From the great Depardieu to “La Grande Librairie” on France 5

FRANCE 5 – WEDNESDAY FEBRUARY 16 AT 9 PM – LITERARY PROGRAM

“The framework was plebeian. He was huge and bony. (…) He arrived, all in one block, and from then on it seemed that everything had to break against this block. » The writer Georges Simenon thus describes his curator Maigret, in Pietr-le-Latton, one of the first novels of the detective series, in 1929.

Huge and impressive Gérard Depardieu on his arrival Monday February 14 in the studios of France Télévisions, where François Busnel awaits him, to record “under live conditions”that is to say without a net, “La Grande Librairie” dedicated to the actor on the occasion of the release, Wednesday, February 23, of Maigretfilm by Patrice Leconte adapted from Maigret and the dead girl (1954). The unprecedented opportunity to confront two monsters, literature and cinema, will turn into a great moment of television.

“Titus [Bérénice, de Jean-Daniel Verhaeghe], Cyrano [de Jean-Paul Rappeneau]Obelix [quatre fois]Berurier [San Antonio, de Frédéric Auburtin] : we brew wide in literature with Depardieu! », launches the journalist. But the Franco-Russian comedian and businessman is unpredictable – others than François Busnel would have worried about it. And Depardieu to recite the tirade of Perdican, in We do not play with love, of Alfred de Musset, and to explain its origin (a letter from George Sand): “I suffered often, I made mistakes sometimes, but I loved. » Their loves will inspire him for a long time.

Until the broadcast of archives showing Marguerite Duras. Guest of Bernard Pivot, she talks about her alcoholism. “I drink because God doesn’t exist. » The actor smiles. ” [L’écrivain et cinéaste indien] Satyajit Ray said the same. »

Good-natured authority

The show is not disjointed: it looks like Gérard Depardieu likes to read books, without trying to explain everything. The terrible memory of the death of a child during the filming of Under Satan’s Sun (1987), by Maurice Pialat; the death of a child in Maigretechoing the death of the commissioner’s own daughter – unspoken, the death of Guillaume Depardieu is nonetheless present.

On the coffee table, dozens of books. Gérard Depardieu picks up one or two (including Deauville death [2014]by Marguerite Duras, and Friendships of writers. Between professional people, by Philippe Berthier (Honoré Champion, 2021), which he contributed. Balzac, Stendhal, Robert de Montesquiou, the biography of Joseph Kessel by Yves Courrière… “It’s still something other than what I’m reading now! »

Gérard Depardieu, actor: “I’m not at my wit’s end, but I need to want to. But there are no more good producers, no more culture…”

His host opposes him Mohamed Mbougar Sarr, Goncourt 2021 for The most secret memory of men (Philippe Rey-Jimsaan, 2021), and An Afghan in Parisof Mahmud Nasimi (Les Editions du Palais, 2021). “I find that migrants are essential. (…) I don’t understand those who are afraid”, comments the one who played in Fahim (2019), by Pierre-François Martin-Laval. But no question of politics this evening, even if François Hollande is scratched.

The real lesson, that of the talented actor, will arise from a harmless question (“What is good-natured authority? ») to which Gérard Depardieu will respond with two words: “Sit down. » And burst the screen. Nevertheless, “I change, you knowhe assures. I’m not at my wit’s end, but I need to feel like it. But there are no more good producers, no more culture…”

“What motivates you, then?” »raises François Busnel. “Fuck them! » The actor bursts out laughing. Phew, Depardieu has not completely changed.