Dujardin returned home to Paris on Wednesday following his Oscar triumph, as
Le Point magazine claimed the sketch “could have been fatal” to
his chances of success.
Instead Dujadin’s “little secret was kept right until the end” said
Le Point, adding: “The actor and co-producer of Les Infideles indeed
feared that the world of American cinema would take offence to the short
scene.”
It states that it was “withdrawn” from Les
Infideles, which has already been attacked in France for being sexist.
In a publicity photo for the film, Dujardin grips a pair of naked women’s legs
open, under the caption: “I’m going into another meeting.”
Le Parisien newspaper warned before the Oscars that America “doesn’t joke
about this kind of saucy picture” and The Artist could suffer “collateral
damage” from the controversy.
A source close to the makers of Les Infideles confirmed that Dujardin played a
cheating French businessman in one of the scenes cut out of the film, which
went on show in Paris this week.
The source said: “Yes, the scene was considered too much for America. It
would have been provocative, especially in the run up to the Oscars and
other awards.”
Neither Dujardin, nor the official publicists of his film, were immediately
available for comment.
Nearly 3000 people died in the four coordinated September 11 attacks by
suicide bombers on New York and Washington DC.
One of The Artist’s competitors for the Best Picture Oscar was the 9/11 drama
‘Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close’, which many believe had solely been
nominated because it was considered a patriotic film.
It is not the first time that a French Oscar winner has been involved in a
9/11 controversy following an Oscar win.
In 2008 it emerged that Marion Cotillard, who had just won Best Actress for
her portrayal of Edith Piaf in La Vie en Rose, doubted the official account
of the terrorist attacks.
Footage from a Paris talk show showed her questioning both the New York
attacks, and the 1969 moon landing. “I think we’re lied to about a
number of things,” said Ms Cotillard.
Referring to the destruction of the two World Trade Centre buildings, Ms
Cotillard said: “We see other towers of the same kind being hit by
planes, are they burned? There was a tower, I believe it was in Spain, which
burned for 24 hours.
“It never collapsed. None of these towers collapsed. And there [New
York], in a few minutes, the whole thing collapsed.”
Ms Cotillard suggested that the towers, planned in the early 1960s, were an
outdated “money sucker” which would have cost so much to modernise
that it was easier to destroy them.
Her words – which she later claimed were taken out of context – led to calls
for her to give her Oscar back.
Franco-American relations over diplomatic matters have been fraught in recent
years, mainly because of Paris’s refusal to support the US-led invasion of
Iraq in 2003.
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