Presentation of decorations to Isabelle Sadoyan, Paavo Järvi, Laurence Equilbey, Boualem Sansal

Dear Isabelle Sadoyan,
Accomplished actress on the stage and on the screen, recognized costume designer, you
you have been taxed, for nearly fifty years, like a figure
popular theatre, served by this magnificent image of a
artist craftsman that you play so well, you seamstress who plays,
The actress sewing.

It is in Lyon, your hometown, that you take your first steps to
theatre, on stage but also behind the scenes where you make the
costumes thanks to the know-how inherited from your mother. A contest organized
by the youth house of the rue des Marronniers then several internships
to meet Roger Planchon who is pressing you to
join the small troupe that is soon forming around his talent with
Alain Mottet, Claude Lochy, Robert Gilbert who like you frequent the
course of Suzette Guillaud. Together, you found the Théâtre de la
Comedy to register against, or at least on the fringes of, this theatre
a bit crowded Parisian tours in the provinces, in the straight line
of theatrical decentralization. Inspired by the theatre of the
Romain Rolland, the exhortations of Antonin Artaud, the wonderful
adventure of Jean Vilar, your cheerful troupe reads and reread the texts around
the large square table built by Jean Bouise. The silky dialogue that
you grow between costumes and game allows you to enrich your practice
theatrical because, you say, as you guess the stuff that will know
best match the actor’s game, the costume allows you to put on
easier the many roles you are offered..

The cinema, to which you are heading in 1969 with Les Choses de la
life, helps you to play better, you say: with Claude Sautet, and
Romy Schneider especially, you tame the camera, measuring, weighing
every move you make. An extremely prolific artist, you turn to
of the greatest, without ever abandoning the scene where you do,
after the troupe, the experience of freedom with Alain Françon, Jacques
Lasalle, Laurent Terzieff, with this beautiful role in Les
False confidences by Marivaux, directed by Didier Bezace, who
appointment to the Molières in 2010. This year, we can
see you on screen in Thérèse Desqueyroux by Claude Miller, whose
salutes the memory, and on stage in Chekhov’s Uncle Vania set in
scene by Christian Benedetti.
Your destiny is closely linked to that of the NPT: in 2011, on the occasion of the
reopening of this theatre where you are at home, Christian Schiaretti you
entrusts a role in the very about Ruy Blas and the words of Hugo de
resonate in the new building of the National Popular Theatre, as a
bridge between the theatre of yesterday and today, between the richness of your
and your commitment to young actors: create everything
a theatre, a vast and simple theatre, one and varied, national by history,
popular by truth, human, natural, universal by passion”.

Because, from Lyon to Paris, from stage to screen, from backstage to
from small to big roles, you help us to live better,
as you like to say about the actors you love
passionately, I address you with great joy, dear
Isabelle Sadoyan, tributes from the Republic.

Dear Isabelle Sadoyan, on behalf of the President of the Republic, and in
under the powers vested in us, we make you a Knight of
the Legion of Honour.

Dear Paavo Järvi,
Born in Tallinn when Estonia was still a republic of the Union
Soviet, you inherited your father, Neeme Järvi, illustrious leader
passion for music and the gift of direction. You have
grew to the rhythm of rehearsals and the sound of many recordings
from the paternal collection, deciphering with four hands
symphonies by Haydn. It’s the incredible artistic freedom your father has
in 1968, when he directed the Arvo Pärt Creed, banned by the
regime, which precipitates your departure for the United States at the age of 17.
You then continue studying music in institutions
most prestigious among the biggest, such as
Leonard Bernstein in Los Angeles. If your debut in conducting
are marked by your attachment to the Nordic repertoire, you
develop a predilection for Russian and French music.

The 2000s marked a turning point in your career: you
proposes to take the musical direction of the Cincinnati Symphony
Orchestra in 2001. You are also, since 2003, musical director
Hessische Rundfunk Sinfonieorchester in Frankfurt. With the Deutsche
Kammerphilharmonie of Bremen, whose direction you took in 2004,
you meet with immense success with the public thanks to a
complete recording of Beethoven’s symphonies. This success bodes
of the impressive discography that you count to date and that
is worth you the greatest success with the Cantatas of
the Estonian National Orchestra and its choir, awarded with the first
Grammy Award never awarded to Estonia.

In 2004, you conducted for the first time the Orchestre de Paris in a
Nielsen, Berg and Sibelius program; agreement is immediate and
concerts arouse the enthusiasm of music lovers. After
invited you again in 2006, you were entrusted in September 2010
the musical direction of this Orchestre de Paris which you knew how to win
the heart. At the head of this prestigious formation, you seize
a vast repertoire and travel the world, with in these many
a special place for the opening of the musical season
that you directed with emotion.

You have very strong ties with your home country, Estonia, which is
of its National Orchestra, whose
you have been the artistic advisor since 2002. The best proof of this
attachment is undeniably this festival that you created with your
father in Pärnu, the Järvi Suvefestival, a strong symbol of this musical bond that
unites you both beyond filiation. I also understand that
you will conduct a concert in Estonia, in Pärnu, with the National Orchestra
Estonian on 30 December, your 50th birthday.

Dear Paavo Jarvi, since you conduct the Paris Orchestra all the
music lovers praise the quality of the concerts of our prestigious band
and I would like to stress your particular ability to lead in this direction.

We must welcome the demands you have made and the groundwork
that you lead with all the musicians you have
to the best of themselves. Through this distinction,
It is this team spirit and excellence of all the
musicians of the Paris Orchestra that we also honor.

Dear Paavo Järvi, on behalf of the French Republic,
the insignia of Commander of the Order of Arts and Letters.

