While promoting his film We should have gone to Greece on the airwaves of Europe 1, Gérard Jugnot was questioned by Pascal Praud, who wanted to know more about behind the scenes of the filming of Monsieur Klein with Alain Delon.
Two years before the success of TannedGérard Jugnot had obtained a small role in Monsieur Kleina Franco-Italian drama in which the late Alain Delon played Robert Klein, an unscrupulous trafficker who takes full advantage of Vichy's anti-Jewish laws to enrich himself. While he unceremoniously escorts a client back, he discovers in a letter slipped under the door a copy of the newspaper Jewish Information sent to his name and address. Intrigued, he goes to the newspaper office, then to the police headquarters, before discovering that the sender is in fact a resistance fighter who is playing on their namesake to act clandestinely. Determined to find him to justify his own identity, Robert must flee to escape the Gestapo. Nearly fifty years after its release, the member of the Splendid troupe has rather good memories of the filming of the film.
“He wrote me a kind note” : Gérard Jugnot remembers the filming of Monsieur Klein alongside Alain Delon
This Monday, November 11, Gérard Jugnot was the guest of Culture Media on Europe 1 to discuss the release of his new comedy, We should have gone to Greece. During his appearance on the radio show, the actor was notably entitled to a question from Pascal Praud about the film Monsieur Klein. “I arrived at noon. Alain Delon was very kind. He said hello to me around 5 o'clock, but that's normal since I wasn't filming. He didn't come around and it was his assistant who came to tell me things. He absolutely wanted to end with a close-up of my character”he recalled. “He drank large glasses of water. I thought it was strange…and then they took it out at the end because it was vodkaI believe. He wrote me a very kind note : ‘Thank you for your splendid silhouette in my film’. I was on my ass, we were rubbish at the time.”
A major figure in French cinema with more than 100 films to his credit
Two years later Monsieur KleinGérard Jugnot made himself known to the general public by playing alongside the members of Splendid in The Bronzed. Among them, his friend Michel Blanc, who recently disappeared after an anaphylactic shock. The husband of Patricia Campi continued his path on the big screen by playing in around a hundred feature films, including The Tanned go skiing, Grandpa does resistance or even The Choirs alongside Jean-Baptiste Maunier.
Article written in collaboration with 6Médias
