“It’s not asking, it’s not refusing, it’s not wearing. Such is the Legion of Honor, according to the famous phrase of the writer, academician and Grand Cross François Mauriac (1885-1970). Afterwards, everyone does what they want with their medal. This is what emerges from the documentary broadcast on this day of the announcement of the some three hundred names of the promotion of July 14, and produced in particular from interviews with a dozen “honored”.
Aton keeps it thus attached to his impressive medal table. “In general, the military receive it posthumously,” says smiling Philippe B. – his real name -, a former figure of the GIGN converted into the cinema. “Very proud”, former President François Hollande wears it “every day”. All speak of pride: Martine Monteil, ex-director of “36” (Quai des Orfèvres); cook Thierry Marx; comedian Pierre Arditi; journalist Harry Roselmack, who says he is “more touched than [he] expected [t]”.
“It is recommended to show your Legion of Honor [when you have it], because you are an example,” says a teacher who we follow with his students on a visit to the Museum of the Legion of Honor in Paris. Quickly, a kid intervenes: “Kylian Mbappé, he has it! “Yes, because he made France shine,” explains the professor. The footballer received it like all the players of the French team who won the 2018 World Cup.
Three refusals per year
In the commentary, Julie Pouillon fights a received idea: the Legion of Honor distinguishes soldiers, but also civilians since its creation, in May 1802, by Napoleon Bonaparte. She quotes the painter David in 1808. It is therefore not a recent “misrepresentation”. The film thus opens with the posthumous medal ceremony for Samuel Paty, a teacher who was beheaded on October 16, 2020, on leaving his college by an Islamist.
Another received idea, those who refuse it are few – “three per year out of 2,200”, she says – but often famous: George Sand, Georges Brassens, Albert Camus, Brigitte Bardot (who never went to look for it ), Guy Bedos… The case of those from whom the Legion of Honor has been withdrawn is, alas, barely touched upon, whereas we can remember Maurice Papon, sentenced in 1998 for complicity in crimes against humanity, and who was buried with it when he died in 2007.
In sequence, the historical part, supported by archives and the explanations of Grand Chancellor Benoît Puga, reviews the allocation rules, the different orders, the developments – including the establishment of parity in 2008. One amusing detail: each “honored” must purchase his medal. At the Palais-Royal in Paris, the saleswoman of the shop (established there since 1780) observes them: “When they are knights, they are a little disappointed to see the [knight’s] ribbon; they would have preferred the [officer’s] rosette. But then they put it on. They haven’t read François Mauriac.