Despite the announcement of the curfew, he will go up to the stage of the Théâtre des Variétés this Thursday evening to take on the role of “Miser” by Molière.
A first for him in Paris, this great role that he has already played twenty times in Antibes.
As excited as he is scared, Michel Boujenah received us in his dressing room this Tuesday, the day before Emmanuel Macron's intervention.
And the sad clown to cast his clear and tender gaze, a little disillusioned, on the situation, without the laughter and hope moving away, fortunately.
We recalled it this Thursday morning.
Interview in two stages with an invariable at home: you have to live and laugh.
How are you ?
MICHEL BOUJENAH
.
How do you want me to go?
It's terrible, but if it protects and keeps people from dying, life is priceless.
Obviously for us, our profession which is already so impacted, it is hard.
You can imagine the frustration, the day before a premiere we were told that!
It is as if you put a mirage in front of me and take it away immediately.
You will play ?
Obviously we're playing.
You have to play, you have to maintain life, not to run away.
We play this Thursday evening, tomorrow Friday, Sunday morning, then we will organize ourselves, but we will not stay like that.
The play lasts 2 hours, even at 7 pm, we are beaten.
Some will play twice in the morning on Saturdays and Sundays, I don't know if I can, physically this role is very hard
(Editor's note: the play will be played from next week on Friday at 6 p.m., Saturday at 5 p.m. and Sunday at 4.30 p.m.).
Tuesday, you said you didn't blame anyone… Is that still the case?
Why do you want me to blame someone?
The stake is life, it is the most sacred thing that must be protected first.
Life must be protected and at the same time find solutions so that it continues, the question is not to survive, but to live, so we must be joyful, courageous.
We must resist but never forget to be happy in the resistance, it is important to laugh.
A day when we don't laugh is a day that is fucked up.
We must be united, courageous and determined.
We need to be helped too, but let's give people a positive message.
So yes it's difficult, but we will play!
What does playing Molière mean to you?
The sacred is touching the sacred.
After all that I have been able to do in my life, this is something I did not expect.
If there is a role of Molière that I dreamed of playing, it was Arnolphe, from "L'Ecole des femmes", but I was not thinking of "L'Avare".
When the director Daniel Benoin suggested it to me, I first said no.
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Why ?
I didn't think I could do it, but ultimately what a wonderful moment for an actor.
And after all, I am an actor, so why refuse this gift.
I said yes.
Then I reread the play and thought to myself that I had done something stupid.
It's monumental!
I am an actor of energy, I played complicated characters, the one-man is never easy either, but "The Miser" is monstrous, it is the Himalayas for me!
At one point, I wondered what the others were going to say… It didn't last, because after all, who cares.
It wasn't the challenge that interested me, but what it was about.
Michel Boujenah says he is honored to play the role of Harpagon in “L'Avare” ./LP/Philippe Lavieille
What does it say?
The despair.
A man who will lose in one day the little humanity which remained to him… Of all the humans it is the least human, that does not mean that it is inhuman, this sentence is very important.
For me greed is a symptom, not sickness, sickness is despair, the great loneliness of the widower who has children he loves, but badly.
Like many, he did not know how to do it, and then he discovers that his rival in love is his son.
Everything related to family interests me.
Molière uses the family to talk about the world.
You are following in the footsteps of illustrious people by taking on this role ...
You realize how scared I am!
As I work like a dog, I eat "The Miser", I sleep, I breathe "The Miser" ... But I don't really think about it.
Just to Michel Bouquet, whom I love deeply, I think of it carefree, telling myself that he is there to protect me, I do what he would have told me to do: play the situation… No, I am afraid of being a bad servant of Molière.
I was told at 18 that I would never be an actor because I had an accent, it's all part of a long journey, I'm going to be 68. Of course I will be unhappy if I am told that I worked badly, but what a joy to have this chance, in such a beautiful theater in Paris.
Where you play despite the health situation ...
This is essential.
Churchill, who was told the culture budget would be cut by 50% because it is war, had this wonderful response: but then if we do this, why are we fighting?
On the face of it, culture is less important than what is essential for survival.
This is wrong, culture is as important as eating.
You, you had the Covid ...
Yes.
But can we catch him or not?
I do not know.
I have antibodies, I did a serological test again not long ago.
I don't blame anyone in this story, apart from the virus, of course, and the world we live in and which brought this to us.
Even scientists don't know where they're going, so government and politicians are doing what they can.
One thing is certain, it is that in the theater we do not remove the mask, we do not move, it is a place where I find it logical that we are allowed to work… I do not see why they would ban us…
We talked about despair in "The Miser", what makes you despair?
That, the state of the world.
I think of my children
(Editor's note: 20 and 22 years old)
who, to make love must wear a condom, to go out put on a mask… This epidemic, in theory with the means we have, should not exist.
I am desperate for the human unconsciousness generated by the will to profit.
And this Covid is an astonishing response that does not differentiate between rich and poor.
You know the joke of how the poor test themselves in America?
They spit on the rich and they wait for the outcome.
"We will continue to laugh, it is in the deep nature of human beings", hopes Michel Boujenah./LP/Philippe Lavieille
When you see swastikas tagged in Paris in 2020, what do you think?
That I am worried that the fear of the gendarme no longer exists, that the floor is released because she no longer feels in danger.
The rise of anti-Semitism is the thermometer of a democracy in Judeo-Christian societies.
Jewish or not, the question is not there, but as soon as we touch on that it is that the country is in bad shape, history has shown it.
And there is a real problem.
The history of the police station
(Editor's note: in Champigny-sur-Marne)
, it's crazy!
You can't go into a police station and beat up everyone!
This fear of the gendarme is essential in a democracy, and it's difficult to say that for me, who was an extreme left activist, young in high school movements, but it is a reality.
I don't have the answers, but we have to find a different climate.
Is it too late?
I don't know, but swastikas are the same thing.
It's serious.
Especially since it justifies the speech of the FN and that of people like Zemmour who are very dangerous.
And who are on television every day ...
Exactly.
But it's the same.
It's the same process, which means that in the name of democracy you will make anyone speak.
Without bringing him any real contradiction?
And when he crosses the line, there are laws!
The day you cross the line, you are doomed.
It's normal.
He was sentenced.
Yes, but not enough.
Why ?
Because he probably does audience, well I guess ...
Give us a reason to be optimistic?
One, we will find the vaccine, two as long as we are alive, we will continue to laugh, it is in the deep nature of human beings.
Then, in all dramas, there is always something beautiful that comes up at some point.
If I knew him, I would be the messiah, but I am not.
But I believe in human nature a lot.
There is this magnificent author, Aharon Appelfeld, who said: I have been very lucky in my life, I have not absorbed the evil of humanity, I have absorbed the good.
It means that it exists.