This Friday evening, C8 broadcast, on the occasion of the 80th anniversary of the birth of one of the comedians who had the most impact on the French, a new documentary entitled Coluche, the true story of a guy. Those who knew him look back on his life, his professional career, his wife (who left him because of his excesses), his personality, the creation of the Café de la Gare (where Michel Colucci, his real name, began) and his ouster from the latter. “At the beginning, there were ten, twenty people. And then, I don't know what happened, one day there were a hundred people“, remembers Sotha, actress and co-founder of Café de la Gare before talking about Coluche: “Often, he was the star of the sketch (…) At the beginning, Coluche absorbed everything, he imitated; her dream was to become Jean Yanne in fact“.
“That's why he ended up being rejected“: the co-founders of Café de la Gare discuss the ousting of Coluche
Created just after the events of May 68, the Café de la Gare aims to serve the community. “A theater with the ban on banning“, as described by Romain Bouteille, the instigator of the movement, who “believed in the effectiveness of a dehierarchical group“. A new genre which has given rise to its own setbacks: “When there is no leader, we are forced to negotiate, to pay a little attention to others. Except that Coluche was a little aggressivewith the public, with his comrades, from time to time they made fun of each other, that's why he ended up being rejected“, explains Philippe Manesse, actor and director of the Café de la Gare. An event to which Sotha – companion of Romain Bouteille who later left him to marry Patrick Dewaere – returned: “One day, Coluche and Romain argued with each other during the show, and during the intermission Romain told us 'This is the last time you see me if this guy is still here'. So we had to choose and we chose Romain“.
From Café de la Gare to the cinema: Coluche’s journey
“One evening, Miou-Miou (who was Coluche's girlfriend at the time, Editor's note) came home crying, telling me 'They fired Coluche,'” recalls the director of the Café de la Gare.Coluche came back the next day and distributed to us, to whom his knife, who his guitar, etc. He said his goodbyes and we kept Coluche's place in sharing the recipes until one day he told us 'Well now, it's no longer worth it,'” recalled Sotha, amused. A departure heralding a revival for Coluche because it was at that moment that the comedian landed his first role in the cinema , In The Pistonnéby Claude Berri.
