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What Oscar winner Jean Dujardin didn’t tell the Americans

French press reports that The Artist star had a September 11 skit cut from his new film Les infidèles

A joke about the September 11 terrorist attacks was cut from Jean Dujardin’s new film so his chances of winning an Oscar wouldn’t be harmed, according to reports in the French press.

The French star won the Best Actor prize at the 2012 Academy Awards for his performance in ‘The Artist’ - which has charmed audiences all over the world.

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However his new film ‘Les infidèles’ (‘The Players’) is proving far more controversial.



French magazine Le Point reports that the film, which explores male infidelity (not for the first time in French cinema), has a scene where Dujardian takes his girlfriend to a hotel room in New York.

While he is on the phone to his wife, he says: “Yes, yes, my darling, everything is fine!”. But behind him through the window a plane can be seen flying into a skyscraper, mirroring the infamous terrorist attacks.

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Le Point reports that the sequence was cut because it “could have been fatal” to his chances of success at the Oscars.

They said Dujardin's “little secret was kept right until the end" and that "The actor and co-producer of ‘Les infidèles’ indeed feared that the world of American cinema would take offence to the short scene.”



The film has already been criticised for its ‘sexist’ posters; one saw Dujardin opposite a pair of women’s legs, with the caption: 'I'm going into another meeting'. French censors asked them to be taken down from billboards.

The film is a series of sketches from directors including Dujardin, Lellouche, Fred Cavaye, Eric Lartigau, Emmanuelle Bercot, Alexandre Courtes and Michel Hazanavicius all centering around the theme of male infidelity.

Le Point reckon the controversial scene might make it onto the DVD.