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"Notre-Dame burns": how Anne Hidalgo played her own role

2022-03-15T16:36:43.599Z


In "Notre-Dame brule" by Jean-Jacques Annaud, in theaters on Wednesday March 16, the mayor of Paris replays the scene she experienced on the day of the i


"You don't want to call General Gallet?"

asks Anne Hidalgo, her worried face turned towards the window of her huge office.

In a short sequence of "Notre-Dame burns", which lends a little to smile as it is absurd, the mayor of Paris discovers the smoke which escapes from Notre-Dame.

To her chief of staff, she then suggests warning the commander of the Paris fire brigade... Of all the protagonists in Jean-Jacques Annaud's film, the socialist candidate for the presidential election is the only one to hold her own role — with Frédéric Lenica, his chief of staff, who plays him in this sequence.

“It happened very unexpectedly,” smiles Annaud.

It was after learning that Anne Hidalgo was one of the very first people to have the firefighters called on the evening of April 15, 2019 that the filmmaker contacted her to ask for permission to shoot in the Hôtel de City a scene that would relate the episode.

"The mayor of Paris asked to meet me," he explains.

She told me how her chief of staff, before her, had seen smoke coming out of Notre-Dame, and she gave me her permission to shoot in her office.

When I asked her if she would enjoy playing her own role, she said

yes

and I took that as a courtesy answer.

»

An actress in case of emergency

On D-Day, Jean-Jacques Annaud summons an actress as a precaution to interpret Anne Hidalgo in case the mayor of Paris is called for a more urgent mission.

But when he arrives at City Hall, the chosen one is getting ready.

“She was in make-up like a conscientious actress and told me that she had asked her chief of staff to dress exactly as he was on the day of the fire.

»

The director then apologizes to Hidalgo's "double".

“I had prepared a text which reflected what Ms. Hidalgo had told me, but as she remembered perfectly what she had experienced on the evening of April 15, I did not show it to her”, continues the filmmaker.

Who finally needed only one take to put the scene in a box.

For now, the mayor of Paris has not yet seen "Notre-Dame burns".

It is therefore unclear what she will think of her performance.

And especially these scenes where Parisian streets saturated with cars, buses and Vélib 'punctured considerably delay the arrival of help at the scene of the fire.

Source: leparis

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