The funeral of Gilles Defacque was held this Monday, January 6, 2025. Comedian, poet and clown, the former director of Prato de Lille had a profound impact on the cultural landscape of the North. Many tributes have been paid to him.
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At the eastern Lille cemetery, a clown waits his turn, suitcase in hand. For a few moments, he stops in front of the coffin for a final tribute. Tribute to the most famous red nose in the North. Gilles Defacque is no more.
The rain, the cold and the wind did not discourage the assembly. The world of culture and elected officials are widely present. Hundreds of anonymous people as well. Last audience of an exceptional artist.
The crowd gathered at the eastern Lille cemetery to pay tribute to Gilles Defacques.
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© FTV
In the crowd, some are “simple” spectators of Gilles Defacque’s work. “I was 18, I took my nieces and nephews to Prato. They were completely amazed.” remembers one of them. “He was someone very important in my life“.
A little further on, a friend shows his affection. He remembers the very first shows of the actor and director. It was the 1950s.”For me, it’s my youth that’s gone. I’m sad. He was a great gentleman“. In his eyes, a place in the city of Lille should even take the name of Gilles Defacque. “He was a magnificent artisan of Lille culture“.
Novelist Samira El Ayani stops to tell us about the incredible man of letters who left. “He is a person who will be greatly missed. Everyone knows him as a clown, an actor, but I also know him as a writer, author, man of letters and his language will be greatly missed.“. Knight of arts and letters, Gilles Defacque wrote numerous collections such as Parlures. For him, all life deserved a story.
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On the occasion of the funeral of Gilles Defacque, the novelist Samira El Ayani spoke about the man of letters and the very dear friend he was to her.
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©FTV
In the middle of the afternoon, the crowd leaves the cold of the Eastern cemetery to go to the Prato, the international neighborhood theater of Lille-Moulins of which Gilles Defacque was the director from 1973 to 2021. Another big name in Northern culture mixes with it. Jacques Bonnaffé is an actor and director. He speaks of Gilles Defacque in the present tense: “Gilles is someone who is modest, but who is extremely important.”
Jacques Bannaffé especially recounts Gilles Defacque’s incredible ability to bring people together. A man who never betrayed his primary mission: “He is someone from the margins and who respects the margins. He’s someone who knows he started by stamping his foot, yelling, saying “we need to make different voices heard.” And until the end, he remained faithful to that. That’s what I call a margin. It’s not getting behind the gilded aspects of an institution, saying “now I can scream loud and clear because I’m well paid“. No, he is someone who never stops. He is active in the small as well as the big.”
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Actor Jacques Bonnaffé salutes the memory of a man who never betrayed his ideals.
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©FTV
Born in a cinema in the Somme, Gilles Defacque has enchanted the world of live entertainment. He died on the night of December 27 to 28, 2024.
