Martin Coutances (Yves Montand) chose to live in summer. The hero of the
Savage
(1975) by Jean-Paul Rappeneau is a voluntary exile. Withdrawn from the world, he lives as a hermit on an island off Caracas. Modern Robinson, he takes care of his vegetable garden and raises chickens. Alone perhaps but cushy. Until the arrival of Nelly Ratabou (Catherine Deneuve), blonde tornado, superb annoying, preventing turning in circles on her island. She flees her Italian fiance, jealous and violent, and her former employer, a nightclub owner from whom she stole a Toulouse-Lautrec painting to pay the salaries he owes her.
Le Sauvage
is the explosive encounter between Yves Montand and Catherine Deneuve. When Jean-Paul Rappeneau wrote the screenplay with his sister Elizabeth and Jean-Loup Dabadie, the filmmaker had Carole Laure in mind but very quickly he thought of Catherine Deneuve, whom he directed in his first film,
La Vie de Château
(1966 ), a comedy against the backdrop of Occupation. He had chosen it for its submachine gun output.
“I was told: 'You won't be able to make it move, it's marble
,' recalls the filmmaker.
However, I had trouble braking it. This diaphanous and motionless blonde is a bulldozer
[…]
He is the person capable of saying the most words in the fewest seconds possible while not losing a single syllable. She who at first seemed static hides a Formula 1 engine. ”
Rappeneau naturally thought of her to make Montand goat in
Le Sauvage
. In her striped dress, the actress makes sparks.
“Usually, my hair is swollen, and all of a sudden, people are like,
'
Hey, let's wash it off!
”
,
Said Deneuve.
I wasn't dressed any more, but my hair was sticky and wet, my legs bare and tanned. Sexier. "
For the male role, Rappeneau first thinks of Alain Delon. "
I proposed to him,
tells the director to
Le Figaro
in 2018.
He said to me:
"
Is it a comedy? With me, comedy doesn't work
”.
I tried to convince him:
“
Yes, but here we would use your droop. You would be a rock in the face of a pain in the ass.
"
He didn't see himself cooking a fish or climbing trees to pluck a banana… It would have been complicated."
Things weren't that simple for Montand on set either.
“Montand is very good, even if it was difficult to catch up with Catherine Deneuve,
continues Rappeneau.
He said to me:
“
You cannot tell her to run a little slower because otherwise I will not be able to do it and, if I do not catch up with her, the end will have to be changed
”
”.
Montand knew that Delon had turned down the role. Belmondo had also been approached but he wanted to give the female role to Laura Antonelli, his companion at the time. Montand, knowing that he was not the first choice, moaned on the set. Rappeneau always:
“When it came to running, he said:
'
Delon can do it, Belmondo can do it, Montand cannot.
"
He would sometimes scowl or say,
"
Does
that make you laugh? "
.
When he saw the film and its success, he was delighted. He said to me: ““ It's true, we fried a little but we owe each other revenge and then I'll be like a cello between your fingers. ””
The revenge, they play it in
Tout feu, tout flame
, in 1982. This time Montand gives the reply to Isabelle Adjani and the magic no longer operates.
“This time, I fought throughout the filming against his tendency to be funny,
regrets Rappeneau.
In some scenes, he walked by hopping. He is in a dressing gown and he is smirking. From the start, when Adjani arrives: “Ooh my little darling…”
I remember that Pierre Lhomme, who photographed the two films, said to me: “Tell him something, he's grotesque.” I was tired of fighting with Montand. I replied to let him do it, he is so happy. But he remains a great artist. »
And
The Savage
remains one of the best feature films of their respective filmographies.