Emmanuelle Béart on her father, Guy: "I am afraid that her voice will disappear"

"I am like my father. The more it goes, the fewer interviews I give. Emmanuelle Béart has just spurned her rules of procedure for him. On September 16, 2015, Guy Béart was going to the hairdresser when he collapsed in a street in Garches (Hauts-de-Seine), where he lived… He was 85 years old and had just six months ago his farewell to Olympia. His youngest daughter had joined him there to sing "There is no longer after (in Saint-Germain-des-Prés)", one of his monuments with "L'Eau vive", "les Couleurs du time "…

Since her disappearance, Emmanuelle Béart, her husband, Frédéric, and her sister, Eve, have been busy behind the scenes to bring her work to life. After having saved its publishing and production companies Bienvenue, Temporel et Espace, they are making their first projects a reality: in May a tribute album - whose first cover by Brigitte will be released this Friday - and in September an integral and a documentary.

The actress received us at her home to tell us about her memories and desires. It was she who started the conversation: “When our father died, my sister and I received an artistic heritage. Before leaving, he had told us: It is between me and God. What must remain will remain. He didn't care that his name was remembered. But we decided to betray his word with love. "

Worried about forgetting his songs?

EMMANUELLE BÉART. I'm afraid his voice will disappear. His deep and melodious voice but also his language, his poetry, his thought. He was a permanent avant-garde, who had anticipated everything, which made him raw and sometimes painful. "The first one who tells the truth will be executed", "Colors, you are tears", "the Grand Chambardement" with "The earth loses its ball and makes its crowds jump", it was very premonitory. Locked in his ivory tower, he remained permeable to the world.

How was this tribute album born?

One day, Charles Aznavour called me to a cafe. This beautiful little man explained to me that I couldn't help paying homage to my father. He wanted to be the first to record… But he left four days before.

What should he sing?

"There is no longer after". After he died, I considered not including it on the disc. And then I thought that today's troubadour, the one who reminded me of my father's beginnings, was Vianney. His guitar, his simplicity, his righteousness is my father. I took the risk of calling him, he thought for a long time because he was at a standstill. I was very moved when I met him. Whenever I could attend a recording, with Vianney, with Catherine Ringer, there was something like my father's home made. I was also upset by Akhenaton (Editor's note: the singer of the rap group IAM).

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There are also his friends Le Forestier, Voulzy, Souchon…

They were there at the funeral. When I called Souchon, he was so enthusiastic that he sang all my father's texts to me on the phone. He knew everything! I didn't know he loved her that much!

VIDEO. Guy Béart's funeral: the stars came to pay tribute to him

Was your father celebrated for what he was worth?

The important thing is that I saw him happy, accomplished. He had what he built and destroyed. He was an anarchist and a loner. He had retired, refused everything, was happy only with his cats, his notebooks, his books, his films. It was he who made us discover and love cinema. He hated media coverage, he only went on TV with his guitar. As a child, I was a little embarrassed to see it overflowing the frame but, today, I thank him for showing me this resistance to formatting. It's great to have a father like that. More than a father, a landmark.

Did you share his music?

His passion for writing and composing took up all the space. So, with my sister, we had to slip into her passion. We were always the first to hear his songs. There were large meetings around his bed where he asked us what we preferred. We only liked love songs (laughs). When I listen to him, I tell myself that he loved madly and suffered a lot. And it touches me a lot.

Did he take you to his concerts?

I have a lot of memories. Memories of stage fright especially, because I was afraid of seeing him sing in front of all these people. I only sang once with him, at his last Olympia. He waited until I came from the theater for us to share "There is no more after". It was very difficult, because I knew… He was not sick, but going back on stage was a way of saying goodbye.

VIDEO. Guy Béart bids farewell to Olympia

His last interview for the Parisian - Today in France, he gave it to us… lying in his bed!

He didn't give a damn about decorum, but he had a sense of hospitality. He must have spent hours with you. I attended dinners with presidents of the Republic, people of all stripes, where everyone picnicked.

A tribute in May with Souchon, Luciani, Ringer, Vianney, Akhenaton…

"From Béart to Béart (s)". This double tribute album will be released on May 15 at Polydor. It will bring together twenty covers and twenty artists, including the duo Brigitte who sings "Hello you hear me", the first single to be released this Friday. The cast is classy and eclectic, with Catherine Ringer, Souchon and Voulzy, Vianney, Akhenaton, Clara Luciani, Julien, Maxime Le Forestier, Christophe, Hollydays, Angélique Kidjo, Vianney… Emmanuelle Béart sings “Never again” and shares three duets with Julien Cleric, Thomas Dutronc and Yael Naïm. "If important songs are not on the album, like the Truth , it is that the artist that we wanted refused, specifies the actress. The rest were free. Clara Luciani surprised me by choosing the magnificent but unknown Song for my old one , Catherine Ringer also with the Shoes . When I was a teenager, my father had shown me interviews with her: You see, there is something pure and true about this woman. We continue the thread. "

The first integral by Guy Béart will be released on September 15, 2020, for the 5th anniversary of his death, at Panthéon. “We found a plethora of tapes, we restored and digitized them, specifies Emmanuelle Béart. There are nearly 450 songs, including ten unreleased songs. "

Emmanuelle Béart, her husband, Frédéric, and her sister, Eve, also make a film about the life of Guy Béart, since his childhood in Egypt and Lebanon. They also want, with the National Audiovisual Institute (INA), to show the "Welcome" that the singer hosted on the first channel of the ORTF from 1966 to 1973, at home. In this show, ancestor of the talk show, he blackmailed Duke Ellington, Simon and Garfunkel, Johnny…