Editorial of the “World”. The national tribute that will be paid to Jean-Paul Belmondo, on September 9, at the Invalides, is up to the emotion that his death aroused. Politicians, right and left, and the entertainment world, at its widest, have greeted the actor, who died on September 6 at the age of 88. Voices, like that of filmmaker Claude Lelouch, have even asked for his entry into the Pantheon.
This unanimity first tells of an extraordinary popularity. She tells of a bygone era where a movie star accompanies the lives of spectators, holds out a mirror to them and gives rhythm to their lives. A star who, on his name alone, dominated the French box office for twenty years: between 1964 and 1985, his films systematically exceeded one million admissions.
This success is all the more remarkable as Belmondo, at the height of his career, tasting little of the shackles of an industry that loves them so much, reconciles audiences, commercial cinema and auteur cinema. He then succeeds in the feat of transcending hectic films and others more difficult: on the one hand, The man from Rio (1964) or The magnificent (1973), by Philippe de Broca; the other, Pierrot le fou (1965), by Jean-Luc Godard, Thief (1967), by Louis Malle, or Stavisky (1974), by Alain Resnais. He plays for the sophisticated Peter Brook and embodies the cheeky dialogues of Michel Audiard. He puts on the cloak and the sword, and wears the cassock in Léon Morin, priest (1961), a masterpiece by Jean-Pierre Melville. “Belmondo can play anything”, summarized François Truffaut.
Actress Line Renaud has clearly identified the source of her popularity: “Bébel was the extraordinary hero of ordinary France. ” His face first. When Belmondo exploded on the screen in 1960, in TO breathless, from Godard, France discovers a different physique – broken nose, thick mouth – contradicting the canons of beauty in force. A star must look like Jean Marais or Gérard Philipe. Such a face forbids him any future, it was said, and yet Belmondo inaugurates another history of cinema in France, followed a few years later by the stars of the New Hollywood, with a physique considered just as atypical – Dustin Hoffman, Al Pacino, Robert From Niro.
Proximity to the public
And then there is, with Godard, Belmondo’s way of being, his way of smoking shirtless in bed, of making love under the sheets or of insulting the spectator. The star, who turns as if it is his last film each time, is then emblematic of a youth trapped in the interminable war in Algeria and who intends to get rid of the burden of colonial wars. His body would later become the keystone of a system, showing great athletic talent to become the perfect action hero in the movies. His ease and his talents as a stuntman will seduce a part of the French who benefit from growth and believe in perpetual happiness.
Because France, until the end of her career, Belmondo reassures her. He displays a resolutely optimistic character, in a country known to be grumpy. His insolent joie de vivre is contagious. He shows himself accessible off-camera, constantly sending a disarming smile to the anonymous who dare to approach him. This proximity to the public, unusual at the time and unthinkable today, stretches long after the actor’s retirement. Evidenced by the impressive audience scores of his films when they are rebroadcast until thirsty on television. Nothing suprising. We know since the end ofTO breathless that this actor who knows how to die so well is immortal.