TGIF: Emma Thompson to the rescue March 13, 2009
Posted by Jill (@bonnjill) in Fun stuff, TGIF.trackback
This clip from Césars 2009 (France’s version of The Oscars) is one of those edge-of-your-seat clips, but not for the reason you would think. You don’t need to understand French to appreciate it, although I’m sure the French speakers will enjoy it more for the humor of the presenter. You only need to watch about the first 1:45 or so to see why I named this post what I did.
Musings from an overworked translator 
The Cesars are always a really great intercultural moment… especially if you compare this (seemingly planned) “wardrobe malfunction” to the Janet Jackson imbroglio in the US. I’m not sure which is funnier; that the French audience finds this hilarious, that Emma Thompson (who btw speaks fantastic French!) just couldn’t contain herself anymore, or the look on Sean Penn’s face as all of this transpires. In another interesting intercultural moment, the host of the show apparently later complimented Sean Penn (in English) by saying that he was “f***ing great” in “Milk,” again to wild cheering from the audience which included the French Minister of Culture.
From what I heard about it, apparently the wardrobe malfunction wasn’t planned. The joke was that she was a dizzy starlet. Emma Thompson in fact messed it (and her) up by coming onstage.
That was painful to watch. Ugh. I felt sorry for her. That was awful! I think Emma did her a service – she was already weirdly flustered without knowing about the “exposure” first. Ugh! Thanks for sharing!
It was completely planned! I saw Julie Ferrier’s great one-woman-show in Paris a couple of years ago, and in one of her sketches, she plays the role of a German art teacher with a comparable “wardrobe malfunction”… What I found very funny is Emma Thompson’s face as she progressively understands that the “very blonde” woman on stage is actually playing a part… What most of the French audience understands in the end, when Julie Ferrier ends with saying “anyway, size doesn’t matter”…