a duo full of wisdom

If today the duo is written in the feminine form, it is because Julia took the first step: “When people stop me in the street, they no longer ask me if I am Louis’ granddaughter but if I know Sophie Galabru. I told myself that I absolutely had to meet her. »

Four months ago, she offered him lunch. Sophie recalls: “It was confusing and overwhelming, there are so many similarities in our lives. » They lived in the same place, are both philosophers. Julia writes about identity. Sophie on family. Their husbands are both financiers.

They have a passion for their grandfathers but have set the same rule: never talk about them, except exceptionally for the 75th anniversary of Paris Match. On the day of the photo shoot, they arrive with the same outfit. A pure coincidence.

The rest After this ad

I wanted to avenge the intellectual discredit from which Louis suffered. And prove that we weren’t just a family of clowns.

Julia de Funès

Paris Match. The two granddaughters of the most famous gendarmes in France have become philosophers. A random ?
Sophie Galabru. I would sometimes read philosophy texts to my grandfather and he would often get impatient: “We don’t understand anything because philosophers never answer the question!”
Julia de Funès. My grandmother also found philosophy to be a pretentious discipline. More seriously, Louis was never recognized during his lifetime by the Parisian intelligentsia and he suffered as a result. Perhaps unconsciously, by choosing philosophy, I wanted to avenge this unjust intellectual discredit and prove that we were not just a family of clowns.
SG It’s funny because Michel also suffered from being constantly drawn back to comic vaudeville even though he had won first prize at the Conservatoire and had worked at the Comédie-Française. It is for this reason that I wanted to write a book with him in the form of a philosophical primer. I wanted to reveal his thoughts.

It seems that your grandfathers couldn’t say no.
J. de F. Mine was strikingly shy and humble. He barely articulates in interviews. I think it was mainly my grandmother who played this critical role, it was she who had the bad reputation!
SG Same with my grandmother Anne. She was his agent and negotiated for him. It is no coincidence that they got along well, they took on the same role: to provide safeguards and protect. My grandmother loved Jeanne, Louis’ wife, very much.
J. de F. I remember a story my mother and grandmother told me about yours. She had had surgery and had secretly ordered cakes which she had stashed under her hospital bed.
SG That does not surprise me ! My grandparents were crazy about sugar. Michel often woke up at night to empty the fridge.

If Louis de Funès remained with Jeanne, his second wife, until the end of his life, Michel Galabru separated from his wife…
SG He made the choice to leave for another woman. My grandmother never managed to get over it. But, a few days before he died, she came to him to tell him that she would always love him and that she forgave him. I witnessed this scene, it was very beautiful.

Michel passed on to me a wisdom about life, One that cannot be found in books.

Sophie Galabru

You were both their first granddaughters…
J. de F. I think my grandparents were very happy to have a granddaughter after two sons. They often argued because nothing was good enough for me. One wanted me to eat sardines like this, the other like that… I was only 4 years old when he died, but the love of my grandparents and my grandmother in particular was an unshakable foundation.
SG Michel passed on to me a wisdom about life, one that cannot be found in books. He told me about my job as a teacher: “Never forget that the kids can sense if you are playing fair.” He had experienced the war, his father had thrown him out when he learned that he wanted to be an actor, he had lived without anything for years… He built himself up on his own and I admired him for that.
J. de F. Michel was strength, and Louis was energy, vitality.
SG Louis had great elegance. He told me that he had insisted that Michel’s name be placed next to his on the “Gendarmes” poster.

How do you define cinema?
SG It is an illusory life, staged from its most intense moments and accelerated by editing.
J. de F. I think almost the opposite: real life is a staging, a human comedy where everyone plays roles. And cinema in particular, but art in general, unveils games, reveals the truth of beings…
SG They experienced cinema as a craftsman works on a work, with labor and passion.
J. de F. Moreover, they were artists but above all craftsmen. Fame was not a goal but the consequence of fair and rigorous work. It is a bit contrary to the values ​​of our time where the conceptions of merit, effort, long time, the “seriousness of the craftsman” of which Nietzsche speaks disappear in favor of zapping, of immediate notoriety and a sprinkling of all possibilities.

Michel Galabru declared: “Human stupidity saddens me. We are making more and more sophisticated weapons, we are killing more and more, the ice cap is disappearing, the world is collapsing… On the one hand, I am frankly worried about my grandchildren. On the other hand, I am not unhappy to soon disappear so as not to see the disasters to come.”
SG He had strong intuition and keen lucidity. He spoke without taboo of the finitude of things, and he was worried about the escalation of violence… I think he felt the anguish of our time.
J. de F. Yes, it’s paradoxical, every topical subject becomes a subject of anxiety, while we live in a rather comfortable period compared to those of previous generations. I’m not denying the current problems, but who would want to go back even a hundred years?

What relationship did they have with notoriety?
J. de F. My grandfather hid behind a hat and glasses whenever he went out, he avoided social evenings. He was happy in his garden among his roses. Nature was his refuge. He hated the word “star” and everything that goes with it, because he was aware of the tragedy of life.
SG I’m sure he didn’t mind being stopped in the street! But he also avoided society and, apart from Louis, he didn’t have many friends in the business.

Was their notoriety a difficult legacy to bear?
SG I kept a low profile throughout my childhood. I felt guilty for a long time about having that name until the day I refused to hide. I remember a friend telling me when I was studying philosophy at the Sorbonne: “You wouldn’t see a teacher named Galabru.” When I passed the aggregation, I had the impression of being perceived by the jury as a clown.
J. de F. It’s complicated to enter the academic world when your name is de Funès or Galabru. Not serious enough! And now that the diplomas are acquired, it’s quite the opposite, I have the right to the eternal: “She’s still a lot less funny than her grandfather!” In short, it never works![Elle rit.]

type="image/webp"> type="image/webp"> type="image/webp"> type="image/webp">>>>>

Did you hesitate to get into cinema?
SG Yes, because it was a way to stay close to my grandfather. But I understood that I had to detach myself to compose my own role.
J. de F. It was unthinkable. In our house, there was a family injunction: find your way, work hard and never take advantage of a path already taken.

Do you often watch their films?
J. de F. When I’m depressed, it’s my best antidepressant. But I’m a bad audience, I don’t laugh out loud. And then I watch him play more than I watch the film. I scrutinize its precision, its rhythm…
SG After Michel died, I couldn’t watch him on a screen without crying, but now it makes me feel good. When I was a teenager, Louis and Michel didn’t make me laugh. It took maturity for me to grasp their comedy.
J. de F. It’s funny because I often wonder if I would have liked their films if I hadn’t been Louis’ granddaughter…

If you had to remember one memory…
J. de F. I see him offering me currants or cutting apples for me. His gesture, his hand, his way of grasping things, his Opinel.
SG When I’m on the street and I smell a cigar, I feel like it’s there. Or when I hear Tino Rossi’s songs. We spent hours listening to it together.