“The curtain rises, the king is dying, but not you.
Not you.
No, especially not you.
I kiss you with all my soul, with this familiarity that I finally knew how to give you, the last time we saw each other.
“In the silent courtyard of the Invalides, in Paris, this Wednesday, April 27 in the afternoon, these words carried by the voice torn with sobs of Muriel Robin rise as a last tribute to the one who was his teacher then his friend. for over 45 years.
Bathed in a soft spring sun, the portrait of Michel Bouquet, arms crossed in his cream-colored coat, pours over the assembly who came to say goodbye to him a serene smile, and a laughing look under his black hat.
His family, his friends and his former students came to greet one last time the one who marked the theater by his humility and his rigor in the face of the authors, and who invited those who crossed his path to "serve the text without using it". .
A national tribute to the actor who disappeared on April 13, at the age of 96, who was the friend of Jean Anouilh and Albert Camus, who "will have burned the boards and punctured the screen for 70 years", as well as the book Emmanuel Macron in his eulogy.
Sometimes with François Truffaut, sometimes with Claude Chabrol, in turn father and lover, but always ready to step aside so that only the character's message and that of the author remain, Michel Bouquet's secret was perhaps this one, “this silence which strikes at the heart, and this gaze open to the other, like a breath”.
These words,
“He taught us the theater”
"Michel Bouquet welcomed us into his home as he had been welcomed by Maurice Escande 70 years earlier," says Ayoub with an emotional smile.
The young 26-year-old actor, a student at the Vincennes conservatory, came to say goodbye to the one who, over the past five years, has guided his steps and those of his friend Léandre in the theater.
“We spent several months with him, and he taught us theater, he gave us all the advice he could give us.
He is one of those beings who leave room for the unpredictable, who are ready to welcome young people and pass on to them what they have learned in life,” he adds, grateful.
For his part, Rodolphe came to pay tribute to the actor whose advice helped him to integrate the National Conservatory of Dramatic Art where he taught for a long time, and whose words continue to carry him today: “ He has an immense respect for the text.
It is a craft that is perpetuated from generation to generation
,
” explains the young 24-year-old actor.
"I remember that he always put Mozart before speaking, and he told us that it was so that the music flowed into our way of saying things"
,
recalls Ayoub, his gaze tinged with tenderness.
“I know you are pretending to be gone”, launched Pierre Arditi here with Muriel Robin, during the national tribute to Michel Bouquet at the Invalides this Wednesday.
LP/Arnaud Journois
And according to the sighs of the clarinet interpreting a Mozart concerto, the guests come forward, white roses in hand, in a farewell full of sweetness and delicacy, just like what Michel Bouquet seems to have left in the hearts of those who had crossed his path, and finally did not seem quite decided to say goodbye to him: "I'm taking you with me, because I know that you pretend to have left.
Michel, you are the theatre, and the theater never dies”, concludes Pierre Arditi with emotion.
