A copy of the newspaper 'Libération', announcing the death of Belmondo, on the portal of his house on Tuesday morning, the day after his death.IAN LANGSDON / EFE
General de Gaulle claimed to have "a certain idea of France": its people, its landscapes, its history.
Actor Jean-Paul Belmondo, who died on Monday at the age of 88, represented not an idea of his country, but an idea of what it means to be French: sly and adventurous, cheeky and seductive, somewhat conceited and at the same time aware of his ridiculousness. .
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French actor Jean-Paul Belmondo dies at 88
Jean-Paul Belmondo, the splendor of the true
There are words, difficult to translate, that summarize this attitude. One is
panache
, the mixture of arrogance and nobility of so many characters in the literature of this country, such as D'Artagnan or Cyrano de Bergerac (and other royals: De Gaulle without going any further). Another word that is repeated in the obituaries and comments after Belmondo's death is
gouaille
, a witty and mocking way of speaking, very Parisian and typical of the popular neighborhoods.
"It was our Marianne in masculine", summarizes an article in the newspaper
Le Figaro
, referring to the female figure that symbolizes the French Republic. And it is true that, for Frenchmen of several generations, Bébel, as the actor was known in France, reflected something essential in the character of this country, a way of being in the world.
Belmondo could be the young delinquent who in
At the End of the Getaway
walked down the Champs-Élysées with Jean Seberg, who played an American student who sold copies of the
Herald Tribune
newspaper
.
Or the intrepid adventurer from the most popular films of the seventies and eighties, the one who practiced the most dangerous juggling, hanging from a building window or jumping on top of a plane in mid-flight.
But also the theatrical actor in works like
Cyrano
by Edmond Rostand or
Kea
, by Jean-Paul Sartre.
Shooting of 'At the end of the getaway', with Coutard and Godard (with dark glasses), behind the leading couple: Jean-Paul Belmondo and Jean Seberg.
"
Drink the magnificent"
, it titled in a special edition
Le Parisien
.
Le Figaro
: "
Ace of aces."
Le Monde
:
"The well-loved one."
The sports newspaper
L'Équipe
paid tribute to him by titling the day's news with the titles of Belmondo films. On Monday night several networks altered their programming to broadcast his films: they were seen by more than eight million viewers.
"For the French it represents the best of us: the marriage of the serious with the unconcern," says by telephone the journalist, novelist and filmmaker Philippe Labro, who directed Belmondo in
The Heir
, from 1973, and
The Hunter of Men
, from 1976. He recalls of these experiences: “Jean-Paul is not addressed. You talk to him, you have a dialogue, but then you have to let him do it, because he brings inventiveness and does things on the set that one hadn't foreseen in the script ”. And he continues: “He had an inner smile. He was smiling even when he wasn't smiling. And he had a capacity to embody characters of man in the street, to the average French. He made people laugh, and a man who makes people laugh always has considerable success. Don't forget that we are the country of Molière! ”.
France is a country that likes and knows how to commemorate.
To its military heroes, such as those who rest in the monument of the Invalides.
To politicians or writers, in the Pantheon.
And popular culture idols.
The death of rocker Johnny Hallyday, in 2017, brought thousands of people to the streets of Paris.
The French Elvis deserved hero honors.
Belmondo will be entitled to a national tribute on Thursday in Les Invalides.
Who knows if today there are figures like these in which an entire country recognizes itself.
Or perhaps, in the frayed France that the political scientist Jerôme Fourquet portrays in the popular essay
L'archipel français
(The French Archipelago), each
island
- urban, rural, suburban ... - has its own Belmondos and Johnnys .
There was something in common between Johnny and Bébel. Both rose to fame in the early 1960s. And, according to
Le Monde
, they were symbols of a social change marked by "the appearance of the yeyé, the end of the colonial empire, the passage to the Fifth Republic, the rise of household appliances and television."
Another common point between Johnny and Bébel: in the homeland of high culture, they were icons of popular culture. Although it was the modern and experimental cinema of the Nouvelle Vague that launched him to fame, the myth of Belmondo was forged not in arthouse rooms, but with blockbuster films such as
The Man from Rio
or
Ace of Aces
. Belmondo was the son of the Parisian bourgeoisie, but with his
gouaille
and
panache he
connected with rich and poor, Parisians and provincials. He was an interclass figure.
In 1960, when the actor's career was taking off, the sociologist Edgar Morin, who had analyzed the phenomenon of film idols in his essay
Les stars
(The stars), distinguished two Belmondos.
The first was "a bit nihilistic, a bit indifferent to the world and, in this sense, the symbol of the state of mind of a part of today's youth."
The second was "the man who seduces, irresistible to women."
He ventured that the second would be imposed.
Jean-Paul Belmondo and Alain Delon, at the 2010 opening of the museum dedicated to Paul Belmondo, the actor's father.PATRICK KOVARIK / AFP
Labro now comments: “He is a seducer, a man who loves life and therefore loves friends, food, drink, the company of women.
He loves love and he loves to be loved ”.
And he specifies: "With respect for women, but without complexes, without MeToo, without a culture of cancellation."
Belmondo embodied a certain idea of masculinity, an image of the attitude and behavior of the French man of his time.
This certain idea would be incomplete without his opposite (and friend): Alain Delon, with his icy beauty and his roles as a gangster or expressionless cop at the antipodes of Belmondo's comical and overflowing expressiveness.
“I'm devastated,” Delon told Europe 1 radio station. “He was my age.
It won't take long to happen to me.
Get ready ”.