In the world of French cinema, Louis de Funes is surely one of the most famous actors. Old and young generations alike, everyone has already watched at least one of the actor’s films died at the age of 69. Megalomaniato the saga Military policemen, Wing or thigh or Cabbage soup are some of his blockbuster movies. Yet, despite its strong popularity Among the public, one of his fellow actors has very bad memories of the Chief Warrant Officer Ludovic Cruchot…
How can you not love Louis de Funès? Years after the release of his films, his facial expressions and cult lines
still make a lot of viewers laugh. However, a multi-talented comedian who worked closely with him is one of the few who does not praise him. The latter had the immense honor ofexchange a few lines in the famous movie The gendarme of Saint-Tropez.
This actor, aged 24 at the time, starred alongside Louis de Funès in the film The gendarme of Saint-Tropez
At the time, this young, unknown actor had only two films to his name. Jean Giraultthe director, contacts him to pass the casting. After a few tests, he gets the role of Jean-Lucplayboy, photographer and above all boyfriend of Nicole, Cruchot’s daughter. Aged just 24, Patrice Laffont thus lands his place with a small fee that would represent today the equivalent of his “small pension”. This Monday, July 1, he recounted his good and bad memories of filming to our colleagues of Pocket TV.
Between two scenes, the former presenter of Pyramids
enjoy the joys of the Mediterranean. tanning sessions and swimming constitute a large part of his daily life, despite the orders of the production manager. “He explained to us that on film, tanned skin turned a dirty gray… But, of course, the first thing we did was run for a swim. By the third day, we were super tanned. We got yelled at and the makeup artists had to do great things to make us look like normal heads.”he remembers.
Photo credit: C8 Patrice Laffont did not get along with Louis de Funès on the set of The Gendarme of Saint-Tropez.
Louis de Funès did not find Patrice Laffont professional enough: “We kept messing around…”
This nonchalant attitude and a bit of rebellion does not seem to have pleased Michel Galabru’s sidekick. “Very quickly, we understood that he [Louis de Funès] couldn’t stand usbecause he took us for little shits who did not seem to want to take this profession seriously”explains Patrice Laffont.
Despite this bad atmosphere on the set, the former host of Fort Boyard didn’t really make any effort to fix things. « We felt like we were at summer camp. We kept messing around. As soon as we heard “Cut,” we were running away like grasshoppers. We were in a heavenly place, we went out clubbing all night and arrived in the morning with exhausted faces. The production had lent us cars,
we broke two of them during clashes in Ramatuelle…”he had acknowledged in the columns of the
Parisian.
The former host of Fort Boyard refuses to participate in documentaries on the legendary French actor: “He never…”
The octogenarian therefore has fond memories of this
cinematic experiencebut not because of its main actor, quite the contrary… “De Funès had a lot of talent, but who knows why, he never made me laugh. Perhaps it was due to his hostility.”he admits.
Photo credit: France 2 Patrice Laffont is one of the few who does not like Louis de Funès’ humor.
A aversion which even pushes him to refuse requests to participate in documents tracing
the life of Louis de Funès : “I tend to refuse, because
I would only say bad things about it. It’s really not a good memory for me.”. That is clear !
