“I think clearly that I will never make films again”: The career of this great French director was destroyed after his film failed 20 years ago.

In 1987, for the third film, director Jean-Loup Hubert scored a big hit in cinemas with the excellent and moving Grand Chemin. Acclaimed by critics and more than 3.1 million viewers, the drama earned Anemone and Richard Bohringer 1988 Cesars for Best Actress and Best Actor.

A rare and not very prolific filmmaker (barely nine films between 1981 and 2004), his career came to an abrupt halt twenty years ago after the release of what remains for now of his last film, 3 Little Girls, directed by the duo Gerard Junot and Adriana. Carambeu.

Thanks to the Blu-ray release of four of his films, the filmmaker spoke with great honesty in the pages of the latest issue of the magazine. Laser yearsA career that ended prematurely was taken away.

“He just killed my film and career”

In 1997, the failure of his film, a drama set against the backdrop of the 1914-1918 war, directed by Guillaume Depardieu and Clotilde Courau, was already a wake-up call, drawing more than 137,000 viewers.

“Three days before the release of this film, which I consider one of the strongest, Guillaume and Clotilde were invited to the 8 p.m.

Already very ill during filming, during which he regularly drank alcohol and heroin, he became unruly, Guillaume, visibly drunk, appeared in the last degree with dark glasses, a lit cigarette in his hand, unable to make a coherent statement, his voice charming, raspy, vulgar, pathetic. entrusts the film director.

“cried” He continues. “It just killed my film and my career. The result: Marte was a terrible failure, which undoubtedly belonged to its subject, the whole profession slammed the door on me, and despite all the suggestions I could make, I spent seven years without making a film.

“This is a very painful situation for me”

After this desert crossing, which we clearly imagine is very frustrating and undermines his morale, Jean-Loup Hubert returns with a new film, 3 little girls. This time a comedy centered on his own daughter, then 14, who was to star in it, as well as two of his friends.

“Given the March disaster, it took me a year to find products and when the funding finally came, Pauline He told me, “I don’t want to do this anymore because I’ve grown up.” And since he was the leader of his little group, his friends refused too. I had money, I had a script, but I didn’t have an actor anymore!

So I hired three other young actors, created some parents with Gérard Junio ​​and Adriana Carambeau, because I also wanted to show, on the model of Sophia Loren and Carlo Ponti, that a physically disabled person is what we would call “normal”. “And a rich woman can love each other madly…”

Released in September 2004, it was another failure for the filmmaker, with over 104,000 viewers. It’s so devastating to him that he hasn’t shot anything since.

And at the end, unfortunately: “It’s been twenty years since I’ve been refused to go back behind the camera, even though I have seven scripts ready to shoot. It’s a very painful situation for me, I obviously think I’ll never go on camera again. I miss cinema terribly.”