Belmondo, the young first emblematic of the New Wave.
Sacred monster of French cinema, the actor died Monday at his Parisian home at the age of 88, his family announced.
Over sixty years ago, Godard employed a near-unknown.
The late Marie-France Pisier, who died ten years ago already, explained the attraction that Belmondo had for François Truffaut:
“He had enormous admiration for Jean-Paul and it is true that I really have it. impression that the acting has changed thanks to him, that there is a kind of wind of freedom which has settled in, there was an “unlocking” in the acting which was magnificent and that we really owed it to Jean-Paul ”
.
Read also Jean-Paul Belmondo, the Magnificent, is dead
In 1960, the young first denotes indeed.
He embodies lively, smiling, spontaneous and quirky men.
In
Breathless
with Jean Seberg, on the Champs-Élysées, relaxed, hands in pockets, without a tie, Jean-Paul's game opens up on the sociological revolution of May 68. The image is so strong that it has become cult.
For Georges Lautner, shouted at the start of his career by the New Wave, Belmondo intuitively made the link between these different approaches to the seventh art which are, with hindsight, less contradictory than one might have thought.
The general public cares little about these quarrels between moviegoers, he especially remembers his roles as heroes at the end of the 70s and 85s.
He was
Le Magnifique
,
L'Incorrigible
,
Flic ou Voyou
,
Le Guignolo
,
Le Professionnel
,
Le Marginal
, in short,
L'As des As
of French cinema.
At that time, not so long ago, directors could make a film only around this sacred monster.
The spectators went to see the last Belmondo as others awaited the last of Funès or the last Delon.
Film buffs, for their part, remember that it was the filmmakers of the New Wave who were the first to spot the actor's innate talent.
Read also Jean-Paul Belmondo, an actor who worked without a net
Jean-Paul Belmondo's career, however, did not start under the best auspices.
At the Conservatory, beginners find it difficult to play their game in this universe still very marked by a certain form of classicism.
Unhappy with the jury's appreciation after the final school exam, his classmates console him by carrying him in triumph.
As we know, his friends are then called Jean Rochefort, Jean-Pierre Marielle, Claude Rich, Bruno Cremer, Annie Girardot, Françoise Fabian ... They do not yet know that the career of their friend, an amateur boxer, will fly over theirs .
From Pierrot le fou to La Sirène du Mississipi
At the start of the 1960s, Belmondo was not yet
“Bébel”
.
He stars in two of Jean-Luc Godard's greatest films:
Breathless
and
Pierrot le fou
.
The filmmaker says, in a joke, to like
"his availability"
and his
"sympathy"
.
Above all, he found a man who came out of the frame, whose agile body and muscular by years of boxing is the first weapon.
To read also Jean-Paul Belmondo: king and jester of comedy
Jean Becker, who made him work in 1961 in
Unnamed La Rocca,
evokes with emotion the young actor he was.
“Jean-Paul was not yet a sacred monster at the time. He was above all a hell of a man, an unexpected character, full of good humor, ”
says the director. The most
"messy"
of the gang, it was him. In search of recognition, he returned to the Comédie-Française with his friend Marielle. Indomitable, they will be fired after six days in Molière's house. Becker remembers an anecdote worthy of
A Monkey in Winter
.
“One day, after a grueling shoot in a prison, we walked into a bar. Jean-Paul asked the boss to line up all the bottles ... the end of the story, you can easily imagine it, ”
he smiles. We will not know if the passing cars were entitled to their muleta that night ...
From 1960 to 1964, Belmondo's filmography resembles a who's who of the seventh art.
Vittorio de Sica has him play alongside Sophia Loren in
La Ciociara
, Melville uses him against the background against Emmanuelle Riva in
Léon Morin, priest
then entrusts him with a role of hired killer in
Le Doulos
.
He finds himself facing Gabin in the mythical
Un singe en hiver
by Henri Verneuil.
Michel Audiard signs the dialogues.
He will know throughout the career of the actor make the most of his banter by chiselling him tailor-made replicas.
Read also Jean-Paul Belmondo and the women of his life
The year 1964 is decisive. Philippe de Broca is shooting
L'Homme de Rio
. The hero is played by Belmondo, ready to do anything to find his kidnapped fiancée, the lovely and petulant Agnès, played by Françoise Dorléac, the big sister of Catherine Deneuve. The role fits him like a glove. It's a bit Indiana Jones ahead of its time, in a Gallic version.
“I had several periods, like a painter, the blue, the rose”
, proudly comments the actor who, at the end of the 60s, worked with François Truffaut (
La sirène du Mississippi
) and Claude Lelouch (
Un Homme qui pleases me
). When Lelouch, twenty years later, concocts a tailor-made film for him (
Itinerary of a spoiled child
), Belmondo pays him a fine tribute:
“Boredom in the cinema, in general, is the wait between shots. . With Lelouch, we keep shooting, he doesn't take
many takes
,
but a lot of shots, all the time, often with two cameras ... It's good like that, especially for me, who clearly prefers action to contemplation, on a shoot. ”
To read also Belmondo in 1960: “It is not beautiful.
Nonchalant and violent, here is Jean-Paul Belmondo. "
Lelouch writes a film for him
The years 70-80 corresponding to the heyday of a star.
We do not yet speak of
“blockbuster”
but practically all his films of this time appear at the top of the box office.
He embodies the French hero.
The most beautiful actresses in the world want to play with him: Jacqueline Bisset in
Le Magnifique
, Raquel Welch in
L'Animal
.
A few years earlier, he had given the reply to Sophia Loren, Gina Lollobrigida, Claudia Cardinale.
He will share the life of Ursula Andress, encountered in The Tribulations of a Chinese in China.
To read also Jean-Paul Belmondo, the style of the "Magnificent"
Georges Lautner, the director of
Tontons Flingueurs
will wait until 1979 to work with Belmondo. Today, if he is asked to say why he has waited so long for this collaboration, the filmmaker responds with his usual humility.
“With the actors, I walk in affection. With Jean-Paul our story began in 1978… never to stop again ”
, he confides.
The link that the actor has forged with certain directors is not broken. Claude Lelouch had written a new film for him. Not a miserable scenario like the one Francis Huster had served him four years ago in
A man and his dog
. No, the filmmaker promised to revive “Bébel”, in a spirit of dignified freedom, he says of
The adventure is adventure
. History to continue the itinerary of the one who, with a hundred films on the clock, was the spoiled child of French cinema.
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