Dear Laurence Equilbey,
With your extraordinary precision of gesture, you lead the voices
as a person and make known, in France and in the world,
the main part of the polyphonic vocal repertoire for chamber choir,
until then somewhat unknown.

Very young, you are attracted to vocal art. During your childhood in
Germany, you sing with your parents in the Fribourg choir. A
Paris, already in search of rigour, depth of approach and
to serve the works, you learn piano, flute and guitar
then sign up for musicology at the Sorbonne before joining the
National Conservatory of Music and Dance. During a stay
Arnold Schönberg Chor of Vienna, directed by Nikolaus Harnoncourt,
you will discover the De Profondis de Schönberg. Then the
in you the desire to share the beauty of the voices
sung.

Approaching the sound field both dense and airy, lyrical and never hard,
without the instrumental net, is the challenge you are launching by melting, by
1991, with some friends, the Accentus choir, which
to interpret the major works of the a cappella and
support contemporary musical creation. At the same time, you create the
Young Choir of Paris that offers teenagers of age to leave the
Paris the invaluable opportunity of a training course capable of
lead to a professional practice of singing.

Named “Musical Personality of the Year” in 1997, you are one
of the first women to lead a famous band
at the highest artistic level and to enter the very closed circle – and very
men - great choirs and conductors. Your journey
earned you the recognition of your peers: in 2003, you won the
International Music Press Grand Prix, 2006, you are
distinguished by CulturesFrance, and three times, you win with
Accentus the Victory of the classical music of the vocal ensemble of
the year.

Passionate about contemporary art, you propose to bring together music and
visual artists: I will quote the «Private domain» project that you launched in
2009, under the pseudonym Iko, bringing together musicians from
field of classical and electronic music. Animated by this same
desire to open the doors of classical music, you prepare for
February 2013, a wonderful «Chives» by Reynaldo Hahn at the Opéra
Comic, for which you intend to propose to the public to participate
choirs of two finals.

A few months ago, you agreed to sit as a member
qualified to the Council of the Order of Arts and Letters: you know the
influence of this order, both in France and abroad – we have
the evidence today - and I count on you and the entire Council to
allow me to always better identify and distinguish the paths
of the actors of Culture and Communication.

Known for her demanding and artistic openness, the talented
conductor and conductor that you are contributing for more than
twenty years, in a remarkable way to the influence and renewal of the
a cappella vocal repertoire in France and around the world.

In this capacity, with honour and gratitude, dear Laurence Equilbey, on behalf of
French Republic, we make you Commander of the Order of
Arts and Letters.

Dear Boualem Sansal,
In a few years, in a few pounds, in a few fights, you are
became an important man in our country, in our culture and in
our linguistic space. Telling stories, the ones we don’t tell
too often, breaking the silence that leads to forgetfulness and renunciation is
the profession of writing as you define it. You say, “Dig up
The Dead and Facing Each Other” by confronting all these memories
who make history because, as you so rightly point out, there are so many
of places than eyes and no one has the same memories».

Understanding History to overcome it is, in The Village of
the German», probe the unbearable truth at the heart of the story of this criminal
Nazi war became hero of the Algerian war of independence and
to distinguish the sinister echoes from the obscurantism in which humanity is sinking.

It is also in «Rue Darwin», the last and most autobiographical of
your novels, a quest for self beyond all wanderings and all
errors of the world because in History, you say, there is [that] of all
those who were involved.” Remember, to remember and live
better in the same humanity.
It is at the cost of your career in the senior public service that you
you are the ruthless witness of Algerian society, and that, without
in the footsteps of Rachid Mimouni, your
friend and mentor, to sue the government and denounce his
betrayals and cowards. While you are acclaimed by the public and
praised very early by the critics who awarded you the Prize for the first novel
for «The Barbarian Oath», the censors take your
work that questions and disturbs and throws on you the opprobrium, delivering you
attacks. This is without counting the unwavering support and
the unfailing fidelity of your publisher, who, in the heart of the
controversy around your latest novel, opened its legendary salon
blue to those who have been determined, against all odds, to present you with the
Arabic novel. Because there are no writers without publishers, and
I warmly greet the Gallimard Editions, who
have been able to recognize in you one of those inimitable voices that, through the
world, carry the French language high.

In “Tell Me Paradise”, published in 2003, and through the journey
accomplished by Tarik across the country, you make a picture of a
insight, precision, incredible clarity, inability to
managing the chaos that followed independence, corruption that never stopped
to proliferate in industry and politics, the betrayal of the people and
his old desires for freedom.

The temptation of exile that pulls many of your characters, these burners
that you describe in “Harraga”, you resist because
you prefer «being silent in Algiers than chatting in Paris» but also
because you want to be among those who welcome tomorrow that
sing.

Courageous and free, you are too, despite the threats and
controversy, you go to Jerusalem to honor the invitation of the
International Writers Festival and thus prefer dialogue to
"consecrated truths". In the thunderous declaration of peace that you
then addressed the world, in four hands with David Grossman,
whose literary activity was, like yours, awarded the Peace Prize
of German booksellers, you call for the vast gathering of
writers of the world for peace.

Man of peace, rebellious and upright, independent and free, stalking without
release the fanaticists you are fighting with a pen
you have the courage to break the silences of history and
denounce the darkness and complacency of our societies. Dear
Boualem Sansal, through you, I greet all these writers, these women
and those men of letters and courage who put their names and their lives in
danger to make their voices and those of others heard.

Dear Boualem Sansal, on behalf of the French Republic,
Make a knight of the Order of Arts and Letters.