1975.
Romain Gary
(
Charles Berling
), famous author of
Roots of Heaven,
publishes
La vie avant soi
under a pseudonym, Émile Ajar, and has this fictitious writer played by his second cousin Paul Pavlowitch (Pierre Perrier -
Jeux d'influences
) .
Soon, the work was awarded the Goncourt prize…
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The mystification would only be officially revealed after Gary's suicide in 1980.
L'Enchanteur
, a TV film directed by Philippe Lefebvre and written by the duo Maria Pourchet (Prix de Flore 2023 for
Western
) - François-Henri Desérable (
Un certain M . Pikielny
), imagine the underside.
We enter the world of the writer, the Parisian literary world, in the footsteps of Adèle (Claire de La Rüe du Can, amazing), a doctoral student in literature, who smelled deception and leads the investigation to find out. clear heart.
A delicious, elegant comedy of great spirituality, where we meet Jean Seberg and Gisèle Halimi.
Meeting with Charles Berling who is always passionate and exciting at the La Rochelle festival last September.
TV MAGAZINE. - Why did you want to invest in this project?
I deeply love Romain Gary.
When reading the script, I felt something very powerful, very simple, very essential.
Gary, it's despair and humor all the time.
This period when the mind is so free is good, it gives food for thought.
I read a lot more of Gary than I had.
I discovered
European Education
, a major book.
I understood, as it is told in the film, how this resistance fighter, an immigrant, with enormous courage, always kept the very essence of humor, a lofty view that inspired me a lot.
Until his suicide letter which is prodigious in black humor.
Looking back, what is your view on the character?
He is a writer who will pass down generations.
His fame weighed him down.
And when you reach sixty, I know something about it, you feel death, decline, the fragility of life... Romain Gary also had an enormous sexual appetite for women.
But he wasn't a predator, he was delicate.
Obviously he has desire for Adèle but he recognizes the brilliant mind of this woman, and that is what takes precedence for him.
Claire de La Rüe du Can in the center, with Anne Charrier on the right in the role of Gisèle Halimi.
France televisions
You didn't look for a complete physical resemblance...
This isn't the first time I've played a character who existed.
There was Robert Badinter, Jean Moulin and Léon Blum.
I found images of Ina but I am not a copyist.
We didn't want to burden ourselves with a reverence that would have been anti-Gary.
He is a man who defended fiction so much...
What have these roles brought you?
They are great historical figures but also men who built me, socially, politically, sentimentally.
Blum is a prodigious being, feminine, masculine, with an atypical political journey, an authenticity that moves me enormously.
Gary also, in his journey, upsets me, he has always kept a course, a deep attachment to art but not only that.
His political commitments are magnificent.
For me, admiration is never a feeling of submission, rather an encouragement to life, to freedom
Charles Berling
Isn't it more difficult to play someone you admire?
For me, admiration is never a feeling of submission, rather an encouragement to life, to freedom.
I just try to do the best I can.
For
L'Enchanteur,
I met Anna Pavlowitch, who lived with Romain Gary as a little girl and knows him intimately.
It allows you to feel someone But acting is always an imperfect gesture.
Fiction is the art of revealing reality while being unfaithful to it.
What is a good literary adaptation?
Philippe was not an impressed director, intimidated by the work to be defended even if Gary is majestic.
It is fundamental not to be decorous with the work, you have to interpret it yourself, find how to go from novel to fiction by twisting a lot of things.