VS’was the friend of the stars. The one that celebrated the great singers and actors. The man who was at all funerals (to the point that Thierry Le Luron nicknamed him one day at the Big heads “Mother Lachaise”). The young first actor, best friend of Delon and patriarch of French cinema. But the friend of the stars sometimes had a hard tooth. In 2004, in Everybody talks about it – available on the INA ArdiTube channel –, The Handsome Serge swayed in front of an incredulous Thierry Ardisson on many “show business” personalities.
Before dipping his tongue in acid, Jean-Claude Brialy explains that he was Ava Gardner’s lover. “It was in Rome. She was coming out of a breakup. She drank a lot. Me, I was cute, she ate me alive. I said to myself : The head of Belmondo and Delon when they will know. The actor also recounts his timeless evening with Russian dancer Rudolf Nureyev. “It was in London. Luchino Visconti was giving a dinner for Nureyev. He was dressed like a muzhik [un paysan russe, NDLR]. I was very young, they put me at the end of the table. After five minutes, I feel that he is bored. He gets up, leaves, walks past me and throws a piece of paper in front of everyone. There was his phone and the message “Call me” [appelle-moi, NDLR]. Brialy arrives in the room: “He was in a red dressing gown, candles, champagne. I was happy. »
“Money made Trenet enjoy”
Jean-Claude Brialy is a storyteller of nasty… anecdotes. Thus, the actor explains one day the rough and surrealist conversation he has with Yves Montand, whom he calls “crook, coward and deceiver”. In 1984, the left-wing actor hosted a show, Long live the crisis, to ask the French to make efforts to resist the economic crisis. What we don’t know (yet) is that he received nearly 800,000 francs. A few days later, in My own zenith, Brialy says: “Winning 800,000 bucks to tell people to tighten their belts, I want to do that. “The day after the show, Montand calls me. He tells me that he wants to hit me, that I’m a fag, an en***, all charming words…” points out Jean-Claude Brialy. Except that the latter has more than one trick up his sleeve. “I had lunch shortly before with a friend who explained to me that Yves Montand had been Reda Caire’s lover. [un chanteur, NDLR]. I checked and it was true. So I said to Montand: Yves, listen for a second: Reda Caire. There was absolute silence and he hung up. »
READ ALSOThis book which tells the special friendship of Yves Montand and Reda Caire
Friend of Charles Trenet, Brialy says that “money made him enjoy” and embarks on an incredible story worthy of a comic series. “I invite her to sing at the Ramatuelle Festival. He had stopped singing, but said to me: For you I come. It’s so much… I start looking for sponsors to pay for it. He then asks me to stay at Byblos. Find a room at Byblos on August 13… I call the owner who is firing Germans to Mr Trenet. The day of the concert arrives and he refuses to sing. Brialy bends over backwards and manages to convince him. He sings 30 songs then attends a dinner offered by the president of Air Inter, who sponsored the singing tour to the tune of 100,000 francs. Trenet goes there and says to the boss of the airline: “I don’t have my escape card. » After this final request, the singer of « Y’a d’la joie » leaves Ramatuelle… without going through the Byblos box.
An excerpt to discover: