Claude Lelouch facing the pack

“Married women should thank mistresses”. Because of the prevailing inquisitive feminism, filmmaker Claude Lelouch was forced to apologize for a banal joke.

After comments denounced as sexist, filmmaker Claude Lelouch asks for forgiveness. Wednesday, at L’Heure des Pros, on CNews, he presented Eventuallyhis last film with Kad Merad in the credits. He is questioned about a previous statement in the Sunday Tribune : “We can change women when we find something better.” Praud, a bit of a blue flower, is surprised: “ What is it like to find something better when you love your wife? » Lelouch then replies that “We are faithful until we find something better, whether for a car, a woman, a fridge. » Then, “aggravating” his case, he launches into a plea for infidelity. “ Married women should thank mistresses. Very often when we go elsewhere we are happy to come home! “. Embarrassed laughter on the set… And a surge on social networks, where we denounce misogyny, trivialization of sexism and bold humor of the 70s. Lelouch is an old white male… etc. We should let them bawl, but Lelouch gives in. Friday, he apologizes on X. He recalls his admiration and love of women – which his films already demonstrate, obviously. “ My clumsy and inappropriate comments hurt. I beg your pardon”. No doubt he was afraid that these digital packs would disrupt the release of the film. Now when the dogs bark, the caravan moves backwards.

Isn't this a bit of a ridiculous episode? Insignificant, yes. But emblematic, too. Because it is a harbinger of an unbreathable world:

Lelouch therefore dared to make a semi-joke, comparing a woman to a fridge (in reality, this doesn't work for fridges, because you don't change a fridge when you've found a better one, that's wrong!). It's blasphemy. Women are sacred. No big laughs, guys. Besides, no laughing at all, from now on. Silence regarding women.

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But what particularly enrages feminists is that Claude Lelouch admits that he is a womanizer, a sexual and romantic nomad! He also has seven children, from five different women. He defends, or at least excuses, marital infidelity, and therefore lying. If they could, our lady bosses would create a crime of infidelity and a code of love that is egalitarian, peaceful, transparent, reasonable – boring to death. Meanwhile, in the absence of law, they insidiously impose a social norm according to which the fickle man is a bad guy and monogamy, a moral imperative.

Small groups are ruining public debate and terrorizing everyone. They thrive on general cowardice. Privately, most people laugh as I do about their outrage. In public, to have the card, to be received in the media, we prostrate ourselves before MeToo. Lelouch was certainly advised by his financiers, lawyers or communicators in this matter. In the small world of cinema, caution often borders on cowardice.

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So, no, in reality, there is nothing trivial about all this. Sorry for the big words: these are our fundamental freedoms. Of the freedom of private life, of the freedom to think what one wants about marital fidelity. If our mad women read Balzac, they would know that it was not only infidelity that saved the marriage, but also prostitution.

This column was first broadcast on Sud Radio

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