During the opening of the Alpe d’Huez International Comedy Film Festival this Monday, January 13, Gérard Jugnot and Marie-Anne Chazel paid a beautiful tribute to Michel Blanc, who died last October of a Cardiac arrest at the age of 72.
A tribute to Michel Blanc with Splendid sauce
The emotion was palpable during this opening evening, where the entire room sang the cult tune of the character of Jean-Claude Duss, “When will I see you again, wonderful country?”Marie-Anne Chazel and Gérard Jugnot, her former accomplices from the Splendid troupe, then went on stage. A moment of sharing which began with a revealing slip of the tongue from Marie-Anne Chazel: “I think that Gérard, who was a very discreet, very reserved person…”immediately interrupted by the person concerned who exclaimed with humor: “I’m not dead!”
Gérard Jugnot and Marie-Anne Chazel celebrate a friendship of more than 40 years
Going back through their shared history, Gérard Jugnot spoke of their high school years to Pasteur de Neuilly-sur-Seine : “We were in class together, we were improvising things and the teacher told us: ‘You two, never together again!’. He was wrong!”
-Marie-Anne Chazel, for her part, highlighted the personality of their missing friend: “Our Michel would have been very surprised, upset, embarrassed, because he was not the type to like tributes.” To which Gérard Jugnot added with tenderness: “I think he would have been very touched because he hated the mountains, he hated skiing, he hated the sea, the countryside… He only loved the city.”
One last joint project for the Splendid
This tribute takes place a few weeks after the publication of the book “The Splendid on the Splendid”the last project bringing together the entire troupe to which Michel Blanc contributed before his death. “He had time to hand in his copy, but it’s in the book, it’s important. Without him, we wouldn’t have done it,” confided Marie-Anne Chazel. A work which has enjoyed great success with nearly 100,000 copies sold, and whose copyright will be donated to the Foundation for Medical Research. Gérard Jugnot paid a final tribute to the one who was “an absolutely brilliant guy, a great dialogue writer […] He had no right to do that… But hey, that’s life.”
