Prodigious actress, amazing in excellence picture of burning girl (2019) by Celine Sciamma Adèle Haenel has left film sets, in favor of activism, since her departure during the 2020 César ceremony. And his political positions leave no stone unturned, provoking the anger of the extreme right in particular. A look into the dazzling journey of a sizzling personality.
Adèle Haenel at the screening of the film Portrait of a Girl on Fire at the Cannes Film Festival on May 19, 2019. Photo by Stéphane Cardinale – Corbis/Corbis via Getty Images.
Adèle Haenel’s devastating departure during the 2020 Caesars
No one has forgotten this Caesar ceremony of February 28, 2020. When the Cesar Award for Best Direction was given to a Franco-Polish filmmaker Roman Polanski (absent that evening), French actress adele heinel Very angry and runs out of the room shouting: “Shame ! Have some Shame !“. This was a question, for the one who condemned mediapartThe alleged touching of her by the director of her first film (Christophe Raggia, who has yet to be prosecuted), in protest against an award given to a man accused multiple times of sexual violence.
A few days after the incident, virginie despentes Adèle Haenel’s audacity celebrated in a powerful text titled now we get up and leavepublished by release, heroine of sublime birth of the octopus (2007) And picture of burning girl (2019) Celine Sciamma It has thus become a feminist icon that alone symbolizes the fight against sexism in the post-#MeToo era.
A reconsidered career
Except that after this massive coup in French cinema, 35-year-old Adèle Haenel’s career will never be the same. The best cesarean actresses till now the fighters (2014), 120 beats per minute, Apollonides: Memories of the Brothel (2011) bertrand bonello, deer (2019) Quentin Dupieux Or Freely! (2018) The auteur was a major figure in cinema. Because of his natural play, his intensity and his unprecedented charisma, he was compared to isabel adjani And gerard depardieu And appreciation of the profession. But after 2020’s Cesar, the actress will make her on-screen appearances rare.
In May 2022, in Italian media manifestoShe expressed this change verbally by declaring that she wanted to end her career as an actress in “classic” films, preferring to dedicate herself to the theatre, signed by Céline Sciamma or by someone For projects built by beginners far away from the industry, that is, according to him, “An oppressive system where sexism continues,People in power keep oppressing us, she declares. We still reward rapists and they want me to remain silent? that will never happen,
A revolutionary and powerful letter published in telerama
The comments were confirmed in a revolutionary and powerful letter published by the actress on May 9, 2023 telerama, The artist explains clearly: “I decided to politicize my termination of cinema to denounce the profession’s general complacency toward sexual attackers and, more generally, the way this environment collaborates with the deadly racist ecosystem of the world that exists. East. ” Next we can read: “Faced with the capitalist class’s monopoly of speech and finance, I have no other weapon than my body and my integrity. Cancel culture in the first sense: You have the money, the power, and all the glory, you boast about it, but you won’t watch me as a spectator. I cancel you from my world. I am going, I am going on strike, I join my comrades for whom the pursuit of meaning and dignity is above money and power,
Since then, Adele Haenel has lent her voice to the documentary return to reims (2022), Winner of the 2023 César, read excerpts from a play by monique wittig The show was defended at the House of Poetry in Paris, and on the stage of the National Drama Center (CDN) in Besançon. Pond staged by Gisele Vienne, In December 2023, in another of the latter’s plays, Extra Life, she distinguished herself on the stage of MC93 in Bobigny. In short, the actress leads an unusual career away from mainstream film sets and the media circuit, preferring to appear at protests such as the Gonfreville-l’Orcher refinery in Normandy in March 2023.
Video of the meeting of Du Pain et des Roses with Adèle Haenel at the University of Paris 8, February 20, 2023
An increasingly radical shift that troubles the far right
We knew that Adèle Haenel was a committed actress, known for her presence in demonstrations or events such as the Nuit Débout movement located in the Place de la Republique in Paris in 2016. She has already spoken out or exposed herself to feminist biases. , on refugees, on the ZAD of Notre-Dame-des-Landes, on police violence and ecology. But since last year, activism seems to be taking a bigger place in the life of the woman who now declares herself anti-capitalist. Invited by the Feminist and Communist Collective on February 20, 2023 bread and roses (associated with the Trotskyist political organization Revolution Permanent), Adèle Haenel gave her opinion on pension reform during a meeting taking place at the University of Paris 8.
She specifically declared: “The government will listen to us only if we force them. And for this, we will have to block the economy, and force a general and renewable strike after March 7 and 8.“The actress also said:”You can bring misery to the capitalists and the capitalist class and picture the youth in the fire” Another notable moment in her speech? Adele Haenel made clear that the fact that the government “Made up of rapists” Was a bad sign. After this speech, there was a wave of insults on social networks, mainly coming from the far right. The actress was also attacked for her appearance, appearing with short hair and no makeup during the filmed meeting (and available on YouTube).
Adèle Haenel is supported by Noémie Merlant and Camille Cottin
Around 200 personalities including the author had to face such wave of hatred and gender discrimination Annie Arnouxactresses Camille Cottin And Noemi MerlantDirectors Celine Sciamma and Alice Diop, politician Sandrine Rousseau, choreographer Gisele Vienne, artist Jean-Luc Verna and anti-racism activists assa traore Expressed his solidarity with the actress in a column published on March 3, 2023 JDD, We can read these words there: “The violence of the comments against the actress also reflects the fear born in the world of the powerful, the fact that an internationally recognized artist, who has received several Cesars, including Best Actress, can choose another camp.” One thing’s for sure, even when she’s not burning boards and igniting film, Adèle Haenel remains a young woman who oozes passion.