The scene takes place one day in November, on a shoot in the Swiss mountains.
Mario Luraschi, the equestrian stuntman, is about to complete yet another stunt and for this last shot, his horse must perform a final "cabrade".
"But when he rears up, the road collapses under our feet," rewinds the legendary trainer, who receives in his "farm" in Ermenonville (Oise).
“My horse descends into the crevasse and I find myself in a torrent of water.
"
A helicopter is dispatched to the site to extract the horse.
But at the moment of putting him on the harness, the equine gives a violent "ball stroke" to Mario Luraschi who loses his balance and finds himself carried away in the rapids: "I say to myself:
What a stupid death
.
And there, I hear
Mario, Mario
!
"
"Rémy Julienne saved my life"
The one screaming his name is Rémy Julienne, the ace of stuntmen, who died on January 22 as a result of the Covid-19.
The daredevil of French cinema, who awaits him a little lower, throws him a rope and manages to
pull him
up
in extremis
.
"Julienne saved my life", repeats the equestrian stuntman.
So, a week after the death of his great friend, buried this Friday, Mario Lurashi is a little bitter.
“1400 films and never honored in his lifetime, he grumbles.
He still changed the world stunt.
We must pay tribute to this guy!
"
One made in engines, the other in horses, with the same taste for performance.
"They say of me that I am the Remy Julienne of the horse, it's quite flattering," smiles the trainer.
We spend our time making heroes.
There would have been no Belmondo without Julienne.
"
"This book is a year of my life and it's pretty insane"
If the "ace of aces" has left the scene, Mario intends, at 73, to continue the Luraschi myth.
With, always, cascading projects.
This January morning, he is in deep conversation with Kazakhstan, where he is due to fly soon.
"We're preparing a huge show, we're going to take 18 horses," Luraschi enthuses, with his laughing eyes that make him look like an eternal child.
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This Saturday evening, he will be on the set of Laurent Ruquier, in "We are live" on France 2, where he will have the opportunity to talk about animal welfare alongside lawyer Arno Klarsfeld.
A life with animals which gives him a particular perspective on the debate concerning hunting with hounds or bullfighting… "I am not against anything, as long as there is respect for the animal", confides the enthusiast.
Installed in the heart of the forest of Ermenonville, Luraschi knows too well the tensions underway in the Oise around the venery.
Hunting which he himself has already practiced as a guest.
"What bothers me more is sometimes the stupidity of certain hunters," he scolds.
When an animal has been smarter than you, you have to know how to withdraw.
It is the greatness of man… ”
Mario Luraschi, here in his monumental “Teepee” by Ermenonville.
LP / Frédéric Dugit
The equestrian stuntman will also evoke in the program the new work which is dedicated to him, "The magic Luraschi".
A photographic immersion in the artist's universe, which takes us under the glass roofs of the Grand Palais in Paris, to the Barrière casino in Deauville (Calvados) or at the foot of the Domaine de Chantilly (Oise) ... We also meet Jean Dujardin, “A brilliant guy”, behind the scenes of the film “The Hero's Return”.
“This book is a year of my life and it's pretty insane, jubilates the young septuagenarian.
It's like a little bit of my biography that I'm currently finishing.
"And there won't be too much more than" 5 to 600 pages "to put down on paper the life of this man with 500 films, who has doubled on the big screen Jean Reno, Sophie Marceau or Salma Hayek… Not too much nor to tell about the twenty shows staged by this "mental horse patient", from Shanghai to Oman, from Las Vegas to Oslo.
"A fabulous Legion of Honor"
"Fifty years that I raise, rise, fall on command", delivers the artist in the recently published book.
And no question of putting the saddle in the locker room so quickly.
If the crisis has passed by there, with "80% of turnover lost", the stunt rider intends to bounce back quickly.
Four shootings are already on the rails, including “Tempête”, by director Christian Duguay, and the series “Diane de Poitiers”, with Isabelle Adjani in the lead role.
Its shows, too, continue to fill up.
He has already sold 25,000 tickets for his latest project, “Fascination”, the next dates of which are postponed to 2022. “There were only 4000 tickets reimbursed, appreciates the trainer.
We must thank all these people.
It is a fabulous Legion of Honor.
I have the chance to do a passionate job.
I am 200% privileged.
"
In 2013, in the documentary “Rémy Julienne, 50 years of stunts”, Luraschi imagined his stunt friend “arriving at the age of 100 and saying to himself:
There is something I haven't done and I'm going to try. to do it
.
»Rémy Julienne is no more, but Mario Luraschi still has a lot of ideas in mind.
At 73 years old, including a 50-year career, Mario Luraschi does not intend to retire anytime soon.
LP / Frédéric Dugit
"I was fascinated by his relationship to the horse"
She put in images "The magic Luraschi" by following him during three years, from 2016 to 2018. Sandrine Dezalay, passionate about photos and horses, was able to work in immersion in the world of the equestrian stuntman, to come out of it. his most important works.
It all started during a master class in Ermenonville, in which the young woman participated as a rider.
She of course knows the character but has never met Luraschi yet.
“He went well in the image, with a rather intense gaze, describes the photographer.
And I was fascinated by his relationship with the horse, a real life and work companion.
He has a unique contact with them, he manages to get the essence out of them, without constraint, as if he seemed to be playing with… "
"A cavalcade between the wings and the wonder of the spectators"
Quickly, Luraschi and his teams were convinced and the photographer's project got under way.
For three years, Sandrine Dezalay will thus capture the "off", the back room of the show and "glitter".
"A cavalcade between the wings and the wonder of the spectators," she deciphers.
It's a piece of the history of this whole team.
"
For several months, this “immersion photographer” follows him in his daily life on the “farm”, in preparation, rehearsal, filming, performing… She captures “surprising” scenes, like this horse rearing up in beauty. in the middle of the Ambassadors' lounge in the Barrière casino in Deauville, under the hallucinatory gaze of customers.
She also takes all the risks when it is necessary, on the set of "The Hero's Return", to capture a galloping assault, taking refuge in a hole.
"It is a work for the general public, which will appeal to both horse lovers and cinema lovers", we appreciate in the entourage of Mario Luraschi.
“Luraschi magic”, by Sandrine Dezalay, published by Cavalcade. Price: 50 euros. To order: gaelle.brigo@gmail.com
50 years of career and 500 films to his credit
At 73, Mario Luraschi has just celebrated in 2019 his fifty years of career.
He has participated in the shooting of some 500 films and directed around twenty shows around the world.
Made Chevalier in the order of the Legion of Honor in 2016, a title awarded by Robert Hossein, the equestrian stuntman has received nearly 20 distinctions, both from the horse world and from that of cinema.
Since his beginnings, the trainer has seen "several hundred" horses pass through his stables.
Today, they now house around 80.