it did an incredible work. And then, at the time of the 3D, Michel Hazanavicius returned to essence. The step to make a film in black and white, dumb man, and to see the passion, that proves that people require that a simple history is told and to spend one good moment. It is essence for me.