Death of Michel Blanc, “anxious clown” of French cinema – 10/04/2024 at 11:19 p.m.

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Michel Blanc in Beaune, Côte-d’Or, November 16, 2008 (AFP / JEFF PACHOUD)

Eternal Jean-Claude Dusse in “Les Bronzés”, a major actor in comedic cinema in the 80s before moving towards dramatic roles and a career as a director, Michel Blanc died at the age of 72, on the night of Thursday to Friday , sparking a torrent of reactions.

The actor, who saw himself as an “anxious clown”, had a heart attack and was transported to a Parisian hospital where he died, his entourage told AFP.

“Fuck, Michel… What did you do to us…”, reacted on Instagram Gérard Jugnot, his accomplice from the Splendid comedy troupe. On RTL, the latter mentioned “anaphylactic shock, an allergy to a medication” after a routine medical examination, which Michel Blanc’s entourage confirmed to AFP.

Requested by AFP, the Paris prosecutor’s office indicated on Friday mid-afternoon that it was not aware of these facts.

“Michel my friend, my brother, my partner”, commented Josiane Balasko, also a member of this café-theater troupe who guided them towards success with “les Bronzés”, making the character of Jean-Claude a legend Dusse, his “misunderstandings” and his lame flirting plans.

“With one voice”, all the ex-actors of Splendid, including Christian Clavier and Thierry Lhermitte, expressed their “immense pain”, thanked “warmly for the testimonies of support and friendship” and called to “respect (their) silence.”

Josiane Balasko in Chalet-Saint-Denis (Switzerland) and Marie-Anne Chazel, another member of the troupe, in Paris, each dedicated the play in which they played on Friday evening to their friend, we learned from their friends. entourages.

In front of the Splendid theater, French people expressed their “sadness”. “He was funny and at the same time moving”, according to Isabelle, 60, who appreciated his “discreet side too”.

Michel Blanc and his award for best actor for "Evening wear" on May 19, 1986 in Cannes, in the Alpes-Maritimes (AFP / STAFF)

Michel Blanc and his best actor award for “Evening Wear” on May 19, 1986 in Cannes, in the Alpes-Maritimes (AFP / STAFF)

Head of State Emmanuel Macron spoke of the loss of a “monument of French cinema”, while Prime Minister Michel Barnier estimated that “we all (had) a little bit of Michel Blanc in us”.

– Break his image –

Coming from a modest family, Michel Blanc has long embodied in the cinema the archetype of the loser, bald, skinny and mustachioed as exasperating as he is endearing, notably in “Marche à l’ombre” (1984), which he directed.

“At the time, we wrote characters who were quite close to us. Jean-Claude Dusse was clearly for me,” he told Paris Match in the spring.

Anxious to break this image, he slipped away first from the Splendid to take other paths, more serious and tortuous. “It wasn’t against my friends. I was wondering: +do I exist or am I 1/7th of the Splendid?+”, he justified himself.

He then dared to play dramatic roles such as that of the transvestite Antoine in “Tenue de soir” (1986) by Bertrand Blier or the disturbing “Monsieur Hire” (1989) by Patrice Leconte, based on a book by Georges Simenon, exploring thus its deep nature.

“He was someone very, very anxious, very, very tormented but terribly funny,” Gérard Jugnot also said.

Later, he would play a cold and methodical ministerial chief of staff in “L’Exercice de l’Etat”, which earned him a César in 2012.

“It’s a type of role that I dreamed of but I wasn’t sure that you would accept me in this role, that the public would accept me in these roles,” he declared, moved, to time to receive your prize.

– Rebroadcast –

Hardworking, perfectionist, Michel Blanc knew how to use his complexes and his writing talent to explore disenchantment and shape the characters of his films, notably “Grosse Fatigue” (1994), about the throes of fame, and the acerbic comedy “Embrassez whoever you want” (2002), which he directed.

France 2 in particular rebroadcast “I find you very handsome” on Friday in the first part of the evening, a surprise success in which the actor plays a widowed farmer looking for a wife, and France 3 will broadcast “Grosse fatigue” on Monday evening.

For his latest role, Michel Blanc had again opted for a serious register: “La Cache”, adaptation of the novel by Christophe Boltanski about the trauma of a Jewish family forced into hiding to escape the Nazis, is due out in 2025.

Michel Blanc on September 20, 2016, in Paris (AFP / PHILIPPE LOPEZ)

Michel Blanc on September 20, 2016, in Paris (AFP / PHILIPPE LOPEZ)

According to Patrice Leconte, he was “a very original type, extremely singular, quite secretive”.

In an interview with Télérama, he himself did not hide his dark side. “I am not at all a sad clown but an anxious clown,” he said, adding “but who is not anxious? What is the human condition? Not knowing why we are here, not knowing how We’re going to die.”

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