Xavier Dolan's tribute to Gaspard at the César Awards was in the form of a letter addressed to Gaspard's mom. He got choked up and cried several times while reading it. Here's the translation (it's not that good and some parts are missing because nobody posted the full transcript, so I did the best I could with the bits that I could find. If someone here is fluent in French, I'd really appreciate a better translation!):
"Tonight I wanted to pay a tribute to my friend, to our friend, Gaspard. I have chosen to do so in the form of a letter, which is as follows:
Madame, I am addressing this letter to you without even knowing you, without knowing you well. Outside, behind my bedroom window in the woods where I have taken refuge, the snow twirls in the air. It is transfigured by the light of the sun and the wind persists in beating it into loose snow. Big conifers rise in front of me, covered with a very heavy white deposit. Winter is calm, all of a sudden, after a brutal start.
I knew that in coming here to seek out isolation I was going to start thinking and writing about Gaspard, I had already written for Gaspard before, I had written to Gaspard, but I had not written about Gaspard. And other than for an article, an interview or a prize, believe me that I had no intention to do so.
The day he died, I watched again, obviously looking for his company, several of his films, including 'A Very Long Engagement'. Mathilde's hope of finding Manech under this [Angelo] Badalamenti music (...) Opposed to my grief... She was going to find him. She... Perhaps I had intentionally decided that this film would confirm the things that we refuse to see, that I still refuse to this day, this evening. For example, to see, to believe.
But I didn’t come here to speak about the career of Gaspard Ulliel — I could recount the list of brilliant exploits and feats, of starry passages among the stars of the Riviera, of the industry. But what effect could these things have on the gaping wound of his departure?
I couldn't help but think he would have hated this kind of elegy. He would have perceived a lack of elegance in this glorification. And he was very elegant. Because his career speaks for itself. Through the articles that praise him and all the roles that survive him. His talent, we still have it. And no one can take that away from us. It's the privilege of being famous and an actor of his light to be able to count on art to fade us into eternity while other important bereavements for some remain unknown to all or become so quickly evanescent. It's a whole world that cried for Gaspard... it's a whole world that still mourns him.
Tonight I wanted to share two things with you. At 16 or 17, I had written my first screenplay. (...) In this film which was called "Les Ailes Roses", there was a central figure of a lost teenager who was looking for himself and felt very alone who hid his preferences from the world. At the end of the first act, an angel appeared to this young man and guided him towards the light... (...) I had written an email to give it to Gaspard. It never got to him, at least I don't think so. I had also written another role for him later on, and it didn't work out either. Another luminous figure, more angelic in benevolence who saves a character who is once again lost. Years later, I asked him to be Louis in the adaptation of "It's Only the End of the World" by Jean-Luc Lagarce. The fallen angel whose wings life had cut off, sacrificing himself to protect his family. During our first reading, the conflicting schedules of everyone lead to an impasse that he had to sort out by telling me this, "do it without me, Xavier. In the reading, after all, I'm the one who does not speak, I'm the who listens. I will have the opportunity to catch up". And he did." (CONTINUES)
