Born in Toutainville in the Normandy Boucles de la Seine Regional Natural Park, between Pont-Audemer and Honfleur, the César for best male hopeful in 1999, Bruno Putzulu is an actor proud of his roots.
Member of the Comédie Française, with nearly forty feature films and as many plays including more than 240 performances of the adaptation of the autobiographical novel by François Cavanna, “Les Ritals”, already on a production of his brother Mario, the actor will be back to his roots, this Saturday February 10 at 8:30 p.m. on the Pont-Audemerienne stage of L'Eclat with “La Lettre”.
In 2023, Bruno Putzulu was invited by Eleonora Rossi to become an associated artist with the national Granit de Belfort scene to perform a few plays, but also to meet students.
The director suggested that she set up a project: “I then suggested a play written and directed by my brother Mario,
La Lettre
.
She was accepted.
I chose my partners, Rocco Femia who is also the co-producer, Pascal Castelletta who killed me every night in
Caligula
, the Italian singer Cristina Marocco who the general public knows thanks to her duet with Marc Lavoine and the moving Isabelle Rattier , my mother on stage,” says the actor.
“
The Letter
is a return to our family history.
It comes from a memory.
When my father died, my mother gave Mario a jacket.
It had a hole in the lining.
What if there was something in there!
A letter.
This is where fiction takes over.
It refers to childhood in Normandy, holidays in Sardinia, the people we love, memories and family secrets.
We are between fiction and reality.
In the end, people are moved and laugh.”
So, after three sold-out performances in Belfort, the troupe comes to Normandy where it all began.
“This room is a way of still being with family”
Bruno Putzulu is the son of a Norman mother born in Manneville-sur-Risle and an Italian father, a worker in a paper mill.
He is the third of the siblings after Mario and Luigi.
“I had a very happy youth despite my father's small salary.
My parents sacrificed themselves for us.
I remember my father who came to encourage me in football, my brothers who looked after me, because we have a big age gap, and an attentive mother.
It was also a holiday in Sardinia for the emigrant who had apparently succeeded.
A little later, it was boxing in Honfleur with the Vastine family and martial arts.
This is why Mario wrote
The Letter
.
It's a way of still being with family.
»
The actor discovered theater during his adolescence when Mario became an actor and director in Bob Villette's troupe, La Comédie Errante in Cléon (near Rouen): "For the first time in my life, I went at the theatre.
A revelation.
Then, my brother asked me to play a small role in
Waiting for Godot
by Samuel Beckett.
I'm starting to tell myself that I would like to do this job.
I then entered the Faculty of Modern Letters and the Regional Conservatory of Rouen.
With Bob Villette, for four years, I also prepared for my entrance to the National Conservatory in Paris, which I succeeded, again with the support of Mario who did my replica.
I am 23 years old ".
Its history and its region are its source
After daily return trips to Normandy, his schedule will make Bruno Putzulu experience Parisian nocturnal wanderings, because he cannot afford a room: “for several months, I will arrive very early at the conservatory and with the support of the guardian, Madame Notre-Dame, I will be able to take a shower and sleep for a few hours in the theater seats before classes.
I didn't dare tell the others.
For a moment, I wanted to give up and it was my teacher, Philippe Adrien who supported and encouraged me.”
And, the Comédie Française came to look for him, “the way they look at me has changed.
My career took off.
It was a great joy for my brothers and my parents who did not really understand what this meant.
They were people of the land.”
But, always in its heart and soul, “theater must be far from technique to reach the organic.
As in
The Letter
, my history, that of my family, that of my region, are my source.
It flows into all my roles.
This is why I am proud to come and play in Pont-Audemer, to repay the trust of the successive directors of the municipal theater including Simon Fleury who has just been appointed to the national stage of Dieppe.
Each time, I am touched by the enthusiasm of the people.”