" What are we going to do with him?" This could be the title of my biography, I have heard this all my childhood… ”We are in the 1990s in Melun, in Seine-et-Marne, in this peripheral France between cities, suburban areas and countryside. That day, the little Franck Gastambide, 13, hears his French teacher shelling the thirty names of the class to make the editorial staff of the day, from the best to the lowest grade: "Franck, still last!" "I have never, ever, been one time before the last," he repeats as he approaches the heights today with his series "Validated", which records historical scores (18 million views) on MyCanal.
The first glances he has to face are those of his comrades, then those of his desperate teachers and finally, when evening comes, those of his parents. The most painful. His mom cleaning lady, his dad bookseller. "I would have dreamed of seeing in my mother's eyes something meaning: my son, you are beautiful ". In vain.
Her mother doesn't even dare to go to parent-teacher meetings. In reality, her son suffers from dyslexia. A pathology which creates him extreme difficulties in identifying letters and syllables. Diagnosed much later, he found himself excluded from the school system, unable to get his college certificate. "I don't think I could even have it today," he says. Still marked in red pen by this era. "I still make three mistakes per word, I always struggle with foreign languages, I have never been able to learn the multiplication tables, I cannot recite the alphabet all at once, enumerates the actor and director. Teenager, I felt like I was locked in a body that was not mine, everyone takes you for the idiot on duty. But deep down, I knew I could do things. Animals saved my life. Sincerely. "
"The dogs didn't judge me"
It is a rottweiler of the municipal police which opens the way for a rebirth to him. In the evening, after school, he goes to play soccer. “This rott stayed in its huge cage at the edge of the field. Our eyes met and I was fascinated by his huge head, ”recalls Franck Gastambide. Behind him, the sun sets over the towers of the city Gaston-Tunc in Melun (now destroyed), in which, ten years later, he will shoot his first film, "Les Kaïra". The most profitable film of 2012. Life is facetious.
VIDEO. At Alpe d'Huez, the other Franck Gastambide
The passion for animals becomes a hard drug, his only addiction. He passed a CAP security guard, stopped college and fell in love with the hounds until he had eight at the same time. Trainee in a breeding center, he is passionate about technical works on dressage, when he was unable to finish a page of a history book. "The dogs didn't judge me. And the people who came to train them listened to me. It was my whole life. " The young man finds his way, continues the vigil jobs at night. And forges its character, leaves it in hand.
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“I was vigilant at France Déchets, my friends worked in supermarkets, that was my life. The world of cinema did not exist. And I felt like I had reached the ultimate goal of my life by finding myself on a set where there was Mathieu Kassovitz and Jean Reno. »Here he is propelled by his boss from the training center on the plateau of« Purple Rivers ». We are in 2000, "Kasso" is his idol after having shaken French cinema with "La Haine" finally giving popular districts their right to ... city.
"He is in revenge, in the good sense of the word"
"We spent our evenings walking dogs together, he loves them too," reports Gastambide. The director takes him under his wing and connects him to the "pack" of the collective Kourtrajmé, of which Vincent Cassel is part, alongside the trendy directors, "sons of artists", Kim Chapiron and Romain Gavras, but also of Ladj Ly, future Cesarized filmmaker for "Les Misérables". A group of friends who made him work on the clip "For those" bringing together the cream of French rap (Mokobé and Rim'K from 113, Rohff, Kery James ...). During the four days of filming in the cities of "9-4", Gastambide admires his idols in the shadows. In the literal sense, since it is hidden under a mask when one of its pit bulls "attacks" it in the clip.
The machine is working. He begins to hang around on the sets. With his infectious laugh, he offers friendships that are as improbable as they are solid. Ramzy Bédia, to whom he finds a truer than life Rantanplan on the film "The Daltons" and who becomes the brother he never had. Vincent Lagaf ', who "loves his energy so much" that he offers to organize a "Bigdil, special dogs", his first TV. "He was the first guy to have left me the keys to his show, I had 20 pins," says Franck Gastambide, moved. At each meeting, the young man observes.
“He has an extremely fine and ultra-fast analysis. Everything is a playground, comments Raphaël de Casabianca, who spent three weeks with him in the Himalayas for “Rendez-vous en terre inconnue” ( the program and its re-broadcast attracted a total of 7.4 million viewers) . It is always in the same analytical reasoning with everything: You thought that I was worth nothing and well I will prove you the contrary . It is in a revenge, in the good sense of the term. "
"Suddenly you see that the camera fascinates you"
And he seduces and takes everyone with him. In the affect always. He stood out on the set of "Sheitan" by Kim Chapiron, released in 2005, by training ... a nutria. Going on vacation to Brazil with Mouloud Achour, today host of Clique on Canal + and historic member of Kourtrajmé. Franck begins filming sketches on the beach.
