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Polanski, 86, whose film also picked up awards
for best adaptation and best costume designer, stayed away from
the event, saying he feared he would be lynched.
Controversy had swirled around the inclusion in the awards
program of Polanski, who fled the United States for France in
the late 1970s after admitting raping a 13-year-old girl, and
faces more recent allegations of sexual assault.
Polanski denies the latest accusations against him.
During the ceremony, the biggest night on the French cinema
calendar, Polanski served as both lightning rod and punch line,
with the ceremony's host quipping about paedophilia.
"It is the last (event) of one era and the first of another,"
actress Sandrine Kiberlain said.
Among those who left the venue early was leading actress Adele
Haenel, who last year revealed she had been sexually abused as a
child by another director.
Haenel told the New York Times before the ceremony that France
had "missed the boat" on #MeToo and criticized the Cesar Awards
for recognizing Polanski.
"Distinguishing Polanski is spitting in the face of all victims.
It means raping women isn't that bad," she said.
Protesters outside clashed with police shortly before the
biggest names in French film arrived at the Pleynel concert
hall, but none made it onto the red carpet. Nearby, other
protesters peacefully waved placards reading "Shame on an
industry that protects rapists."
WRONG MESSAGE IN #METOO ERA
"An Officer and a Spy" chronicles the persecution of French
Jewish army officer Alfred Dreyfus in the 1890s. It lost out on
best film to "Les Miserables".
Polanski himself survived the Holocaust, while his mother died
in a Nazi concentration camp. He shot to fame in the United
States with his 1968 Hollywood film "Rosemary's Baby."
Polanski's cast and production team boycotted the Cesars on
Friday after Culture Minister Franck Riester said the success of
a director accused of sexual violence would send the wrong
signal in the #MeToo era.
French photographer Valentine Monnier last year accused Polanski
of raping her in 1975 when she was an 18-year-old model and
actress. Polanski has denied the charge.
It is the second time in five months that recognition of
Polanski, who was expelled last year from the Academy of Motion
Picture Arts and Sciences - which bestows the Oscars - has
prompted disquiet.
Organisers of the Venice Film Festival drew criticism for
including Polanski's work in the program. It went on to take the
festival's Silver Lion Grand Jury in September.
The French awards come in the same week that Harvey Weinstein,
once one of Hollywood’s most influential producers, was
convicted of sexual assault and rape by a New York court.
Several male actors tiptoed carefully around the subject of
Polanski on Friday night.
"I hope that we will always be able to continue playing the game
of seduction with each other in cinema and in real life. There,
I made it, I offended no one," said actor and director Mathieu
Kassovitz.
Critics of the #MeToo movement in France say it is puritanical
and fueled by a hated of men.
Ahead of the Cesars, former French film star Brigitte Bardot
rallied support for Polanski.
"We should be thankful that Polanski is alive and saving French
cinema from mediocrity," Bardot said on Twitter. "I judge him by
his talent, not his private life."
(Reporting by Richard Lough and Elizabeth Pineau; Editing by
Leslie Adler)
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