The documentary “Belmondo the incorruptible” broadcast on Monday and available for free replay returns, among other things, to the chaotic filming of “L’Aîné des Ferchaux” and the conflicting relations between “Bébel” and Jean-Pierre Melville.
On Monday, France 2 broadcast the documentary Belmondo l’incorrigible by François Lévy-Kuentz, dedicated to the famous French actor who specializes in dangerous stunts and popular crime films. If you had to be convinced catch up on this doc fascinating in replay, it is full of fascinating anecdotes, as evidenced by this story on the set of L’Aîné des Ferchaux by Jean-Pierre Melville, made in 1963.
On the set, the rag burns between the main actor and the director. The delays accumulate, and Melville regularly attacks Charles Vanel, the other main actor of the film, whom the director chose out of spite after several refusals from other actors. Overall, Melville sees Vanel as a player from the past who has nothing left to show and regularly makes it known in front of the team.
In this tense climate, a final delay from Melville sends Belmondo into a rage that a sound engineer recorded and which you can partially listen to below.
Here is the full transcript, starting with Belmondo:
– We are not puppets! Me too, I’m fed up, Mr. Melville! Fed up and until then! I’m sick of it ! Because I am not a puppet. Yesterday I already waited from 8 o’clock until 11 o’clock.
“- And I am amused?”Melville retorts.
– It’s not true, you were in your bathtub! I’m not a fool, me!
– When ?
– Yesterday ! I’m waiting downstairs, and they say ‘Mr. Melville is looking for his cufflinks’. Well, I’m fed up! Because I never yell, but when I yell, I’m fed up! It’s your fault we don’t shoot.
– What’s the point, what are you doing here?
– To tell you that you’re pissing me off. I am leaving.
– Then this movie will never be finished.
– I don’t give a fuck.”
Eventually things settle down and filming resumes, but Melville doesn’t leave Vanel alone. It’s too much for Bébel, who physically attacks the filmmaker, as Yves Boisset recalls (quoted in the book Belmondo the incorrigible by Bertrand Tessier and assistant director on the film):
Shows Lumbroso, Ultra Film, Sicilia Cinematografica distributed by UFA COMACICO Belmondo in “The Elder of the Ferchaux
“Jean-Paul then approached Melville. He took away his Stetson and his Ray-Bans, threw them on the ground, then stomped on them before sending Melville flying, who found himself in four irons. the air [en disant] : ‘Without your glasses and your sombrero, what do you look like now? Of a big toad’.”
And he and Vanel left the set. Filming was supposed to wrap up a few days later, and the scenes they didn’t shoot were provided with a voiceover to fill in.
After this difficult filming, Belmondo will never film again with Melville and leaves to film with Philippe de Broca, whom he finds with Cartouche, a film with a frantic pace and without downtime: The Man from Rio (1964). In 2001, the actor will shoot a new version of L’Aîné des Ferchaux. As if to have the last word!
More information on “Bébel” are to be found in the documentary Belmondo the incorrigible is to be found for free in replay on the France Televisions website.