Many are unaware or have forgotten that Nagui tried to make a career in cinema twenty-five years ago, and those who remember his very first film are even fewer! Before appearing in Babel by Gérard Pullicin and playing his own role My friends by Michel Hazanavicius in 1999 then in My wife is an actress by Yvan Attal two years later, the star host of France Télévisions had directly taken his first steps in the seventh art in a leading role…
And “UFO” with Nagui as headliner
It was in 1997 in A woman very very very in love alongside Cristiana Reali and Michel Boujenah. This December 27, as part of the series of reports “Behind the scenes of French comedies” by BFMTV, director Ariel Zeitoun agreed to tell the story of the commercial failure of his comedy. “My desire was to have a UFO. (…) Maybe I made a film that had no place“, declares the filmmaker, who remembers that Nagui was very involved at the time, both before filming – he had taken lessons -, during and after to ensure its promotion. As the extract shows (see at the top of the article, editor’s note), the special effects were required to reproduce, in live shots, the iconic and cartoonish gags of Tex Avery during the arrival of a beautiful woman in an evening dress: the eyes of the protagonists come out of their orbits, the bottles of champagne uncork as he passes and the jaw of a man falls on a table to let a tongue of several meters unfurl. In addition to this daring but well-executed visual challenge, Nagui’s presence on the poster was. debate. Was it a good idea? He himself was hesitant, as were the director and his entourage. But Ariel Zeitoun was satisfied with the result.
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