Line Renaud mourns the playwright Israel Horovitz

LE FIGARO: Do you remember your first contact with Israel Horovitz?

Line RENAUD.

- Yes, I had received a telegram from him in which he asked me to call him, he lived in from Los Angeles.

He asked me a question:

I replied:

We met at Le Berkeley restaurant in Paris.

His play,

, which has become in French

I was immediately thrilled, but it was not easy to work with him.

I had been warned that he was not an easy man.

It's hard to tell an author that you want to change his text.

In Michèle Fitoussi's adaptation, I had to say that François Mitterrand was aware of the deportation of the Jews, but I could not pronounce these words.

Israel told me: "But it's true!"

I asked him to find another president who knew about it.

He ended up changing and putting Roosevelt instead.

For nothing in the world, I would not have accused François Mitterrand!

Read also: Death of the American playwright Israel Horovitz, the most adapted author of French theater

Was Israel Horovitz attending rehearsals?

Sometimes.

He mostly spoke with Ladilas Chollat, the director.

He was watching his work.

It was he who introduced me to Ladislas, he had never played in Paris before.

Israel had advised me to go to Amiens

a play with a character he had written after the September 11 attacks and that Ladislas had directed.

I found her great.

So I hired Ladislas to stage

at the Théâtre Marigny.

He hasn't stopped since.

You were too young for the role of Mathilde at the time!

How old was I?

81 years old.

Today, I am 92 years old, I did not do them!

Israel Horovitz also changed the end of the play for me.

Originally, I ended up flat, overwhelmed by my son's reproaches that Samuel Labarthe played.

I didn't have a bit of bravery.

Something was missing from this woman who let herself go without saying anything.

It was neither Mathilde nor me.

I reported it to Israel.

At the time, he moaned, then he wrote me another amazing ending in which Mathilde puts her son back in his place.

I later learned that there was this long tirade in every version of the play performed around the world.

It was a victory over Israel, it proves that I was right.

Was Israel Horovitz satisfied after attending the general?

Oh yes, he had come to my dressing room at the Marigny theater.

He was crying, he hugged me and said:

Coming from him, it was a nice compliment.

It is the strongest role that I have interpreted in my career.

I had also really liked Jane Birkin in another of her pieces,

, which she had performed with Pierre Dux at the Bouffes Parisiens.

Very dear Mathilde

will be broadcast this Friday, November 13, on France 5 at 9 p.m.