He played at the Comédie-Française
Le Bourgeois gentilhomme
under the direction of Jean-Louis Barrault.
He is fully aware of the complexity of the Alceste du
Misanthrope
.
For him
Dom Juan
, whom he has embodied hundreds of times, is much more than a vile seducer.
Francis Huster, always fascinated by the gesture of the man whose name alone symbolizes the French language, has just released two works dedicated to Jean-Baptiste Poquelin:
The Dictionary of Molière
(Plon) and
Poquelin against Molière
(Armand Colin) .
Read alsoMolière or the art of being bullied
A few weeks before the quadricentenary of Molière's birth, which will be celebrated on January 15, 2022, Francis Huster explains to
Le Figaro
the reasons why his passion for the less tartuffle of comedy authors has been revealed for more than half a century. after its debut, unquenchable.
Read alsoThe campaign to bury Molière in the Panthéon is launched
LE FIGARO - You are releasing two works on Molière almost simultaneously, a
Dictionnaire Amoureux
and
Poquelin Contre Molière
.
Why ?
FRANCIS HUSTER -
In a few weeks, on January 15 exactly, we will be celebrating the four hundredth anniversary of the birth of Molière.
At this important moment in the history of literature and comedy, I wanted to offer books to his countless admirers who speak of the man Jean-Baptiste Poquelin and also of the heart of his work.
This is crucial, because I will not hide from you that working on his entry into the Pantheon.
He must be there.
If this miracle occurs, he would be the first actor, among all these great characters, to rest on the Sainte-Geneviève mountain.
Your pamphlet
Poquelin against Molière
, subtitled
Un duel à mort
, pits the author against the actor.
For you, does this duality explain the immortality of his genius?
Yes surely. We can already note together that the greatest acrobats like Charlie Chaplin and Charlot, Guitry and Sacha Guitry, and of course Jean-Baptiste Poquelin and Molière were the first actors in their own pieces. For Molière, this duplication of personality surrounded by mystery seeks to answer a nagging question: why did Poquelin take a mask, an enigmatic pseudonym, to go on stage? So I wanted to know and try to answer this question by inventing a dialogue between the author Poquelin and the actor Molière. The arguments between them fuse. Jean-Baptiste can launch to his interpreter "
let it sink the first scene of the Imaginary Malade
". Molière retorts "let him offer
himself to the public
".
And that basically it is he, the audience, who will ultimately decide, by applauding or whistling, the quality of the piece.
We have the impression at the end of this game that it is Molière who wins ...
It's your feeling.
May be.
I let the reader decide who won the duel.
In any case, it is certain that it is the baladin who continues to bring the author's work to life over time.
Without the three blows, always repeated, there would be nothing left.
In your two works, you seem to devote a real cult to Louis Jouvet. Why ?
He was our conductor. I did not know Molière but I played it thousands of times which made me love it without ever getting bored. I have never forgotten the advice of Jean-Louis Barrault, inherited precisely from Louis Jouvet who had not had time to write about Molière, to pass Molière on to future generations. And I also remember Barrault urging me to work on Molière and his legacy. By applying myself to writing the
Dictionary in love
with the author of the
Misanthrope
, I am only keeping the word I had given to Barrault. I am part of a sort of spiritual connection here: Molière, Louis Jouvet, Jean-Louis Barrault and your humble servant.
You come back in your dictionary to
Le Misanthrope
, which you describe as an “
inimitable masterpiece
”.
How do you think this piece is unique?
We must not forget its subtitle:
L'Atrabilaire
d'
Amour
”.
It says a lot about its author.
Alceste looks like Molière sometimes to be mistaken.
And the powerful posterity of this character who distrusts men says everything about the genius of its author.
The room when it came out didn't work.
But we now know that it remains Poquelin's deepest, most philosophical creation.
This play is today and tomorrow, like Molière.
Molière: the tribute of Francis Huster on
Figaro Live