The actor who died last October plays one of the main roles in the drama The Cachetaken from the novel by Christophe Boltanski. The film will be in competition at the Berlin Film Festival in February.
One last opportunity to see Michel Blanc at the cinema. The actor from Splendid, who died last October, will be showing on March 19 in the drama The Cachedirected by Lionel Baier.
This adaptation of the novel by Christophe Boltanski, winner of the Prix Femina in 2015, will be presented in preview at the Berlin festival, which will take place from February 13 to February 23.
Michel Blanc opposite William Lebghil and Liliane Rovère in this film inspired by the history of the family of Christophe Boltanski, nephew of the visual artist Christian Boltanski and son of the sociologist Luc Boltanski.
“Christophe, 10 years old, experiences the events of May 68 hidden at his grandparents’ house, surrounded by his uncles and his great-grandmother, all bivouacking around a mysterious cache,” indicates the official synopsis.
“The desire to adapt the novel came from the poetry and beauty of the characters described by Christophe Boltanski who are both his family and imaginary characters,” Lionel Baier explains to BMFTV.
“An immense genius”
The director entrusted Michel Blanc with one of the main roles to see this “great actor” embody “different things” on screen from what he had played in the past, continues the director. “I would have liked him to see the film,” he laments.
The actor got along very well on set with his acting partner William Lebghil. “He loved William very much,” confirms Lionel Baier. “He had a lot of affection and admiration for his work as an actor.”
-“When he found out it was him in the film, he told me that I had made a very good choice!”, he still remembers. “It contributed to his desire to work on the film.”
“For me, he is an immense genius and a cinema dad,” greets William Leghbil. “There was something very simple. Beyond transmission, he wanted to share with others.”
“He was in the cinema movement”
If Michel Blanc accepted fewer roles, he still had “plenty of things to do” in the cinema, believes Lionel Baier. “He read scripts, he wondered what we were going to offer him next. He was in the cinema movement.”
The sudden death of Jean-Claude Dusse’s interpreter was a “very abstract” moment for him, he admits: “We were still editing when he died (…) When you are in the editing room, you see all the days the actors.”
The director even thought it was a joke by the actor. “I was sure he was going to show up (at his funeral) and say ‘surprise, I wanted to see what was going to happen when I died’.”
At the end of the edit, the filmmaker “had a backlash”. “I told myself I wouldn’t see him again.” William Leghbil also dreamed that Michel Blanc was not dead: “As if I couldn’t believe in his death (and that he) was telling me that everything was fine.”
Two weeks later The CacheMichel Blanc will make a final appearance in The Backpackerscheduled for release on April 2. He will respond to Judge Jemili and Christian Clavier in this comedy inspired by famous tourist guides.
