Louis de Funes: 5 things you need to know about this absolute icon of comedy

The chestnut tree has been watered down by TV channels for decades, a real martial for a generous audience when they regularly have a soft belly in the show schedule, it can not be said that Louis de Funes is an ultra safe bet for television.

There are countless repetitions of his films, between the Phantom and Saint Tropez gendarme saga, Le Corniaud, La Folie des grandeurs, The Adventures of Rabbi Jacob, Forgetting the Wing or Thigh, of course, the absolute classic La. Grande Vadrouli. A systematic audience card for each of its shows. France 2 remembers his good memories as the channel broadcasts the film exactly this April 17…

And if you still had vague doubts about Louis de Funes’s regenerative and calming power in society, we will recall that. In 2020, at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, from March to April, TV channels blocked most of his films to an audience that was doomed to stay home.

Result ? Suspension: 50 million viewers gathered in front of his films during his first imprisonment, a record MegalomaniaOn April 12, 2020, on France 2, in front of 5.3 million viewers. Great mop ? 5.1 million. Rabbi Jacob ? 4.1 million!

“Trouble, people will find them soon. Laughter, we will always need it!” Said Louis de Funes. Words full of wisdom … Here are five anecdotes about this absolute icon of French comedy.

Anxiety and fear of tomorrow

Starting in cinema in 1945, at the age of 31, the actor did not know the blessing until 1964, at the age of 50, with the first part of the saga. Constellation of Saint Tropez. Five sequels, three Fantômas, four films starring Gerard Ower, de Funes have long been on the box office. The public loves her grimaces, elastic face, facial expressions and gestures. From his difficult start and this very late breakthrough, Louis de Funes will still be very worried about the next day, which pushes him to only minimal risk.

He was also, of course, traumatized by the demise of his father, who at least cheated in suicide in order to escape bankruptcy. Louis de Funes also hides a chest full of gold bars in his castle garden in Clermont. “From A to Z in Louis de Funes” Bertrand DiCalle says that in 1968, when a gendarme got married on the set, de Funes worried: dissatisfaction was growing in the capital. He then instructed director Jean Giro to dig up his sticks. Would almost believe de Funes was still under the influence of Don Salust Megalomania…

He was a jazz pianist

At the end of his life, it became known that Louis de Funes did not always survive in the acting profession. Between the two performances he was particularly a bar pianist. At his mother’s initiative in this discipline from an early age he began a career in cabaret, under occupation. Thus, in an interview, he recounts his grueling nights at the Club de Paris, where he could play for 12 hours in a row: “At 5:30 in the morning, when I woke up, I felt like I was Erich von Stroheim in a big illusion. I was cemented on a chair.”

Here is a review of his talent in the film Like a hair on the suup, released in 1957:

He had previously favored organic farming

Far from the hustle and bustle of the shooting scene, Louis de Funes loved nothing more than to return home, walk the paths of his castle park, and, above all, devote himself to what he had been fascinated by. : Gardening, even from an early age, for about 5-6 years. A simple and modest pleasure in which he enjoyed the harmony and tranquility of nature. His (big!) Vegetable garden was a source of great pride to him, to the extent that he even received – albeit very modestly – a journalist’s camera at home to discuss this passion.

We have to take a look at this wonderful video from INA, excerpt from the show Life in the greenAired on May 26, 1979. “I eat everything I grow! There are no chemicals in my garden! I make Nakel with my own hands, with straw and seaweed” He says and thinks about its production.

Words full of wisdom, especially if we recall that at that time he opposed the discourse on agriculture, which used a huge amount of chemical fertilizers to dramatically increase yields, with the destruction that we now know …

He almost played Hitler’s half-brother

Louis de Funes’s career could have been enriched a bit with many film projects that did not materialize in the 60s and 70s. Between a Ghosts in MoscowA movie with Charlotte with a title Thanks Senior! Led by then-star producer Christian Fechner; Unsuccessful reunion in 1977 with Georges Lautner, with whom he photographed Des dandelions in 1964; Or even a Louis de Funes in the form of a dictator who is responsible for false attacks on himself Crocodile, Which was supposed to be directed by Gerard Owier, the list goes on. We used to give it here.

Among those discontinued projects was his participation in the cult film, Papy fait de la Résistance, with the Splendid team. The actor had seen a play written by Christian Clavier and Martin Lamott and wanted to be a part of his film adaptation. The current went very well with Junot, Clavier, Lermit, and other members of the army when he met them.

First there was talk of his grandfather playing, and then a World War I veteran living in a cabin. But in the end it was he who was chosen in the skin of Adolf Hitler’s half-brother. Died of a heart attack on January 27, 1983, at the age of 68, de Funes never took part. It was Jacques Wheeler who got his character, and the role of grandfather fell into the hands of his old accomplice, Michelle Gallabro. The film is also dedicated to de Funes.

Sometimes a very tense relationship with partners

The king of comedy, Louis de Funes, however, had a difficult, sometimes very tense relationship with his actor’s partners: the former was Jean-Marie on Fantômas, and the latter was troubled by the fact that the comedy was stealing the show. Another saga: De Funes clashed with Jean Lefebvre during the filming of Les Gendarme, especially at Le Gendarme en Promenade (Lefebvre’s last gendarme).

Let us bring up his difficult encounters with other great actors, each of whom tried to clear himself up. So it was with Fernand Le Mouton à for cinq pattes or Jean Gabin for Le Tatoué. Although he preferred his partner La Traversée de Paris (1956) and Le Gentleman d’Epsom (1962), Jean Gabin this time had an equal composition by Louis de Funes. This union between the two holy monsters quickly turns into an ego fight, with too many modifications to the movie script that these two actors require.

“They are two completely different styles of actors” Said Dennis de la Patelier, the film’s director, on the set. “The charm and complexity of this meeting is: their acting technique is different. Jean Gabin is accustomed to playing very precise, pre-planned things, with a technical crash that he saw and knows very well. Very well, the reaction. Specific words.”

And add: “De Funes is spontaneous in itself and finds something during the game and even from one shoot to the next. When we start the scenes from the beginning, he finds something new and it is important not to interfere with his discoveries, how important it is that Gabin also finds his way.”