'De Battre Mon Coeur' named best French film of 2005

Feb 26, 2006, 3:39 GMT

French film director Jacques Audiard poses with his trophy during the 31th Nuit des Cesars at the Chatelet theatre in Paris on Saturday, 25 February 2006. "De Battre Mon Coeur S‘est Arrete," or "The Beat That My Heart Skipped," a stylish remake of a 1970s American film, won the French Cesar late Saturday for best film of 2005. Director Jacques Audiard‘s adaption of the 1978 James Toback cult classic "Fingers" picked up eight Cesars, the French equivalent ofthe Oscar, including best director for Audiard and best supportingactor for Niels Arestrup. EPA/STR

Paris - 'De Battre Mon Coeur S'est Arrete,' or 'The Beat That My Heart Skipped,' a stylish remake of a 1970s American film, won the French Cesar late Saturday for best film of 2005.

Director Jacques Audiard's adaption of the 1978 James Toback cult classic 'Fingers' picked up eight Cesars, the French equivalent of the Oscar, including best director for Audiard and best supporting actor for Niels Arestrup.

In the film, Romain Duris plays a brooding young man working as a real estate thug for his corrupt father, Arestrup, when a chance meeting inspires him to return to his former study as a classical pianist.

In other awards, Michel Bouquet was named best actor and Nathalie Baye won the Cesar for best actress of 2005.

Director Clint Eastwood's 'Million Dollar Baby,' which won the 2005 Academy Award for best motion picture, was awarded the Cesar for best foreign film.

Eastwood, Hilary Swank and Morgan Freeman starred in the film about a woman boxer, which beat out four competitors including Woody Allen's 'Match Point' and David Cronenberg's 'A History of Violence.'

'Darwin's Nightmare,' a documentary about the harrowing effects of fishing Nile perch in Tanzania's Lake Victoria, won the Cesar for best first film of the year. Directed by Hubert Sauper, the film is also up for this year's Oscar for best documentary.

British actor Hugh Grant, star of 'Four Weddings and a Funeral' and 'Notting Hill,' was awarded an honorary Cesar.

'All my roles are more or less the same, and you have given me this honour despite that,' Grant said, speaking French.

The 45-year-old Grant said that he had become a Francophile at the age of 13 when, as an exchange student in France, he 'smoked 20 Gauloise cigarettes a day and became a Communist.'