George Lucas, Sigourney Weaver, Jodie Foster, Illumination founder and CEO Chris Meledandri, and French filmmaker Claude Lelouch were all awarded France’s Legion of Honour this week.
Filmmakers & Actors Presented Legion of Honour
In a ceremony at the Élysée Palace on Wednesday, President Emmanuel Macron presented each of the filmmakers and actors with the honor. Lucas, Weaver, Foster, and Meledandri were given the insignia of Chevalier (Knight), while Lelouch received the insignia of Commandeur (Commander).
Similar to knighthood, the Legion of Honour is France’s highest honor given to citizens, foreign persons, military members, and civilians. The Legion of Honour was created in 1802 by Napoleon.
According to Variety, Macron said in his praise of Lucas that Star Wars is not just a film but “an entire galaxy, a mythology.”
“Thanks to this film and the entire saga, you offered a new generation a territory of escape, a dream space where everything became possible again,” said the president. He called Lucas “an exceptional entrepreneur” for his founding of Lucasfilm, THX, and Industrial Light & Magic. His ties to France include a commitment to preserving the wine-growing traditions of Provence at Château Margüi.
“You have become a great Jedi Knight of cinema, and today you become a Knight of the Legion of Honor,” said Macron. “For your pioneering use of technology in the service of cinema, for your visionary imagination and for this force that, for decades, has continued to inspire wonder in young and old, and for your love of France, I am extremely proud to present you today with the insignia of Chevalier de la Légion d’honneur.”
Talking about Weaver, Macron praised her starring role in Ridley Scott’s Alien, saying “no one imagined that the last person to survive could be a woman.”
“With Alien, you therefore confronted the creature that devours the passengers of the Nostromo one by one, but also another no less formidable adversary: the constraints and prejudices of the time,” he continued. “A heroine of courage, you also paved the way for so many other great female figures: Lara Croft, Katniss Everdeen, Imperator Furiosa and many others.”
Macron added, “You managed to remain part of the great franchises that made you famous while asserting yourself as a complete actress and, ultimately, an unclassifiable one. You change register and role at will.”
Weaver, who also appears in James Cameron’s Avatar series, has lived and filmed in France and speaks French. Macron called it her “adopted country.”
Of Foster, most known for playing Clarice Starling in The Silence of the Lambs, Macron said, “Again and again, there was your refusal of archetypes, of playing the woman or the daughter of someone else, and your choice of characters who exist in their own right, characters with strength.”
“For 50 years, you have embodied an independent, free woman,” he concluded, praising her lifetime of work and her love of France.
Macron thanked Meledandri for his partnership with the Paris-based Mac Guff studio and establishment of Illumination Studios Paris in 2011.
“I am particularly delighted that you choose to spend several months of the year in France and that you have contributed to making our countries one of the world’s great centers of animation,” he said. “Thanks to your films, of course, but also because you personally supported, alongside the CNC, the creation of the international tax credit in 2009, an essential measure for the attractiveness of our country.”
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