A destiny worthy of the greatest films. Claude Lelouch is a director known throughout the world for his films full of tenderness and poetry. The 85-year-old director was Frédéric Lopez’s guest on the show A Sunday in the countryside, Sunday November 5, 2023. The one who directed in 2021 the film entitled Love is better than life is preparing to unveil his next feature film, Eventuallyover the next year. The public will see certain actors that they are used to filming like Elsa Zylberstein and Sandrine Bonnaire. Kad Merad will also be there. During this long interview with Frédéric Lopez, the director, father of seven children, spoke about his incredible life journey. He particularly recalled his schooling, part of which took place during the Second World War. Of Jewish origin, the filmmaker had to preserve himself as best as possible in order to escape deportation. In front of Marine Ltemporel and Martin Fourcade, he explained that he had been protected by his school teacher when he was just a little boy.
“The teacher was great”
One day, German troops arrived and entered the school to find a Jewish child who had been denounced. This is Claude Lelouch. But the mistress redoubled her ingenuity to protect him from deportation. “I was put in Saint-Jeoire, in a small village near Voiron. One day, the Germans arrived. Someone must have denounced us, saying: ‘There is a little Jew in the class'”, remembered Claude Lelouch. The little boys in the class are ordered to pull down their pants. “Obviously I was circumcised and the teacher was great. She said: ‘No, this one is not Jewish. We operated on him because he peed wrong and what’s more, he’s Catholic and knows his prayers very well.'”, remembered the director. Eventually, Claude Lelouch will recite the prayer as his mistress taught him. A pirouette which changed the course of his life, which could have ended that day.