Out of a spirit of “independence”, director Joël Pommerat refuses the Legion of Honor: News

Tuesday 21st January 2025 12:46 AM

The director Joël Pommerat announced on Monday that he was refusing the Legion of Honor, “an individual award from the State” which he considers incompatible with the independence of an artist.

“I learned with surprise that I had been promoted to the rank of knight of the Legion of Honor. I am sincerely touched that someone thought of me and I am sorry to have to decline,” declared Mr. Pommerat in a press release sent to the AFP.

“I believe in the need for perspective for those whose job it is to write about today's society and world. This form of honor is symbolically posed as an individual reward from the State and is not not compatible, in my opinion, with this search for independence”.

Mr. Pommerat was elevated to the rank of knight of the Legion of Honor in the contingent of the Minister of Culture Rachida Dati, according to a decree of January 15, 2025.

An ardent defender of public theater, Pommerat is, at 61, a figure recognized by critics and the public alike, whose plays such as “Cinderella” and “The Reunification of the Two Koreas” have toured for several years around the world. His play “Marius”, after Pagnol, developed during workshops in detention, is currently on tour in France.

In mid-January, he was elevated to the rank of Knight of the Legion of Honor alongside other personalities from the world of culture such as actresses Camille Cottin and Mélanie Thierry, the impersonator and comedian Laurent Gerra, and the predecessor of Ms. Dati, Rima Abdul Malak.

Last Monday, the cartoonist and director Marjane Satrapi announced that she was refusing the title of knight of the Legion of Honor, to which she had been elevated in July 2024. The author of Persepolis thus wanted to denounce “a hypocritical attitude of France towards -vis of Iran”, notably in the allocation of visas.

Many artists and scientists have refused to be decorated or have declined the Legion of Honor on principle, from Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir to Marie Curie, including Louis Aragon, Albert Camus and Claude Monet.