It was a very tense face-to-face that the viewers ofWe are in live on France 2 this Saturday, January 15. A clash has arisen between actor Francis Huster and history writer Franck Ferrand over a huge divergence of views on Molière.
A great theater lover, Laurent Ruquier did not miss the 400 years since the birth of Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, better known as Molière. The playwright would have celebrated his 400th birthday this Saturday, January 15. The opportunity for the facilitator to bring together in We are live on France 2 the actor Francis Huster and the writer specializing in history Franck Ferrand. The latter espouses a theory according to which Molière did not write his plays himself. “Molière, for me, is an extraordinary man. He is the founder of the theater as we love it. He is a great troupe leader, he is an incredible director. He was, it seems, according to some testimonials, a brilliant comedian, that with just the play of his eyebrows, he was able to make a room burst into laughter (…) But he was not a writer“, said Franck Ferrand. Enough to make Francis Huster jump. “I will kill him, I will kill him”, launched the comedian, his eyes wide with anger.
“It’s a joke !”
Some believe that the author of the cid, Pierre Corneille, could be the author of Molière’s plays. A theory that ulcerates Francis Huster. In a very theatrical way, he did not hesitate to get up from his chair to approach Franck Ferrand and point his finger at him while explaining what annoys him so much in this theory denying Molière’s talents as an author. “I tell you, this thesis by Corneille with Jean-Laurent Cochet who was my director and whom I admired, but we pissed with laughter. It’s a joke”, he exclaimed, before questioning it more deeply by revealing its origins. “She was born of whom? Of Pierre Louys”, the actor was annoyed, recalling that this author had written a Manual of civility for little girls for the use of houses of education far from feminist, in which young women were asked to have sex, with very specific indications.
“That’s absolutely false!”
“It’s that guy, it was Pierre Louys, who joked that Corneille would have written Molière. This is absolutely false”, continued Francis Huster while Franck Ferrand got up in turn. The actor left to sit down while rehearsing “I’m going to kill him, it’s not possible”, with a smile on his face. But he was not at the end of his troubles. Since his opponent persisted and signed by defending the controversial author by presenting Pierre Louys as “a great bibliophile” and “a connoisseur of 17th century literature, and more particularly of dramaturgy”. Franck Ferrand claims to have “more than fifty arguments” according to which Corneille would have written plays by Molière. “It’s stupidity (…), it’s nonsense (…), it’s total stupidity”, replied Francis Huster, everyone sticking to their positions in this ten-minute debate punctuated by the embarrassed laughter of Laurent Ruquier and Léa Salamé.
Article written in collaboration with 6Medias