Mouloud Achour then sends him a "pass D", as decisive, as Franck Gastambide says. He hired him as a cameraman in his show on MTV. Everything is linked for Franck at a speed of Formula 1, he who adores the Porsches. After fiddling with his camcorder and filming mini documentaries on dogs, he decides to mount "Kaïra Shopping" with two friends. The concept is as simple as it is effective: three neighborhood guys (including him!) Who remake the world, at the bottom of their towers, in three-minute tablets. "And suddenly you see that the camera fascinates you. I shot sketches. Canal + offered me to do its first web series. It became a film, Les Kaïra , which ended up in Cannes. We, the guys from the neighborhoods, we climbed the steps. A crazy thing ! "
His corrosive humor, vulgar for some, twelfth degree for others, does wonders. His first film "Les Kaïra" exceeds the million-admissions mark. His second, "Pattaya", doubles the bet in 2016. Success heals him from his "imposter syndrome" and transforms his adjustment difficulties into strength. "It is as if I was a blind man who started to hear really better," he compares. He reveals himself as a team leader - his relatives compare him to Zizou or Deschamps - always a valve in the mouth but also extremely rigorous.
The “Vin Diesel de Melun”
"He's a maker, if he says he has a project in mind, he'll go all the way," comments actress Sabrina Ouazani, who discreetly shares the screen with him from "Pattaya" and his life , For years. “It's a workaholic. It is in a permanent emergency tinged with this lucidity that, in our circles, everything can stop quickly. "
Along with professional success, Franck offers himself such a physical makeover. Now, the kid who was not noticed in college displays his protruding pectorals and his ember look on Instagram. This handsome kid look is fantasizing. But "do not solve the problems of self-confidence with the girls", tempers the quadra, which, ironically, qualifies as "Vin Diesel de Melun".
This "Taxi" fan goes off to meet Luc Besson. And convinced him to resuscitate the cult franchise which attracted 27 million spectators in France in four opus. Here he is in 2018 at the head of "Taxi 5", an action film with a budget of some 20 million euros.
VIDEO. Taxi 5: interview with Franck Gastambide and Malik Bentalha
Her mother, still a cleaning lady, observes her rise. Incredulous. "This career takes care of this need for recognition, but when my mother came to the preview, I think she did not understand that it was I who had led hundreds of people," says the son. "I am proud, I admire, but I do not have the impression that it is my Franck to me, the one who comes to the house", confirms the interested in a documentary on Canal +. As for his father, the bridges were cut about fifteen years ago.
No "Taxi 6" in sight. "I have new desires," says Gastambide, who is tweaking the script for season 2 of "Valide", the first co-production of his own box called "Autodidakte", with a spelling mistake in the blink of an eye.
"He has no ego problems"
With this series on the air from Canal + from May 11 after a preview in MyCanal, the director takes a turn, abandons the comedy, and decides to stick to the reality of the French rap scene. When the project begins to spread, this extremely closed little world is far from trusting it. "But Franck knew how to surround himself by going to get Sam's, a rapper who has a very good reputation in the field and knows its cogs extremely well, both good and dark", comments Fred Musa, head of the “Planet Rap” program.
The host of Skyrock tells him for hours of anecdotes. Franck hired him as an advisor. "He uses the strength of the people around him, he has no ego problems like many guys in our environment," says Sam's, alias Moussa Mansaly, who multiplies the caps in the project: artistic advisor , coordinator of the soundtrack bringing together figures like Gims, Ninho or Soprano, and one of the main roles on screen.
The series has already become the most watched in the history of Canal +. And the pinnacle of recognition, the "game" as we call the middle, recognizes itself there. Bet won. Gastambide will continue with the production of the first film by Hakim Jemili, a rising figure in French stand-up ... Then a huge project worth several million euros, a "buddy movie" (film of friends) with "an international star".
“From dog trainer to one of the most bankable guys in French cinema… sums up Moussa Mansaly in one sentence. He didn't know it was impossible, so he did it. "
"Validated" on Canal +, from May 11, Mondays at 9 p.m. (3 episodes per evening). Always available on MyCanal. DVD box release on May 4, available on VOD on June 26.
BIO EXPRESS
October 31, 1978 : Franck Gastambide is born in Melun.
1991: he leaves college and passes his CAP security guard.
2009: he launched "Kaira Shopping".
From 2009 to 2011 : he produced advertisements for Pepsi.
2012 : “Les Kaïra”, which he directed, goes out to the cinema.
2016: “Pattaya”, filmed in Thailand.
2018: "Taxi 5".
2019: he is unanimously criticized for his role in "Damien wants to change the world".
March 20, 2020: "Validated" on MyCanal. It is the most watched series in the history of Canal +.
Summer 2020: filming planned for season 2 of "Validated".