The life of
L'Homme de Rio
hangs by a thread. Between two towers under construction of a new capital, Brasilia, Belmondo is suspended by the sheer force of his arms on a steel cable. Below him, 40 meters of emptiness. His muscles are paralyzed. In acrobatic jargon, it is said that he has the "
white arm
". Gil Delamare, his friend, the stunt adjuster, warned him of the danger. But the trompe-la-mort did not back down. Dizziness ? "
Don't know
". So little by little - the seconds last forever - guided by the advice of the specialist, the actor succeeds, using his legs, to join the saving guardrail of the building.
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The Man from Rio
, Belmondo on the thread of
Tintin
Philippe de Broca's comedy will be a triumph.
Bébel has just invented the French action film.
This filming madness is not an invention of journalists, miraculously preserved rushes attest to the risks taken by the one who, since Breathless, has been the herald of the New Wave.
Because Jean-Paul Belmondo before becoming
L'As des as
,
L'Incorrigible
,
Le Magnifique
,
Le Flic et le Voyou
of French cinema is a discovery of Jean-Luc Godard who saw before the others in this "
dirty face
" which greatly displeased a few professors at the Conservatory, the perfect instrument of his new vision of the seventh art.
Read also Jean-Paul Belmondo, a risky profession
It is precisely the broken nose, the fleshy lip, the smile of a kid, the look of a bad boy - of good family all the same - of Belmondo that captivates these directors.
But for the interested party, seducing the critics of Cahiers du cinema is not an end in itself.
This is only one step.
The main thing is to conquer the public, the only judge in his eyes as he will repeat throughout his life.
To deserve the applause, to amaze the audience, to obtain the so important recognition of his parents, he will redouble his efforts by drawing inspiration from the spirit of Molière's Scapin, but also from clowns, trapeze artists and tamers. , of all the people of the circus whom he admires since his earliest childhood.
"A superman without being aware of it"
In 1964, the success of
L'Homme de Rio
therefore has two happy consequences on the career of the actor. The one we now affectionately nickname Bébel becomes the biggest star of our cinema and, above all, the main interested party understands that his taste and his aptitudes for cinematographic aerobatics are master assets for comedy. Philippe de Broca, the director of the film, also understands it by exploiting the vein of the belmonderie, that is to say a sweet mixture of scenic exploits and commedia dell'arte, from their next collaboration, Les Tribulations d ' a Chinese in China, a very free and twirling adaptation of Jules Verne's novel. Alongside his friend Jean Rochefort and the sculptural Ursula Andress, Bébel is having a blast. Brawls galore, pirouettes do you want some, breathtaking acrobatics,Hanging from the anchor of a hot air balloon, the actor unfolds here the full panoply of his talent as an intrepid stuntman. Jean Rochefort, years later, will remember with emotion this shooting which took them to Kathmandu: "
One could only admire Belmondo, who was a Superman without being aware of it.
"
“It's a con game.
On the set of
L'Animal,
at the end of the film Jean-Paul was blue from head to toe and in addition he had been pecked by a tiger!
"
Michel Audiard
Intoxicated by this action cinema - Belmondo will more readily speak of adventure cinema - which he embodies and which has no other references in France than himself, unlike the United States where the Steve McQueens, Clint Eastwood, Charles Bronson and others hold the top of the pavement, super-Bébel passes the overdrive in the 70s.
He wants to go further, higher. Henri Verneuil gives him the opportunity in Peur sur la ville. In pursuit of a fleeing robber, Superintendent Letellier, alias Belmondo, decides to continue his hunt by climbing on the roof of a metro train launched at 60 km / h. The scene is so dangerous that the trompe-la-mort is slightly injured. More fear than harm. Michel Audiard, who worked a little fifteen times with the actor, will perfectly summarize the state of mind of the technical and artistic teams who surrounded Bébel during his exploits: “
It's a stupid game. On the set of L'Animal, at the end of the film Jean-Paul was blue from head to toe and in addition he had been pecked by a tiger!
"
Accidents are omnipresent during these high-risk scenes shoots. Belmondo, after the disappearance of his master and accomplice Gil Delamare, who was killed in 1966 during the rehearsal of a perilous scene on the set of the
Saint takes the lookout
, will work, from 1965 to 1987, with the most famous stunt professionals. Two men and their team will be in charge: Rémy Julienne and Claude Carliez.
The first, a disciple of Delamare, is an ace piloting a mechanical machine. The chase in
The Casse
inspired by the mythical scene of
Bullitt
with Steve McQueen, it is him. The acrobatic examination of Bébel's driving license by Philippe Castelli in
Flic ou voyou
, c'est lui. With Bébel, he will stubbornly follow a credo: meticulous preparation and support in carrying out the action. This professionalism will earn it recognition beyond our borders. He will have settled during his career the stunts of no less than six James Bonds.
Belmondo's second accomplice in stunts, Claude Carliez, is an extraordinary master of arms, who notably staged the duels in Jean Marais' swashbuckling films. Passionate about his art, he continued to promote a new discipline throughout his life, artistic fencing. After discovering Bébel's swashbuckling talents in Cartouche in 1962, he became the indispensable sidekick in his wildest bets. He will regulate the prowess of the balancing act on the aerial metro at Bir-Hakeim in
Fear of the city
and the flight over Venice suspended from the trapeze of a helicopter in
Le Guignolo
.
Georges Lautner, who worked for twenty years with Julienne and directed five times the most intrepid of sacred monsters, theorized the art and the difficulty of this scenario of danger: "
If it is Belmondo who takes risks, it is necessary that the spectators see it on the screen.
“
Faced with this athlete of the camera, the directors do not hesitate to ask him for the impossible. That the interested party never refuses. In
The Animal
, Belmondo plays both a clumsy stuntman, the understudy of a fearful star that he also plays. During one scene, chased by killers, he has to roll over all the way up a staircase. The director, Claude Zidi, asks Bébel if he can't get up a little after his antics on the last steps. The concern of the filmmaker, the same as that of Lautner, is for the viewer to identify him. The actor will do so immediately, will be slightly injured. Then after an injection to calm the pain take it again.
The difficulty, the sores, the danger, the more or less serious injuries will never put off Belmondo who has always thought that being overtaken is basically a form of fraud vis-à-vis the public.
And above all, ultimate recognition, he will have been a reference for one of the greatest directors, Steven Spielberg.
The creator of
Indiana Jones
has never hidden that he was inspired by Bébel's exploits on the towers of Brasilia to draw his adventurous archaeologist.
The most perilous waterfall of the career of Jean-Paul Belmondo in
The Man from Rio